Post by lexkx on Oct 3, 2008 11:20:17 GMT -5
Torainfor, Mongoose, you’re right. This is so far off the original topic that perhaps we should consider moving it to an appropriate venue. (?) That being said…
Different people will always come down on different sides of the harmlessness of magic. Both in fiction and in the real world. It’s easier to ponder the question in the realms of fiction because it’s supposed to be imaginary. Fiction is someone’s made up version of reality. Very easy to discount or dismiss.
But that doesn’t make the question of magic innocent. Or amoral.
A lot of why people take different sides—and especially why they get hot under the collar—comes back to the age-old question of authority. No, not whether or not magic gives you authority in supernatural realms. Rather, what authority you are under.
Many people claim allegiance to one side or another. Some to Christ. Some to themselves. Some to good. Some to power. This doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with who they answer to.
Many, many people lay claim to the label “Christian” who do not submit themselves to Christ. Please understand, I’m not trying to point fingers here, nor make accusations or judgments about anyone. But Christ’s love covers a wide blanket of people who think very differently. The closer we come to that love, the more compassion we have for a wider variety of the lost. The closer we come to His will, the more purpose-driven we become. (His purpose, not ours.) And the more of our thought process we surrender to Him, the more our minds fall into certain inescapable paths of logic.
And no, that doesn’t mean that Christians are more logical than the lost, or that logical people are closer to God. God’s logic and man’s logic are shaped very differently.
God logic begins and ends with His absolute supremacy. Human logic may or may not consult with God, but it is not bound to obey Him. There’s a handy loophole that says either “But I’ve always thought/done/heard this” or “But I prefer to think/do that.” God may have created the universe, but He left man the option of acceding to His power. Each of us has the choice of how much control to give Him in the privacy of our thought lives. We have to volunteer to have our logic rewired. To unlearn what we have come to accept as reality.
Few people let the Lord do this. Some because they gave God their hearts, what does He need with their heads? Some because they have no idea God can do that kind of thing, much less wants to bother with something so trivial. And of those few people, an even slimmer minority surrender completely. Some because they are quite good at compartmentalizing. They give God this section and that part, but this favorite belief belongs to them. And some because they apply one small part of their understanding to everything and assume that this is the same as God doing a clean sweep of their minds.
In terms of practical application, I’d prefer not to touch the magic question just yet. Let’s take something neutral. Like music.
Preferences are developed fairly early in life. Because it’s what your parents play around the house. Because it’s what your friends listen to. Because it communicates something you feel but can’t articulate. Because it’s catchy. Whatever the reason, music imprints into our minds differently than speech, reading, or hands-on experience.
It can be a powerful tool of catharsis or healing, or it can be an open door for the enemy to slip in thoughts. Yes, he can. Thoughts and concepts expressed through music ingrain themselves into your psyche. If you sit down and examine the practical application of your theology, you will find that most of your favorite worship songs figure prominently in how you understand God. It’s part of why some folks are so attached to their hymns and why others can’t get enough of their praise choruses. Some (very wise) people never get past “Jesus Loves Me.”
And yes, of course the other part of that attachment has to do with taste and style. Leaving aside the age-old question of content versus form, some Christians don’t just get tetchy about wanting to worship their way. They put their foot down on secular music in general or on genres in particular. Some people do this because they don’t like the music (those who prefer). Some people do this because they fear contamination (those who apply small understanding to large applications). Some people give it no thought (those who compartmentalize). They may also not think they have any issues with it, but music goes deep into a soul.
Some, though, are in pursuit of God, and He opens their eyes to a new understanding and leads them to a personal choice. New Christians are the best example of this, as they will suddenly see their old favorites differently. Church-grown Christians tend to be more flexible. Not, as we like to think, because we understand grace better, but because we aren’t examining our choices with the same fresh awareness of the spiritual.
There is a vast gulf of difference between the black-and-white logic of God and the colorful, flexible freedom of God. Both are His. Any freedom we have comes from Christ and our adoption as heirs in the kingdom. All of it, though, is bound by the Lord’s divine ruling as our father and judge. Will He grant permission to listen to absolutely anything I want? Perhaps. What is it I want first? Do I want license to my own whims or do I want obedience to His intentions first?
First.
His grace is sufficient to forgive me for allowing something unwholesome into my mind. His grace is even sufficient to forgive any effect this has on my witness, and even turn it to His redemption. But God doesn’t want to be the first-aid applied after I fall. He wants to be the protective armor I don’t leave home without that prevents the need for patch-ups later.
