StanGuthrie.com 2005 Highlights

It’s been a fun 2005, my first full year with the website. Some great thinkers have shared their thoughts here, including Os Guinness, David Limbaugh, Gary Bauer, Dick Staub, Hugh Hewitt, and others. We’ve looked at a wide range of issues, everything from stem cell research to Intelligent Design to materialism. Readers have been thoughtful, engaged, and (for the most part) polite. Thank you.

If you’re new to the site, feel free to explore. The Thought of the Day, the archives, the articles, and the Library should prove especially helpful and are updated regularly. You’ll learn more about me and when I’m speaking in the other sections.

To recap this past year at StanGuthrie.com, let’s replay some of the highlights. Enjoy, Merry Christmas, and hope to see you in 2006!

Best reason Christians should care about the Supreme Court
“There are millions of ‘values voters’ who have donated blood, sweat and tears to elect conservative Republicans to public office in order get the courts back on track. Our values prevail at the ballot box, but we consistently lose in the courts—whether it’s life issues like partial-birth abortion or parental notification, the meaning of marriage, ‘under God’ in our Pledge or the Ten Commandments on the courthouse lawn.”
Gary Bauer, October 15

Best evaluation of pop culture
“[F]or the most part, a toxic mix of loveless sexuality and senseless violence.”
Mark Pinsky, “Attitude Adjustments,” January 24

Grumpiest response to technology
“I don’t want to be reachable 24/7, and I don’t need unlimited anytime minutes.”
“Just Wondering 3,” January 3

Best answer to atheists
“It is often said that after Auschwitz there cannot be a God—evil is so overwhelming that it is the ‘rock of atheism.’ But as Viktor Frankl pointed out, those who say that were not in Auschwitz themselves. Far more people deepened or discovered faith in Auschwitz than lost it. He then gave a beautiful picture of faith in the face of evil. A small and inadequate faith, he said, is like a small fire; it can be blown out by a small breeze. True faith, by contrast, is like a strong fire. When it is hit by a strong wind, it is fanned into an inextinguishable blaze.”
Os Guinness, February 28

Best parenting advice (tie)
“A lot of parents want to be their kids’ friends, and they stop acting as their parents. I see this particularly with teenagers. Lots of parents act as though their kids are grown when they’re 14 or 15. They aren’t. They may not like being corrected, but they badly need correction. They need authoritative guidance, because they look big and strong, but they aren’t.”
Tim Stafford, March 21

“Time with our children is not assured. We don’t know whether they will grow up and provide us with grandchildren to bounce on our knee. Each day is a gift to be opened and enjoyed fully on its own terms. Don’t wait for your kids to reach a certain level of maturity before you enjoy them. Relish each moment. Don’t take them for granted.”
“A Midlife Confession,” March 7

Dumbest comment (I could only choose one)
“As a matter of fact, religion should have no effect on politics.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger, “A Tale of Two Governors,” March 14

Most sobering use of statistics
“According to the National Center for Health Statistics, some 2.4 million people died in the United States during 2002, or 845 for every 100,000 in population. (That’s uncomfortably close to one in 100.) For white males in my age range, the news is a little better. The death rate for us is a shade over 287 per 100,000. But in five years, it will be 420; in ten, 601. Then the slope toward death gets awfully slippery. In 30 years, it will be 3,469; in 45 years, it becomes 16,473.”
“A Midlife Confession,” March 7

Most challenging advice
“[E]ach of us must be more willing to give, both of our resources and our time, even to the people we think don’t deserve it—perhaps most importantly to the people we think don’t deserve it. Grace isn’t earned, right? Be open to buying homeless people lunch—smelly, dirty, scary as they may be. If you feel led, sit with them as they eat their burrito or cheeseburger and listen a little to their story.”
Mike Yankoski, April 18

Best one-sentence description of the culture wars
“[W]hat we are seeing is neither a trend toward Christianization alone nor secularization alone, but strong movements in both camps, leading to heightened polarization.”
David Limbaugh, May 30

Best description of the Christian’s responsibility for culture
“Throughout history, Christians have wavered between equal and opposite errors. We have either cocooned ourselves from the world, which means we lose the ability to relate, or we conform to the world and lose the ability to transform. Like Jesus, we are called to be a loving, transforming presence.”
Dick Staub, May 16

Most disputed prediction
“I wouldn't own a single newspaper stock if my outlook was longer than five years. Their circulation is being hollowed out, and it is only a matter of time until their advertisers figure this out. The future of print publishing is in magazines, not behind-the-news-cycle papers.”
Hugh Hewitt, June 20

