EPISODE DESCRIPTION – I know, I know. What fear? Right? You're not scared, right? Or are you? What stories are you allowing yourself to tell? Well, it's time for a paradigm shift. And Zena is here to tell you all about why and how. By the end of this episode you will understand that we need not be afraid.
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The Storyteller's Mission Podcast is now on YouTube. You can watch your favorite podcast as well as listen. Subscribe to our channel and never miss a new episode or announcement.
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EPISODE DESCRIPTION – I know, I know. What fear? Right? You're not scared, right? Or are you? What stories are you allowing yourself to tell? Well, it's time for a paradigm shift. And Zena is here to tell you all about why and how. By the end of this episode you will understand that we need not be afraid.
Free Video Tutorial for Screenwriting
The Storyteller's Mission Podcast is now on YouTube. You can watch your favorite podcast as well as listen. Subscribe to our channel and never miss a new episode or announcement.
Support the Show on Paypal@Missionranchfilms!
Contact us for anything else!
THE STORYTELLER’S MISSION WITH ZENA DELL LOWE
S3_E51. Fear Shows Up in the Stories We Allow Ourselves to Tell
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Published November 16, 2023
[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to The Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe, a podcast for artists and storytellers about changing the world for the better through story..
[00:00:11] Today what I want to talk about is a common problem that I just keep seeing happening in Christendom in particular, and it's fear. Now, this fear manifests itself almost universally in the types of stories that we allow ourselves to tell or, more particularly, the evaluative criteria of those stories.
[00:00:38] So, as I've mentioned before, this is when we tend to evaluate whether or not a story is good based on whether or not it lacks sex, language, and violence. And, somehow, we have adopted in Christendom this belief that, hey, if there's no sex, if there's no language, if there's no violence, oh, it's good. As if a story is good based on what it lacks. It's a poor, poor evaluative scale to use to evaluate story. It's just not a good idea because a story is not good based on what it lacks. It's good based on what it offers. And insofar as it represents the world as God actually and truly made it, so insofar as it tells the truth about the world as it really, really is, then that story is good. Or has the potential to be good. But there are a couple of other things that tend to creep in here and I want to talk about that. I want to talk about that because it's just so dang important.
[00:01:44] Now one of the things that tends to happen in Christendom. And this is true whether you're a storyteller or not, but there's this tendency to want to not go into the dark stuff because somehow we think that we are now preventing ourselves from being tainted by it. Like if you truly look at what the world is doing or some of the bad things, you know, we just have to keep a positive attitude and we sort of, tend to ostracize ourselves, you know, stick our head in the ground and pretend all that's not going on because if we don't, we're somehow contaminated by it. That seems to be the general idea or consensus that we are contaminated by the ugly things of the world if we look at it or engage it or somehow otherwise get involved. And I want to argue that that is just false. And in fact, it's probably one reason why we've gotten into some of the problems that we have in society is because too many people in Christendom have adopted this idea. And so we haven't been there to buck against the system. And there's been nobody to steer people away from those ideas or beliefs or what have you.
[00:03:02] So our job in society is not just to keep ourselves pure it is God does command that in the Bible that we should be in the world, but not of the world. But notice what he says be in the world, but not of the world. So we need to be aware of what's going on. We need to know we can't just adopt this sanitized view of the world and try to prevent ourselves from being tainted. That's just not good enough. And it's just not healthy for us or the world. And yes, you heard me right. It's not healthy for us. In fact, that will often lead to judgmentalism and self-righteousness. Which, if you know anything about scripture, is one of the things God hated more than anything. People that were proud. The Pharisees. The Judgers. The Scoffers. The Mockers. The people that looked down on others and took the places of importance and thought that they were without sin.
[00:04:05] Okay, so. Why is this important? Well, it's important as storytellers because, first of all, as I've argued multiple times, we need to get beyond this criteria. We need to tell the truth about the world as it really is. And we need to get over this fear. We need to stop being so dang afraid. We just do. We have to stop being so afraid. Ah, we have to stop, but that also means we have to stop being so didactic or dogmatic in the judgments that we're applying to other artists, too. Harry Potter is a classic example of this.
