The night before I was to have surgery to remove the tumor on my ovaries, we had Chinese food and watched “Ghost Town” which was pretty funny and the perfect movie to watch before an operation 🙂 So, when I saw that Ricky Gervais was in “The Invention of Lying” I was thinking about seeing it. The trailers made it look like a fantasy movie about a universe where lying doesn’t exist until Gervais introduces it:But over the weekend I read the reviews for “The Invention of Lying” and was stunned to find out that the movie was anti-Christian (the reviewer is an atheist, not a hyper-sensitive Christian). Why in the world would they try to hide that fact from the movie goer? Do they actually think they had to trick us into seeing this movie? And did they think we’d drop our belief under the sheer weight of their smug condescension? I have no problem watching movies written by atheists, I went to see the “Golden Compass.” I have no problem watching movies that mock or excoriate Christians, I thought “The Big Kahuna” was brilliant. So, if they had been honest about the intent of the film, I might have been tempted to see it. Knowing that I’ll be mocked is one thing but being duped into paying to see a movie that insults me as a gullible sap is another. It’s a good thing I’m not gullible enough to go see a movie without reading a review first. To all those atheists who want to convince us using Gervais’ tactics, I say: ridiculing Christianity by treating us like we’re gullible dupes who would believe anything we’re told isn’t a way to demonstrate that Christianity is false. Our faith is reasonable and we know it even though atheists have convinced themselves it is not. Ridicule doesn’t work because we’re used to it.The Roman soldiers and the Jews mocked Jesus when he was flogged and crucified. And Paul warned us that the intellectuals of the world consider us foolish:

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1Co 1:18-31 ESV)

When we’re mocked it just proves the truthfulness of this passage.And if this movie was Gervais’ attempt, not to convince Christians that they are foolish, but just to laugh at the gulliable saps, I suggest he might want to mediate on the words of Keith Haring:

I don’t think art is propaganda; it should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.

And those of the atheist movie reviewer, Kyle Smith (linked to above):

The nice thing about atheism is that it isn’t (or shouldn’t be) a creed. Those of us who don’t believe see ourselves as liberated. The principal mystery of Genesis, to us, is how to reconcile “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” with “Invisible Touch.” We don’t have to stand on street corners proselytizing, telling people they’re idiots — which is what Gervais is doing.

Update: For those interested, I’ve updated this post here.