Vatican vs. Advatar

Original Date January 20, 2010

This weekend I saw on the back page of the Faith Section  our local newspaper a headline that said that the something to the effect that the Vatican Scorns Avatar. I might not have the correct wording, and since my family is sleeping I am not going to rummage through the newspapers to find the correct wording. I ask for your indulgence here.

Personally I was disappointed that the Catholic Church would have a strong response to the movie. So I read the article to see why supposedly the church had issues with the movie.

Doing some research tonight I did discover that the local paper took an Associated Press article and put their own spin on the title. The locals chose to use the word scorn will the Hollywood Reporter use the word “criticizes.”

Perhaps this is a case of which sells more papers without alienating readers. Yes, even the news papers are influenced on how they report the news by the need for money.  However, you can’t stay in business if you don’t make money… but I digress.

Theologically , it makes sense that a monotheistic religion would object to the  a movie that has its main characters worshiping nature and makes it look attractive. (In fact one of the major characters converts to nature worship because of its attractions.)  A natural response in my opinion. Especially in the light of what a work of fiction such as the The Da Vinci Code did to shake the faith of Catholics as well as other Christians.

The Catholic Church is simply saying, in my opinion, remember what your faith is about.  We believe nature is God’s creation, entrusted into our stewardship. We do not believe nature is God.

At the same time it seems both Cameron and the Catholic Church do agree that ecology is something important. Pope Benedict has emphasize our responsibility to take care of our environment.

So what did I learn from all of this…?

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