Why This Evangelical Is Taking His Daughters To The Picture Show

Maybe you’ve heard.  Maybe you haven’t heard.  Disney creatives have decided to characterize LeFou, the derisible sidekick for Gaston in the new live action Beauty and the Beast movie, as gay*.  And while some folks around the country are sharpening their tongues in preparation to spear the fleshly side of Disney and stand off against the movie itself, here are 7 reasons (in no particular order and pared back) why this evangelical is dressing up and taking his girls to the picture show. 

1.     Beauty and the Beast has some really good news to share.  I love the setting.  The old-world French village, the grand ballroom and the stacked library and all around and about the darkened spell riddled castle, as well as the deep wood leading there – they are all so wonderfully imaginative and enchanting.  I love the characters.  From the richly round and dynamic lead roles of Belle and the Beast and Gaston, to the exaggerated roles of Maurice and LeFou, along with Chip and Mrs. Pots and other live castle décor, to the flat and static roles of pub socialites and villagers – each one cast in splendid cinematic detail.  And, of course, I love the story.  There is brokenness and depravity.  There is selfless pursuit and pure love.  There is redemption and reconciliation.  There is a villain who loses in the end.  Like any great story, Beauty and the Beast has all the elements that make for really good news, and that good news ought to be shared.

 

2.     This movie came wrapped in joy and generosity.  I have loved watching Disney’s animated version of the movie with my daughters, Hope and Livia, since they could sit upright on the sofa.  For nearly a year we have been anticipating the movie’s release with each progressively teasing trailer.  Hope has a birthday at the end of this month.  I planned to get her and me, along with Livia, tickets to a showing as one of her gifts.  The three of us would make a special date of it.  Guess what…  Hope beat me to it!  She gave me three tickets for my birthday…for opening night!  I will not steal from her the joy and elation she knew in giving as I unrolled the gift certificate and beamed with utter surprise and gratitude. 

3.    I don’t hate gay people.  I have not known great numbers of gay people.  I have not gone out of my way to involve myself in the LGB subculture.  Perhaps I ought to reach out more and better.  I have, however, known a few folks over the years that are gay or lesbian; some have been friends even, and I understand them and they have understood me.  I’m able to see in them the irreducible image of God.  That said I do believe many gay and lesbian folks choose to live their lives in manners and expressions that are sin.  What I mean by “sin” is most often they choose to live in willful unbelief toward the knowledge of God and what he has revealed to be true about Himself and humankind.  But even still they are my neighbors.  For goodness sake, I don’t hate them.  I love them.

4.   I love my kids too much to miss it.  The world is big and my wings are small.  Paired together with my amazing wife even, we are not able to shelter our kids from every social issue pressing into the mainstream and opposing our faith.  And frankly, we aren’t willing to either.  I’m a pastor and my wife is a public school teacher.  Our roles stretch across the cultural grid from the sacred to the secular.  We seize moments as often as they arrive to “live in the overlap.”  That is to say, my wife and I are honest with the fact that neither church nor school is our kids’ life teachers.  We fill that role.  Church, school, sports, entertainment, the arts; each one a supplement at best to what they learn living and loving in our home.  And as we live and love, we all talk and teach.  Whatever the director meant by “a nice, exclusively gay moment” will become for us an opportunity to sit around and share and listen and ask and explain and equip in accord with truth, and finally emerge together with greater trust in our God and one another.   

 

5. My expectations are not too high.  With Disney, as with anything, I prioritize my expectations based on their mission.  I have really high expectations for Disney as “one of the world’s leading (and largest) producers and providers of entertainment and [media] information.”  They have oodles of money.  There is no excuse for them to not employ the best actors, reserve the best settings, capture the best scenes, produce the best CGI, and generally make the best show stopping audience gripping films to hit the big and small screen alike.  With that, however, I have really low expectations for Disney as a monument of moral repute.  While they maintain a high level of ethics in respect to social issues, they have never touted any high level of morality, religious or otherwise.  They have consistently met the moral mean of the current cultural age.  They are not in the business of establishing moral trends.  They are adjusting to them as they produce great entertainment.  If I want to laugh or cry or sit on the edge of my seat, I’ll consider a Disney offering.  If I want to discern right from wrong and grow in grace and knowledge of Him who set a high bar of righteousness, I’ll open my Bible.  

6.  There’s no freedom in skipping it.  We don’t need another reason to boycott or stage a demonstration.  They certainly make a statement to the opposition, but contrary to popular belief, it is never a positive statement.  Not these days.  Boycotts and demonstrations don’t change minds or hearts.  They only fuel the fires that divide humanity.  Further yet, the obstinate expression of our “freedoms” does not foster greater freedom.  Ironically, it swings us in the opposite direction and imprisons us to the bondage of hardnose legalisms and ideals.  Greater freedom; real freedom, is found in the joyful expression of the “freedoms” we have in Christ Jesus through his death and resurrection – the freedom to both enjoy movie entertainment and read my Bible, and wisely appropriate them both. 

7.     I am not afraid.  The media gets at least one thing right.  It stirs up a frenzy of fears that push and shove and press folks into a posture of self-defense.  Sometimes that posture manifests in a cowering retreat to run and hide.  Sometimes it manifests in front-lines yelling and screaming.  No matter though, it’s born of fear, and it is stealing, killing, and destroying the soul of our society.  But I am not afraid, because my God is not a God who stirs up fears.  My God is the God who stirs up faith.  He is the God who redeems what’s been stolen, killed, and destroyed by giving life to the full.  He is God and there is no other.  He is the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise God who is infinitely everywhere-present-now and has been from eternity past and will be to eternity future.  Though rumors swirl around Disney’s first openly gay character and gossips buzz about the dangers of exposing our youth to secular agendas and evil philosophies, I will not be afraid.  I will have faith in my God, and my sense is He has got this, and this too He shall redeem.

Maybe you see my reasons.  Maybe you don’t. 

Listen, there is a bigger story here than the one depicted on the big screen; a grander narrative than anything art will aptly portray. 

Surely there are stories driven by hatred, suspicion, and corruption.  We don’t have to make them up.  They persist in every sector of society.  There will always be subplots boasting virtues of deceit and greed, and lesser narratives promoting fear and bondage and despair.  No doubt these seep into art and  entertainment to varying degrees. 

But the greater story is driven by love, trust, and redemption.  The greater story boasts virtues of truth and generosity.  It promotes faith and freedom and joy.  This grand narrative is Good News and it’s revealed particularly and specifically in the Bible.  As well, it is revealed in art and entertainment.  But it takes hard work to notice it and appropriate it rightly.  Personally, I’m up for the task.

See you at the picture show!

________________________

* Perhaps of equal (or greater) concern is the fact that Disney chose to characterize “the fool” or “the idiot” as gay.  Considering the many liberties Disney has taken over the years in their adaptations of classic literature, if their intention was to tip their socially inclusive hat to the gay and lesbian subculture, one would suppose they might take liberty to change LeFou’s name to one that holds a meaning of higher esteem.