The Sundance Sinfest
"I consider nothing human alien to me." --Robinson Devor
"She overcomes all the hard things in her life through Elvis..." --Dakota Fanning
Which of these quotes reveals the most bizarre and ungodly mindset?
Never mind--let's call it a tie.
Both quotes refer to movies shown recently at Robert Redford's annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Robinson Devor is the director of Zoo, a documentary about men who have sex with animals. Twelve-year-old Dakota Fanning is the star of Hounddog, a movie whose claim to fame is a graphic reenactment of a little girl being raped by her father.
It's hardly necessary to discuss the depraved subject matter of these films, or to plead with readers not to buy tickets to them. Nor do we need to spend much time with movie critics who have praised these films. Zoo is "strangely beautiful," they say. And they've left it to little Miss Fanning to describe Hounddog as "emotionally moving."
G.K. Chesterton said, famously, that when you abandon belief in God, you don't believe in nothing: you'll believe in anything. Here we see living proof that he was right.
It is not to be thought of that Mr. Devor and his admirers are trying to recommend bestiality as a popular pastime. But they have reached a stage of moral imbecility where they cannot bring themselves to call this behavior wrong. They just want to examine the "Internet-based zoophile community" (see http://www.sun-sentinel.com.80/news/local/southflorida/sfl-121sundance,0,6997847.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines).
It's a form of believing in anything: anybody's moral standards are good enough to them.
Hounddog offers us salvation through Elvis, a mortal man who has been dead for some years, a victim of bad drug-use habits. Any actor or film-maker at the Sundance Festival would probably shrink from expressing a belief in salvation through Jesus Christ, who was without sin, who died and rose again, and lives forever. But salvation through Elvis and his music--hey, that's deep, man.
Belief in anything must certainly include belief in just plain poppycock.
The Bible gives us an insight into the creation of such films as these.
"Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them" (Romans 1:32--italics added).
The Bible lists both bestiality and rape as offenses meriting the death penalty. We are not accusing these film-makers of doing such things; but they obviously have pleasure in them that do them--and profit, too. Nor are they able to offer any reason not to do them. Having rejected God, their moral anchor is unable to find a bottom anywhere.
We can't stop people from making films like these, or watching and applauding them. But we do point out that they will have to answer for it someday, to God Himself.
"For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:14).
At that judgment, we doubt that a portfolio of box office receipts and rave reviews from newspapers will be an adequate defense.
"She overcomes all the hard things in her life through Elvis..." --Dakota Fanning
Which of these quotes reveals the most bizarre and ungodly mindset?
Never mind--let's call it a tie.
Both quotes refer to movies shown recently at Robert Redford's annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Robinson Devor is the director of Zoo, a documentary about men who have sex with animals. Twelve-year-old Dakota Fanning is the star of Hounddog, a movie whose claim to fame is a graphic reenactment of a little girl being raped by her father.
It's hardly necessary to discuss the depraved subject matter of these films, or to plead with readers not to buy tickets to them. Nor do we need to spend much time with movie critics who have praised these films. Zoo is "strangely beautiful," they say. And they've left it to little Miss Fanning to describe Hounddog as "emotionally moving."
G.K. Chesterton said, famously, that when you abandon belief in God, you don't believe in nothing: you'll believe in anything. Here we see living proof that he was right.
It is not to be thought of that Mr. Devor and his admirers are trying to recommend bestiality as a popular pastime. But they have reached a stage of moral imbecility where they cannot bring themselves to call this behavior wrong. They just want to examine the "Internet-based zoophile community" (see http://www.sun-sentinel.com.80/news/local/southflorida/sfl-121sundance,0,6997847.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines).
It's a form of believing in anything: anybody's moral standards are good enough to them.
Hounddog offers us salvation through Elvis, a mortal man who has been dead for some years, a victim of bad drug-use habits. Any actor or film-maker at the Sundance Festival would probably shrink from expressing a belief in salvation through Jesus Christ, who was without sin, who died and rose again, and lives forever. But salvation through Elvis and his music--hey, that's deep, man.
Belief in anything must certainly include belief in just plain poppycock.
The Bible gives us an insight into the creation of such films as these.
"Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them" (Romans 1:32--italics added).
The Bible lists both bestiality and rape as offenses meriting the death penalty. We are not accusing these film-makers of doing such things; but they obviously have pleasure in them that do them--and profit, too. Nor are they able to offer any reason not to do them. Having rejected God, their moral anchor is unable to find a bottom anywhere.
We can't stop people from making films like these, or watching and applauding them. But we do point out that they will have to answer for it someday, to God Himself.
"For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:14).
At that judgment, we doubt that a portfolio of box office receipts and rave reviews from newspapers will be an adequate defense.
