According to the Vatican newspaper and radio station, the problem with Avatar is its alleged promotion or elevation of nature which is deemed as threatening religion.
L’Osservatore warned the film “gets bogged down by a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature” and the Vatican Radio says that the movie promotes “all those pseudo-doctrines that turn ecology into the religion of the millennium” and promotes nature as “a divinity to worship,” the radio said.
The Marines have joined the Holy See in its view of the film, though it is not religion that is under attack according to Marine Col. Byron Salas. He objects that the film “takes sophomoric shots at our military culture and uses the lore of the Marine Corps and over-the-top stereotyping of Marine warriors to set the context for the screenplay. This does a disservice to our Corps of Marines and the publics’ understanding of their Corps.” Well, maybe the objection was about a faith of a different kind.
I am surprised by the criticism. I was hoping the Vatican would have made the link between the ridiculous lines and the work of Satan. I took the three boys this week to see the movie only to find every show sold out until 7 pm. People were waiting in line for over an hour just to get seats together. Am I alone here or is this not the hand of the Biblical Beast? I will remind you of Revelations 13: “And [the Antichrist] causeth all … to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark….”
Of course, if some studio flack were to score me four tickets to the 3D version of the film, my concerns (and blogging campaign) over Satanic influences might end . . .
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