{"id":29372,"date":"2015-03-29T15:16:57","date_gmt":"2015-03-29T19:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=29372"},"modified":"2015-03-29T15:16:57","modified_gmt":"2015-03-29T19:16:57","slug":"redemption-in-star-wars-and-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/redemption-in-star-wars-and-christianity.html","title":{"rendered":"Redemption in Star Wars and Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-29373\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2015\/03\/Ewoks-unforgivable.png\" alt=\"Ewoks unforgivable\" width=\"475\" height=\"356\"><\/p>\n<p>The above cartoon from <a href=\"http:\/\/pictoraltheology.blogspot.com\/2015\/03\/they-are-unforgivable.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pictorial Theology<\/a> raises interesting questions (even if I disagree with what it says, especially with regard to Ewoks).<\/p>\n<p>On the one hand, the message of cheap grace that is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theonion.com\/articles\/that-sucker-jesus-has-forgiven-me-for-some-pretty,10750\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">popular<\/a> in much contemporary Christianity is profoundly unbiblical. Paul, supposedly the greatest proponent of this message,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/biblehub.com\/1_corinthians\/6-9.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">asked the Corinthians Christians<\/a>, \u201cYou know that\u00a0wicked people\u00a0will not inherit the kingdom of God, don\u2019t you? Stop deceiving yourselves!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, to the extent that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/2012\/04\/darth-vader-on-the-washington-national-cathedral.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">redemption<\/a> \u2013 genuine change, turning one\u2019s life around \u2013 is an emphasis of Christianity, isn\u2019t it portrayed well on Star Wars? Or could nothing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/2013\/03\/if-darth-vader-had-become-an-evangelical-christian.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Anakin Skywalker<\/a> did make up for his earlier sins?<\/p>\n<p>This is a subject I\u2019ve explored on this blog before, and so please do visit some of my earlier posts on the subject, such as:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/2011\/08\/redemption-in-science-fiction.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Redemption in Science Fiction<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/2013\/10\/saint-vader.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Saint Vader<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/2012\/03\/darth-jesus.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Darth Jesus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I suspect that there are people who will be moved by one or the other \u2013 Darth Vader\u2019s turnaround but not that of the thief on the cross, or vice versa. It would be interesting to hear whether\u00a0those who feel as they do can articulate clearly the reason for their viewpoint.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The above cartoon from Pictorial Theology raises interesting questions (even if I disagree with what it says, especially with regard to Ewoks). On the one hand, the message of cheap grace that is popular in much contemporary Christianity is profoundly unbiblical. Paul, supposedly the greatest proponent of this message,\u00a0asked the Corinthians Christians, \u201cYou know that\u00a0wicked [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":29373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[584,1846,2451,3536,10092,11822],"class_list":["post-29372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-star-wars-science-fiction","tag-anakin-skywalker","tag-christianity-religion","tag-darth-vader","tag-forgiveness","tag-redemption","tag-star-wars"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Redemption in Star Wars and Christianity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The above cartoon from Pictorial Theology raises interesting questions (even if I disagree with what it says, especially with regard to Ewoks). On the one\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/redemption-in-star-wars-and-christianity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Redemption in Star Wars and Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The above cartoon from Pictorial Theology raises interesting questions (even if I disagree with what it says, especially with regard to Ewoks). On the one\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/redemption-in-star-wars-and-christianity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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