What has Changed for Reflect
Many resources review media to report on content maturity level and objectionable aspects. Sites like Plugged In and Common Sense Media help parents decide what they do and don’t want their children exposed to. As important as it is to provide parents with guidance regarding objectionable content, that is not (and never has been) the primary goal of Reflect. Instead, Reflect’s goal has always been to help readers identify, critically think about, and discuss the worldview ideas underpinning our culture’s media and entertainment.
While we hope young adults and students read and benefit from Reflect, the aim of Reflect is to help parents, educators, and pastors facilitate informed, thoughtful discussions that challenge students and their kids to think critically about the values, assumptions, and worldviews embedded in the entertainment they choose to consume. After all, the stories we hear (or watch or read) shape how we think, feel, and act, and profoundly influence our worldview.
What Makes a Story ‘Christian’?
Can you think of a recent movie that promotes moral courage and fighting for good in the face of institutions that perpetuate evil and try to silence those who stand against them? If you thought of either the recent movie about Bonhoeffer or the two-part adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked, we would agree.
Is one of these movies “better” than the other? Is one “more Christian”? It is easy to argue that Bonhoeffer’s story is more Christian, since it is the story of a Christian martyr. But on the other hand, Wicked tells a similar story of self-sacrifice, forgiveness, and moral courage that has shaped the hearts and imaginations of millions. If you are neither a Christian nor a WWII history buff, you might have little interest in Bonhoeffer. Millions of people who never saw Bonhoeffer saw both Wicked movies in theaters and had their hearts and minds shaped by the story.
The relative merit of Wicked is that its fantastical, fairy-tale setting is, for many people, far more powerful and relatable. Despite being a secular film with some mixed messages, it carries a message that resonates with a Christian worldview’s beliefs in goodness, the power to love and forgive, and the importance of standing against evil.
C.S. Lewis believed that stories have a powerful ability to shape our beliefs and affections. In an essay inelegantly titled “Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to be Said,” Lewis reflects on the particular power of stories, concluding that sometimes the lack of explicitly Christian content helps us see truth more clearly. He wrote, “But supposing that by casting [Christian truths] into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday School associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons? I thought one could.”1
Reflect exists because we don’t want to just talk about Bonhoeffer and Aslan—we want to help you understand the worldviews and values coming through the stories of Elphaba and Glinda, and the many other “secular” stories and songs shaping our imaginations.
Stories Shape Us
Entertainment is not just entertainment. Each story—whether it comes to us through a film, song, or book—carries a worldview implicit in its every aspect. As we noted in a previous article, “Entertainment is always underpinned by a worldview (or multiple worldviews), but those beliefs don’t usually come through as easily dissectable ‘worldview statements.’ Rather, the worldviews underpinning entertainment often come through narratives that must be unraveled.”
Reflect is here to help you unravel the ideas packed into the narratives in the media we consume every day. Sometimes ideas and beliefs are front and center, such as in a song that directly addresses transgenderism. Yet more often, the ideas in songs, shows, and movies are less front-and-center and more nuanced. Often, the messages are mixed, such as in a show like Stranger Things or a movie that casts Christians in a negative light but also testifies to deeper truths. Shows may have Christian themes like forgiveness and healing while being framed within a different spiritual context, like oriental mysticism or Norse mythology. The ideas tackled in a Reflect article might seem abstract, such as pop culture’s influence on our view of femininity. Or articles may discuss ideas that affect our day-to-day decisions, such as how we try to avoid death and stay young forever.
When trying to understand the ideas within media, one thing to remember is that overt Christian-ness or lack thereof is not necessarily a good way to tell whether the media represents a Christian worldview. Some movies that on the surface appear Christian may include hazardous theological assumptions, and we should always think critically about the music and movies of celebrities who claim Jesus as savior. Artists like Kendrick Lamar, who profess Christ, may make us think deeply about our beliefs, even if we disagree with some of what he says through his music. On the other hand, even shows that explicitly criticize Christianity are worth evaluating.
We Are Not Here to Tell You What to Think
The goal of Reflect is not to have you agree with our author’s take on a particular show or song. Rather, we want you to think critically about the ideas and values embedded in various media, and to know why you believe what you believe. You may disagree with what a Reflect author writes about a particular medium, and that is fine (different Reflect authors disagree with another from time to time). Fostering healthy disagreement and debate is crucial to deepening our convictions, clarifying our beliefs, learning from others, and staying aligned with truth, rather than leaning into our own biases and blind spots.
Conclusion: Engage the Next Generation!
If you are a parent, an educator, a pastor, or anyone else who has a voice in the lives of young people, our invitation to you is to engage with the kids in your life about the worldview ideas in the media they consume and enjoy. This could be a casual conversation with your own child, leading a discussion in a classroom, or teaching a Sunday morning lesson that shows how worldview ideas are communicated through entertainment. Whether we are talking with them about it or not, students’ hearts and minds are being shaped by what they watch, read, and listen to. You can come alongside them and help them to discern and think critically about the values in the media they consume.