Guillermo Del Toro, the new king of monster movies, is about to unleash\u00a0Hellboy 2.<\/em><\/p>\n But according to MTV.com, his mind is already busy with visions of what might be his his next big project. No, it\u2019s not The Hobbit<\/em>, and no, it\u2019s not that Tarzan<\/em> project he was talking about a while back.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a hint: For Kenneth Branagh, it was a big mistake.<\/p>\n Can you guess?<\/a><\/p>\n Personally, I\u2019ve had this particular monster on the brain lately\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026as I\u2019m writing my own story about a monster with a conflicted conscience. Cyndere\u2019s Midnight<\/em>, the sequel to Auralia\u2019s Colors<\/a><\/em>, will be a variation on \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d stories\u2026 it\u2019s as much concerned with the beastman called Jordam as it is the beautiful heiress Cyndere.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hardly a new theme, but so many of my favorite storytellers on the page or the big screen find moments of insight in tales of spectacularly bad creatures who might not yet be doomed.<\/p>\n Ridley Scott\u2019s Blade Runner<\/em>, Tim Burton\u2019s Edward Scissorhands<\/em>, Anne Rice\u2019s Interview with the Vampire<\/em>, Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula<\/em>, Mike Leigh\u2019s Naked<\/em>, Tolkien\u2019s tales of Gollum, Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s Godfather<\/em> trilogy and Apocalypse Now<\/em>, Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s There Will Be Blood<\/em>\u2026 all of these show monsters who are caught up in the conflicts of good and evil within their wicked hearts. And it\u2019s a common theme in comic books as well: Will Batman and Wolverine and Spider-man learn to use power responsibly, or give in to those vengeful urges? Some find redemption, some fail.<\/p>\n And then, of course, there\u2019s that great story in the scriptures of a mass murder, Saul, and what happened when the tide turned on his own heart\u2019s battlefield.<\/p>\n Stories like these speak to all of us at some level, because we all know our own monstrous hearts, to some extent. We all know that we have the capacity for insidious deeds, whether that be in the form of murder, or even in the form of casting self-righteous judgment on others.<\/p>\n I read a lot of scary stuff as I peruse what often passes for \u201cChristian film reviews.\u201d And one of the scariest things I\u2019ve ever read in Christian media\u2019s engagement with the arts came from an activist who was bashing away at the latest Harry Potter movie.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the passage:<\/p>\n Watching 6- and 7-year-old children walk out of the press screening for the new \u201cHarry Potter\u201d movie (as well as the many reviewers and others with witchcraft symbols on their clothes and S&M dresses) is always an opportunity to reflect on the malignant corruption of our culture. Aside from the fact that these children are exposed to ugly creatures, fantastic violence and worthless incantations, this movie has some dialogue that sounds like it comes out of Stuart Smalley\u2019s Daily Affirmations on \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d<\/p>\n Namely, when professor Dumbledore sits Harry down and tells him, \u201cYou are not a bad person. Every person has light and darkness. You have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Imagine saying this to Cho Seung-Hui after he had his killing spree at Virginia Tech this spring. Or Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n Contrary to Dumbledore\u2019s idiotic aphorisms, there are bad people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n (And this<\/a> is the perspective of an activist whose latest press releases<\/a> identify him as a \u201cworld renowned Christian theologian and cultural leader.\u201d)<\/p>\n Such a statement contradicts some of the most important lessons from some of our greatest storytelling\u2026 from myth to scripture. It basically calls The Lord of the Rings<\/em> a lie, saying that Gandalf should have told Frodo to kill Gollum, instead of encouraging the qualities of mercy, grace, and love. But Tolkien insisted that Frodo\u2019s victory, if a victory it was, came in his care for that miserable wretch. This seemed like folly, but it \u201ccreated a situation\u201d (to use Tolkien\u2019s words) that allowed grace to transform the world.<\/p>\n Looking at popular myths born on the big screen, I am convinced that the lasting appeal of the original Star Wars<\/em> trilogy came not through its special effects, but through its subversion of the us-versus-them story to which we\u2019d become accustomed. We were startled to find a hero who wasn\u2019t going to blow the warlord to smithereens at the first opportunity, but instead dared to kindle a glimmer of conscience within the monster.<\/p>\n Imagine what evils might have been prevented had love and light been cultivated and encouraged in the hearts of men like Cho Seung-Hui and Adolf Hitler, before they became deluded and hardened their hearts in hate. These were, to the day they died, men made in the image of God, men with \u201ceternity in their hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n Or, if it makes things easier for us, we can always just write them off the \u201cmonsters\u201d as \u201cbad people\u201d\u2026 evil from birth, with no conflict of good and evil taking place in their hearts. We might just abandon them to their badness. Won\u2019t it be nice when they invent some kind of DNA test that will let parents know whether their child is one of the \u201cbad people\u201d?<\/p>\n Rather destructive historical movements have begun on ideas just like that: \u201cHere\u2019s how we know the good people from the bad, and now let\u2019s exterminate the bad.\u201d<\/p>\n God makes it pretty clear in the scriptures: All have sinned and fall short. He might have decided, then, to just write off all of us \u201cbad people.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, his grace allows for the possibility of redemption\u2026 even in the hearts of monsters like Saul.<\/p>\n I think we need<\/em> stories about monsters\u2026 especially those that remind us how sin has made us all monsters, and that our hope must come from grace and forgiveness that can fill our hearts with light and give us daily comfort and strength as we seek to overcome the influence of evil within our own hearts.<\/p>\n I look forward to seeing what Guillermo Del Toro does with his next few monster movies. Sometimes, when we learn to view a monster with compassion, we find hope for ourselves, and learn how to better love our enemies. We stop holding ourselves up as the great hope for the world\u2019s salvation, and start to recognize that we too live in a state of grace, saved by someone who took compassion on us.<\/p>\n Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.<\/p>\n John Newton, who carried slaves across the sea, wrote those words, haunted by God\u2019s grace and forgiveness. He was a monster, and he knew it. Love cut through and saved him.<\/p>\n Am I to believe that a \u201crenowned theologian\u201d would argue that such grace should never have been shown to Newton in the first place? I think there was a conflict of good and evil in John Newton\u2019s heart. I don\u2019t think he was one of those \u201cbad people.\u201d<\/p>\n I choose to believe differently.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Guillermo Del Toro, the new king of monster movies, is about to unleash\u00a0Hellboy 2. But according to MTV.com, his mind is already busy with visions of what might be his his next big project. No, it\u2019s not The Hobbit, and no, it\u2019s not that Tarzan project he was talking about a while back. Here\u2019s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1262,1263,73,146,504,503,540],"class_list":["post-31122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-amazing-grace","tag-beauty-and-the-beast","tag-cynderes-midnight","tag-harry-potter","tag-movieguide","tag-ted-baehr","tag-us-vs-them"],"yoast_head":"\n