{"id":3142,"date":"2009-03-28T12:55:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-28T12:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/03\/monsters-vs-aliens\/"},"modified":"2009-03-28T12:55:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-28T12:55:00","slug":"monsters-vs-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/03\/monsters-vs-aliens.html","title":{"rendered":"Monsters vs. Aliens"},"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><div>I just got back from seeing <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.monstersvsaliens.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Monsters vs. Aliens<\/a><\/em>. Unfortunately it wasn\u2019t in 3D at the theater I went to. I won\u2019t give away any of the entertaining details, lest I spoil anyone\u2019s enjoyment. But I will share a thought about the message of the movie: <a href=\"https:\/\/static.flickr.com\/3343\/3284343814_20e7ac8595.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/static.flickr.com\/3343\/3284343814_20e7ac8595.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/a>we are prone to view those who are too different from us as monsters. Yet often those who are \u201cinsiders\u201d with respect to our community are selfish and monstrous on the inside, while those outside can, when we look beneath the surface, be anything but monstrous.\n<p>This is a point Paul emphasizes in his letter to the Romans, and yet which many contemporary forms of Christianity seem to have overlooked. In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Romans%202:6-11;&amp;version=31;\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Romans 2:6-11 (NIV)<\/a>, we read <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p>God \u201cwill give to each person according to what he has done.\u201d To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div>This passage is so difficult to reconcile with the way many people understand Christianity, that they assume Paul was speaking hypothetically, or in some other way didn\u2019t mean what he wrote. <\/div>\n<div>I suppose we, all of us (including most of us Christians, but certainly neither all Christians nor Christians alone) still have a lot to learn about aliens and monsters\u2026<\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-2601896566659208034?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just got back from seeing Monsters vs. Aliens. Unfortunately it wasn\u2019t in 3D at the theater I went to. I won\u2019t give away any of the entertaining details, lest I spoil anyone\u2019s enjoyment. But I will share a thought about the message of the movie: we are prone to view those who are too [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Monsters vs. Aliens<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I just got back from seeing Monsters vs. Aliens. Unfortunately it wasn&#039;t in 3D at the theater I went to. I won&#039;t give away any of the entertaining\" \/>\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\/2009\/03\/monsters-vs-aliens.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Monsters vs. Aliens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I just got back from seeing Monsters vs. Aliens. Unfortunately it wasn&#039;t in 3D at the theater I went to. I won&#039;t give away any of the entertaining\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2009\/03\/monsters-vs-aliens.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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