The movie "Titanic" - a test case in Christian cultural review

My last post about Walt Mueller got me thinking of an example of how a Christian worldview would inform our evaluation of pop culture. I am thinking of the movie "Titanic." When this movie came out it was all the rage and a bunch of the kids in my youth group were seeing it. At the same time, I was receiving letters and other things from concerned Christian groups warning us about the eeeevvilllls of this movie. These concerned Christians were concerned with two main things. First of all, the love affair between the Kate Winslett and Leonardo DiCaprio characters gave some false notions of what love is all about. Secondly, there was that little matter of Kate Winslett going au naturale for the whole world to see. Both critiques were correct. The love affair between the characters presented an unbiblical view of romance and love. And the Kate Winslett nude scene seemed calculated merely to titilate. By the way, for those of you who are worried about me, when that scene came on, my wife's hand immediately covered my eyes so that I never saw the scene. You would be surprised how fast my wife can move given the right circumstances (faster than a speeding bullet . . .).

Being typically out of touch I never got around to seeing the movie when it was in theatres, so I didn't watch it until it came out on VHS a year or so later. When I watched the movie I understood immediately why it had such appeal. One of the things I noticed in my youth group was that it was the young girls who loved it the most - the 13-16 year old crowd. They talked about it, sang the song, had pictures of ol' Leo on their notebooks and generally swooned (the young boys liked the movie for the pure thrill of seeing Leo die at the end). The movie basically tells the story of a man who lays down his life for the woman he loves. What girl (or woman) wouldn't resonate with that? Every woman hopes to find such a man. There is a sense in which, if you wanted to keep people away from that movie, you would somehow need to excise from their hearts that desire to find a lover who will lay down his life for them.

Christians have such a lover - "greater love has no man this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Kids are searching for such a lover and a movie like Titanic gives them the sense that such a person exists, if only in the movies. Even though we know it is fiction, it raises a flicker of hope in their hearts.

These different avenues of evaluating a movie reveal two different approaches to the culture - the moralistic and the redemptive. The moralistic approach judges culture on the basis of its adherence to certain moral values, hopefully the 10 Commandments. The moralistic approach is good - there is much in pop culture that I won't let my kids participate in for moralistic concerns.

But moralism only scratches the surface. A redemptive evaluation of pop culture understands that it reflects the cries of the human heart as much as it shapes the human heart. The redemptive approach understands that the story of redemption is the great story to which all other stories point. Thus, while not condoning the immorality of a movie like Titanic, we understand that it reflects the cry for redemption. Thus, we understand that this reflects a cry for Christ, even where Christ is not named.

For example, for those with eyes to see, there are even echoes of redemption in the Harry Potter books. Check out this article by Connie Neal at Focus on the Family's "Focus on Your Child" website.

The truth is that the Christian worldview, and its story of redemption are the foundation of all that is good, true and beautiful in this world. Thus, where we find truth, goodness and beauty in this world, it is undergirded by a Christian worldview.

This is why I am so attracted to Van Til's presuppositional apologetics. Probably better than anyone else, Van Til and his followers have demonstrated that the Christian worldview is the only worldview that ultimately makes sense of reality. Van Til has this category of thought called "borrowed capital," where he insists that, when the world gets it right, it is because the world is "borrowing capital" from the Christian worldview. This goes even for the enemies of Christ - the rationalism which they use to attack the Christian worldview is founded on the principles of a Christian worldview. Thus, Van Til has the famous illustration of a little girl who is angry at her dad. She is so angry that she wants to slap him, yet she has to sit on his lap in order to reach him to slap.

In saying all of this I am not trying to baptize Titanic, Harry Potter, or anything else in pop culture and make all of this stuff sound like heroic Christian epics. I am only saying that there is a cry of redemption in the human heart which can only come from God and can only be answered in Christ. Even those enemies who deny Christ the strongest are still crying out for Him. We would do well to not merely evaluate pop culture in moralistic categories, but to listen for the cries of redemption it contains.

Comments

[King of Fools]

Van Til has this category of thought called "borrowed capital," where he insists that, when the world gets it right, it is because the world is "borrowing capital" from the Christian worldview.

Fantastic concept!

[Marla]

I'm glad I'm not the only wife who does that! I like your analyses but I still think the movie stunk. It's right up there with The English Patient. All pomp and no circumstance. If I'm going to be offended, it has to be worth it.

[Indian Movie Songs]

What a great movie Titanic... i really like this movie.

[Titanic (1997)]

This is great romantic movie. Have you seen this movie...? This is the best romantic movie I ever seen. I highly recommend you this movie. If You didn't watch this movie then you never watch any film.