Coming back to the question of writing, He doesn’t want me to write anything I d*** well please and then ask Him to bless it. That does cheapen His grace. He wants me to surrender the words I have read as well as the words burning inside me, so that anything that comes out is sanctioned by Him. His plans are bigger than my imagination, so why not surrender my imagination to His will and watch Him do the work? Once under His complete control, who is to say what He will or won’t give me permission to do?
And, in my case, given the nature of my spiritual walk, He said “thou shalt not write magic.” I don’t argue with Him on that. Not out of cowardice or confusion, but from the absolute trust of a child who has seen her Father battle monsters. Words to tickle the ears of men cease to please when I listen FIRST for the voice of the Lord. In return for my willingness to obey in this, He provides me both an astonishing freedom in my personal choices and a phenomenal compassion for people on either extreme of the magic question.
Magic and music, separated as Terry Pratchett would say by only two letters, both have these odd back doors into the human mind. Music, I think, is a common point of contention and it’s much harder to control that door. Magic, well, some people slam the door shut (for whatever reason) and some people pull it open wider.
As someone who operates first under God’s command and second under His freedom, I cannot look at magic in fiction and magic in real life as separate. When I pray in accordance with the scripture in Romans that tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, I don’t just ask the Lord to tell me what to think. I ask Him to teach me how to think. I volunteer to let the Lord alter anything He likes about what I understand and how He wants me to understand it.
Sometimes, I accept His correction gracefully. Most of the time, I kick and scream like any other idiot. But, at the end of the day, I’m in pursuit of His approval. Not man’s. My logic is no longer wired to think that’s a viable source of power. And, by extension, I can’t look at an invention of man without comparing it to the supernatural reality. Where does it leave gaps? Where is it true? Where does it stretch thin? When satan plays “red rover” with this story, where is the back door and is it sufficiently guarded by the Lord to prevent attack?
Makes me picky, sure, but it drags me inexorably back to God. And that’s not by virtue of the story—or the storyteller. That’s only my shabby little love for God. Magic, like technology or aliens or uncharted territory, gets used by writers as a prop in a story. If a writer doesn’t need it to tell the tale, why include it? If, on the other hand, the story can’t be told without it, theology becomes a serious question. And theology is “the study of God.” What the writer believes God to be, not necessarily what He is. Very slippery slope. Torainfor should be congratulated on her desire to keep her theology in line with Scripture. It’s a wise choice for any speculative writer.
Different people will always come down on different sides of the harmlessness of magic. Both in fiction and in the real world. It’s easier to ponder the question in the realms of fiction because it’s supposed to be imaginary. Fiction is someone’s made up version of reality. Very easy to discount or dismiss.
But that doesn’t make the question of magic innocent. Or amoral.
A lot of why people take different sides—and especially why they get hot under the collar—comes back to the age-old question of authority. No, not whether or not magic gives you authority in supernatural realms. Rather, what authority you are under.
Many people claim allegiance to one side or another. Some to Christ. Some to themselves. Some to good. Some to power. This doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with who they answer to.
Many, many people lay claim to the label “Christian” who do not submit themselves to Christ. Please understand, I’m not trying to point fingers here, nor make accusations or judgments about anyone. But Christ’s love covers a wide blanket of people who think very differently. The closer we come to that love, the more compassion we have for a wider variety of the lost. The closer we come to His will, the more purpose-driven we become. (His purpose, not ours.) And the more of our thought process we surrender to Him, the more our minds fall into certain inescapable paths of logic.
And no, that doesn’t mean that Christians are more logical than the lost, or that logical people are closer to God. God’s logic and man’s logic are shaped very differently.
God logic begins and ends with His absolute supremacy. Human logic may or may not consult with God, but it is not bound to obey Him. There’s a handy loophole that says either “But I’ve always thought/done/heard this” or “But I prefer to think/do that.” God may have created the universe, but He left man the option of acceding to His power. Each of us has the choice of how much control to give Him in the privacy of our thought lives. We have to volunteer to have our logic rewired. To unlearn what we have come to accept as reality.
Few people let the Lord do this. Some because they gave God their hearts, what does He need with their heads? Some because they have no idea God can do that kind of thing, much less wants to bother with something so trivial. And of those few people, an even slimmer minority surrender completely. Some because they are quite good at compartmentalizing. They give God this section and that part, but this favorite belief belongs to them. And some because they apply one small part of their understanding to everything and assume that this is the same as God doing a clean sweep of their minds.
In terms of practical application, I’d prefer not to touch the magic question just yet. Let’s take something neutral. Like music.
