Luke Smith #fundie

Luke Smith #fundie christiananswers.net

[On the movie: X2: X-men united]

Looking at my ratings, you might think I didn't like the movie. That's not true, as I did enjoy the movie very much. However, looking at this from a CHRISTIAN perspective, there is much to find offensive in this film. For me though, it wasn't the violence and language that offended me, but the character of Nightcrawler. His obsession with Roman Catholic tradition (praying rosary and self punishment among other things) marred what could have been a great character with Christian beliefs. Remove the rubbish, leave in the prayers (except for Rosary) and you have a Christian character, which would have been cool.

[They gave the movie a 3/5 for quality and rated its moral value as "extremely offensive"]

58 comments

old comment by DuckSoup

After reading this post and seeing dozens of others like it, expressing the same sentiments regarding Catholicism, I'm almost tempted to do the unthinkable. Defend Catholics.

I was raised Catholic, christened, confirmed, communion plus just for good measure I was an altar boy and got to wear those lovely flowing robes. (No, before anyone asks, there was no buggery, no inappropriate behaviour by any priest I knew)

Whilst I reject teachings of the Catholic church now, I in no way condone the hatred spewed by Mr Smith, nor any other person expressing the same opinions.

I can't believe just how ironic it is to have a person who claims to strongly believe in the teachings of Jesus accusing their fellow Christians of being practically inhuman. (He hasn't stated 'inhuman' but many others have implied it.)

We (whom I am guessing have no love for Christianity) are having to defend and educate Christians regarding the truth about fellow their Christians.

If you want to know why there are priests who abuse young boys, bishops who cover it up and general acts which most people would consider to be 'evil' all prevalent throughout Roman Catholicism, the answer is simple. Celibacy.

Not having sex, which is the most natural of instincts and urges is bad enough. Being given a position of power and trust within a community (i.e. being a priest), brings you into contact with members of the opposite sex in a closed environment (i.e. confession). If you can't then act on feelings of love which might develop from these moments of intimacy, which everyone has, are denied sex which you body is pumping out masive amounts of hormones to try and get, you're going to end up with more than one long term problem.

Fundies advocate absinence, i.e. no sex. It's the no sex rule which attacts all of the weirdos to the Catholic church in the 1st place, takes a heavy toll on the minds of those priests who have a genuine belief and those who just want to help people.

Demonising Catholic's for their beliefs is more than retarded it's (insert appropriate adjective). Demonising them when you claim to worship the same God they do and then advocating the same behaviour which caused the Catholic church their problems in the first place (i.e. Abstinance), is well....fundamental, I suppose.

old comment by David D.G.

"For me though, it wasn't the violence and language that offended me, but the character of Nightcrawler. His obsession with Roman Catholic tradition (praying rosary and self punishment among other things) marred what could have been a great character with Christian beliefs. Remove the rubbish, leave in the prayers (except for Rosary) and you have a Christian character, which would have been cool."

The weird thing is that I agree with about half of this.

Nightcrawler NEVER was into self-mutilation or self-punishment of any sort in the comics; he would have been horrified by such things, and rightly so. This aspect of the character in the movie version was just horribly wrong, and it marred what was otherwise an excellent character.

However, he WAS a devout Catholic (and, yes, that DOES mean Christian!) in the comics -- not that I recall ever seeing him with a rosary, but I know he went to confession and mass periodically, and he talked about faith on occasion. Religion rarely came up in their battle situations, but I can think of one where it actually did.

In one issue, the X-Men fought a vampire (it may even have been Dracula, though I don't recall now). Wolverine's use of a cross did nothing to the vampire, because Wolverine had no faith in what it signified -- but when Nightcrawler crossed a couple of measly twigs, the vampire recoiled from the symbol of his faith. (The vampire also burned himself on the Star of David that Kitty Pryde wore on a necklace -- indicating that she was not only from a Jewish family, but sincerely believed in that faith as well.) Frankly, I thought it was very cool, adding a nifty bit of depth and diversity to the characters.

~David D.G.

old comment by Canadiest

Nightcrawler was one of the best realized (of thr comic characters) in the that francise of movies. Rang very true with the comic.

If he was fundie he'd no no peace, he'd be trained to hate himself and probably would have been killed in infancy.

I'm an atheist but I liked the character having faith as it created a new dynamic.

I don't think you could ever have a fundie character (Foolkiller, a crazy man fundie i can buy) with any redemable, likeable traits. They'd use their power to destroy abortion clinic, brainwash you into their religion and general have no respect for anyone with their special God-given powers.

Mad tv's Bible Dude! That's another.

old comment by tracer

David D.G. wrote:

"In one issue, the X-Men fought a vampire (it may even have been Dracula, though I don't recall now). Wolverine's use of a cross did nothing to the vampire, because Wolverine had no faith in what it signified -- but when Nightcrawler crossed a couple of measly twigs, the vampire recoiled from the symbol of his faith. (The vampire also burned himself on the Star of David that Kitty Pryde wore on a necklace -- indicating that she was not only from a Jewish family, but sincerely believed in that faith as well.)"

They did something like that in one old episode of Doctor Who, too.

A communist guy was able to keep the vampires at bay by holding up a copy of Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto.

old comment by HazelHolly

Nightcrawler is AWESOME. Every film or book or whatnot needs a char like him; one who's flawed. One who admits his flaws, and tries to get rid of them. One who is a good guy deep down, even despite these flaws. Heck I made up a character like that called Rival. NC was part of the inspiration for him.

Oh, and don't get me started on the whole 'CATHOLICS AINT CHRISTIANS' myth. We worship Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity jsut like you do. But all the Catholics I know are decent people, as are the atheists I know. I also go to an Anglican church occasionally, and it's a decent place, and no one minds that we (me, my mum and a few of my cousins) go even though we're Roman Catholics. STFU, FU and DIAF.

Luke Smith #fundie christiananswers.net

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