{"id":3286,"date":"2012-09-12T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T10:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rachelmariestone\/?p=3286"},"modified":"2012-09-12T06:00:44","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T10:00:44","slug":"how-to-train-your-drago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rachelmariestone\/2012\/09\/12\/how-to-train-your-drago\/","title":{"rendered":"How “How to Train Your Dragon” Explains Life. And Evangelicals + ‘The Mainline.’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There\u2019s a joke that nurses like to tell about doctors: a doctor will hear a rumbling noise in the hallway and, tapping his pen on his pad, goes over the various theories as to what it might be. Meanwhile, the nurse will just go and see.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

{Just keep that joke in mind, okay?}<\/p>\n

One of my favorite animated films is the poorly-titled How to Train Your Dragon.<\/em> I first saw it in Germany (the cinema had one or two showings in English each day) and seeing it was like taking a bubble bath, luxuriating in words and humor that made sense to me.<\/p>\n

{I loved living in Germany, and I love living in other cultures. But I don\u2019t pretend it\u2019s not tiring!}<\/p>\n

Anyway.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t seen the movie, I want to warn you that I\u2019m going to spoil some things about it. So if you are the sort that hates to have surprises ruined, you may want to stop here.<\/p>\n

The film could probably be \u2018read\u2019 in a number of allegorical ways, but the essence of it, for me, is a story of compassionate encounter triumphing over abstracted and prejudiced theories. Hating and fearing dragons is based not on genuine encounter with dragons (and an understanding of why they do what they do) but on fear that\u2019s taken on the sheen of fact by being codified into books.<\/p>\n

Hmm, is *all* (or almost all) human hatred something like that?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And so when Hiccup (the protagonist) encounters an actual dragon, gets to know him, and compares what he has experienced with what\u2019s in the Dragon Textbook, he says\u2013and this is important!\u2013<\/p>\n

\u201ceverything we know about you\u2026is wrong.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think this concept is enormously interesting and provocative. There are so many times in life when a real encounter trumps theory. My friend Ellen wrote yesterday<\/a> about how \u2018mainline\u2019 Protestant churches<\/p>\n

\u201ccontrary to some stereotypes [\u2026] are not repositories of chilly, rote religion practiced by people more interested in tradition than the movement of the Spirit.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. No, these churches\u2013and their related institutions\u2013are more than (and just plain different from) the caricatures<\/a> that have been made of them (even those from less-controversial figures than Mark Driscoll. Ahem.)<\/p>\n

If you go over the the website of Presbyterian Mission Agency,<\/a> for whom I work, you will see that it focuses its work on three issues:<\/p>\n