Preferences are developed fairly early in life. Because it’s what your parents play around the house. Because it’s what your friends listen to. Because it communicates something you feel but can’t articulate. Because it’s catchy. Whatever the reason, music imprints into our minds differently than speech, reading, or hands-on experience.
It can be a powerful tool of catharsis or healing, or it can be an open door for the enemy to slip in thoughts. Yes, he can. Thoughts and concepts expressed through music ingrain themselves into your psyche. If you sit down and examine the practical application of your theology, you will find that most of your favorite worship songs figure prominently in how you understand God. It’s part of why some folks are so attached to their hymns and why others can’t get enough of their praise choruses. Some (very wise) people never get past “Jesus Loves Me.”
And yes, of course the other part of that attachment has to do with taste and style. Leaving aside the age-old question of content versus form, some Christians don’t just get tetchy about wanting to worship their way. They put their foot down on secular music in general or on genres in particular. Some people do this because they don’t like the music (those who prefer). Some people do this because they fear contamination (those who apply small understanding to large applications). Some people give it no thought (those who compartmentalize). They may also not think they have any issues with it, but music goes deep into a soul.
Some, though, are in pursuit of God, and He opens their eyes to a new understanding and leads them to a personal choice. New Christians are the best example of this, as they will suddenly see their old favorites differently. Church-grown Christians tend to be more flexible. Not, as we like to think, because we understand grace better, but because we aren’t examining our choices with the same fresh awareness of the spiritual.
There is a vast gulf of difference between the black-and-white logic of God and the colorful, flexible freedom of God. Both are His. Any freedom we have comes from Christ and our adoption as heirs in the kingdom. All of it, though, is bound by the Lord’s divine ruling as our father and judge. Will He grant permission to listen to absolutely anything I want? Perhaps. What is it I want first? Do I want license to my own whims or do I want obedience to His intentions first?
First.
His grace is sufficient to forgive me for allowing something unwholesome into my mind. His grace is even sufficient to forgive any effect this has on my witness, and even turn it to His redemption. But God doesn’t want to be the first-aid applied after I fall. He wants to be the protective armor I don’t leave home without that prevents the need for patch-ups later.
Coming back to the question of writing, He doesn’t want me to write anything I d*** well please and then ask Him to bless it. That does cheapen His grace. He wants me to surrender the words I have read as well as the words burning inside me, so that anything that comes out is sanctioned by Him. His plans are bigger than my imagination, so why not surrender my imagination to His will and watch Him do the work? Once under His complete control, who is to say what He will or won’t give me permission to do?
And, in my case, given the nature of my spiritual walk, He said “thou shalt not write magic.” I don’t argue with Him on that. Not out of cowardice or confusion, but from the absolute trust of a child who has seen her Father battle monsters. Words to tickle the ears of men cease to please when I listen FIRST for the voice of the Lord. In return for my willingness to obey in this, He provides me both an astonishing freedom in my personal choices and a phenomenal compassion for people on either extreme of the magic question.
Magic and music, separated as Terry Pratchett would say by only two letters, both have these odd back doors into the human mind. Music, I think, is a common point of contention and it’s much harder to control that door. Magic, well, some people slam the door shut (for whatever reason) and some people pull it open wider.
As someone who operates first under God’s command and second under His freedom, I cannot look at magic in fiction and magic in real life as separate. When I pray in accordance with the scripture in Romans that tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, I don’t just ask the Lord to tell me what to think. I ask Him to teach me how to think. I volunteer to let the Lord alter anything He likes about what I understand and how He wants me to understand it.
Sometimes, I accept His correction gracefully. Most of the time, I kick and scream like any other idiot. But, at the end of the day, I’m in pursuit of His approval. Not man’s. My logic is no longer wired to think that’s a viable source of power. And, by extension, I can’t look at an invention of man without comparing it to the supernatural reality. Where does it leave gaps? Where is it true? Where does it stretch thin? When satan plays “red rover” with this story, where is the back door and is it sufficiently guarded by the Lord to prevent attack?
Makes me picky, sure, but it drags me inexorably back to God. And that’s not by virtue of the story—or the storyteller. That’s only my shabby little love for God. Magic, like technology or aliens or uncharted territory, gets used by writers as a prop in a story. If a writer doesn’t need it to tell the tale, why include it? If, on the other hand, the story can’t be told without it, theology becomes a serious question. And theology is “the study of God.” What the writer believes God to be, not necessarily what He is. Very slippery slope. Torainfor should be congratulated on her desire to keep her theology in line with Scripture. It’s a wise choice for any speculative writer.