Disney + Religion = Denial

Along with thousands of others, I'm excited about the release of Disney's adaptation of C.S. Lewis' fantasy tale, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, part of a larger body of work called The Chronicles of Narnia. Disney has not only chosen a wonderful, imaginative tale, but they have also chosen one of the clearest examples of Christian allegory, second only to The Pilgrim's Progress. Filled with "sons of Adam" and "daughters of Eve," images of good and evil, and a resurrection, the story is unmistakably Christian. And no wonder: Lewis, the atheist-turned-Christian, devoted much of his literary prowess to the promotion of Christianity.

That is why it is almost amusing to watch Walt Disney teeter on their usual line between family entertainment and a secularist agenda. A few days back, my buddy Joel told me about an interview he had seen on Anderson Cooper's program 360 Degrees on CNN. Joel told me a Disney representative denied that Lewis intended to advance a Christian message in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In fact, he denied that Lewis ever wrote a Christian book. I checked the transcript of the show, and sure enough, there it was. Dennis Rice of Walt Disney studios states, "If C.S. Lewis were here he would tell you that he didn't write a Christian book. And we don't think we've made a Christian movie." Now, perhaps by "a Christian book," Rice meant only The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. (It would be hard to deny that Mere Christianity is a Christian work). Still, the denial is absurd.

Is anyone surprised? This is just another example of godless men exploiting Christianity to make a buck and stripping it of its meaning.