Most controversial statement
On whether J.K. Rowling is writing her Harry Potter series from a Christian perspective: “That’s absolutely false. Absolutely false. . . . These other people who are trying to make them Christian are ignoring what she’s saying. And I don’t think that’s fair to her. I don’t think it’s fair to the books. I don’t think it’s fair to Lewis and Tolkien, who really did write from a Christian perspective.”
Richard Abanes, September 26

Best movie tagline
“Scaling the Cliffs of Insanity, battling Rodents of Unusual Size, facing torture in the Pit of Despair. True love has never been a snap.”
“The Dread Jurist Roberts,” July 25

Biggest (acknowledged) lie
“We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000, but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was one million.”
Bernard Nathanson, July 18

Best vacation tip
“Men, keep your hair short before going on a camping trip. You may need to comb it with your hand.”
“Camping Trip Observations,” August 10

Stan’s Top 10 News Stories of 2005

1. Hurricane Katrina
Devastating natural disaster stirs a storm of controversy and philanthropy.

2. Supreme Court
Choices of Roberts, Miers, and Alito to the high court alternately cheer and alarm conservatives, who force Bush to drop Miers.

3. Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI
Death of culture-of-life champion and advocate of freedom touches the world.

4. Terri Schiavo
Debate over one woman’s medical condition and end-of-life wishes spills over into national politics.

5. Earthquake in Pakistan
The West struggles with compassion fatigue as 73,000 Muslims die in another mind-numbing natural disaster.

6. Muslims in Europe
Declining Europe struggles with growing Islam in its midst, as Muslims set off bombs in Britain and riots in France.

7. Tsunami in Asia
End of 2004 disaster and its aftermath set the tone for a horrible 2005.

8. Narnia Reborn
Movie based on C.S. Lewis’s religiously themed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens to huge hype.

9. Iraq: Democracy Amid Violence
Voters in Iraq open the door to democracy in the autocratic Middle East.

10. Evangelicals Get Respect
Mainstream media notice evangelicals, who played a key role in Bush’s re-election.

The Battle for Narnia

Remember all the fuss last year before The Passion of the Christ was released? Critics called Mel Gibson’s film about the last hours of Jesus Christ anti-Semitic. They said it would spark violence against Jews. They scoffed, saying no one would watch such a religious movie.

With the imminent release of a new big-budget blockbuster, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, they are now attempting to smear C.S. Lewis, who created the classic 20th century seven-volume series for children, The Chronicles of Narnia.

Grand Inquisitor in this regard is Philip Pullman, who also is classified as a children’s writer. I say “classified as” because Pullman’s dark, three-volume series, called His Dark Materials, poisons young minds every bit as much as any stratagem of the White Witch. Pullman accuses Lewis of being a propagandist for religion. Indeed, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe encourages faith and provides a beautiful picture of Christ dying and rising again.

And what’s wrong with that? Most works of literature, and indeed most movies, come out of particular worldviews and attempt to influence people’s thinking about everything from animal rights to Zen. What’s wrong with a series—and, indeed, a movie—that seeks, among other things, to communicate Christian truth past society’s “watchful dragons” in the fantasy genre?

And Pullman, who is an outspoken atheist, should talk. He has declared, “I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief.”

The church, according to Pullman, "has tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. ... That's what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling." God, according to Pullman, “was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves ... [who] told those who came after him that he had created them, but it was a lie." Near the end of His Dark Materials, Pullman’s god dies: "Demented and powerless," Pullman wrote, "the aged being could only weep and mumble in fear and pain and misery."

Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Michael Nelson notes, “Every Christian character in the series is rotten to the core, and none of them bothers to pretend otherwise. ‘The Christian religion,’ one of Pullman's main characters blandly explains, ‘is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all.’"

Perhaps that anti-Christian bias is why Pullman is taking the extraordinary step of publicly trashing a fellow author, and a dead one at that. Pullman accuses Lewis and the Chronicles of being sexist, racist, “poisonous,” and having a “sadomasochistic relish for violence.” Talk about projection!

John J. Miller, in National Review, has a more realistic assessment. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” Miller says, “is both a fantastic adventure story and a profound expression of Christian belief. Because of this, C.S. Lewis’s famous tale not only stands on the threshold of blockbuster success, but also holds the potential to become the next great battleground in the culture wars.”

I'm happy to report that, $370 million later, the critics were wrong about The Passion of the Christ, and Mel Gibson is a very rich man. When it comes to C.S. Lewis’s fantasy, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I expect that the critics are about to get another refreshing dose of reality.