[00:04:47] So I recently had a conversation with a good friend of mine, actually, who's a father of four, and a wonderful Christian man who took issue with me saying that Harry Potter actually has a very biblical worldview. Because the truth is, Harry Potter is all about, it absolutely embodies the themes that we in Christendom most value. Sacrifice, love, overcoming evil, courage, community, all these wonderful things. But he said, but Zena, it has dark magic and light magic and therefore it is from the occult and it is evil. And I said, no, it is not. And I really did. I really said it. No, it is not. Duh. Like, ah, I wanted to strangle him. And by the way, he's a very good friend. I love him dearly. But the problem is that is just such childish thinking. Harry Potter is a fantasy world which uses fantasy devices to tell a story. The magic in Harry Potter is not being represented in an occultic way. It isn't tapping into Satanism. They're not doing satanic rituals. It's not even a recognition of the Demonic, or of Satan, or any of those things. It is a device. It is a fantastic device that is used for this type of story where the magic is wonderful.
[00:06:27] And here's the thing, if you believe that, if you believe that Harry Potter is evil simply because of the magical elements, you are being short sighted and you're not being consistent. Did you watch any Disney growing up? Did you ever see Cinderella? Did you ever see how her fairy godmother created her a gown? And then the two mice became the horses and the whatever became the carriage. The pumpkin became the carriage that took her to the ball. I mean, that's magic. But are they represented as somebody does some sort of a cultic ceremony that taps into specifically demons and demons are the ones powering that magic? No! It was magic. It was fantasy. It's in our imagination. Why can't we enjoy the idea of magic in our imaginations? I promise you, magic is delightful. C. S. Lewis. wrote the Chronicles of Narnia. I don't hear Christians complaining about that, but there's just as much magic in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia as there is in Harry Potter. So the key isn't whether or not there's magic. There's nothing wrong with magic. Magic is just a device. Magic is just a literary device that allows us to explore a fantastic world where there are different rules in that universe. Beauty and the Beast has magic. The teapot sings. The people turned into those things. There's a curse. All those things. But they don't tap into specifically demonic powers to make or power the magic. Even if they call it light magic and dark magic, it doesn't matter. It's just a device. So we've got to get beyond this sort of childish thinking.
[00:08:20] Here's the real acid test. Is good good and is bad bad? Let's look at that and guess what? Nobody ever thinks Voldemort is good. Nobody ever thinks, oh, poor Voldemort. He's just so misunderstood. Oh, that poor guy. Society sure has ruined him. Harry really misunderstands him. You know, really, if Harry could get beyond the fact that Voldemort is trying to kill him, I mean, Harry would see that they're basically the same. That it's just differences between their personalities. No! That would be silly. In fact, it's things like fantasy that allow us to clearly see differences between evil and good. Never, ever, ever in Harry Potter do we think that Voldemort is actually truly good and he's just misunderstood. Whereas if you take fantasy out of it, now you're left with only reality. And in reality, it is really hard sometimes to just see somebody as evil. Because we're challenged, and we should be, to have empathy and to get beyond that and to look for the other factors that might be contributing to this. To try to find common ground. But in a fantasy world, it's a morality play where we can honestly look at good versus evil. And what I love about Harry Potter is that Harry is aware of his own sin nature. Harry is aware that he has dark impulses.. And yet the entire story is about him learning that just because he has those impulses, it doesn't define him. It doesn't mean he's bad because it's his choices. It's what he chooses to do with it that defines whether or not it's good or bad. And furthermore, Harry Potter would not have been able to take on Voldemort, the embodiment of evil, had it not been for the love of his family and friends. They are what emboldened him. They are what give him courage. They are what give him the strength to even lay down his life. At the end, a willingness to sacrifice himself. Greater love hath no man than this that he lays down his life for his brother. Harry Potter does that. It's a Christ story. Not that he's trying to be Christ, but we are all trying to be like Christ to do the things that Christ would do.
[00:11:20] So, when you consider a fantasy type story where there are magical elements, my challenge to you is consider what is empowering those magical elements. Are they being fueled by the occult? Are they being fueled by demonic powers? That will help you understand at least where it falls into the category. And we won't just couch everything all together. Oh, magic, evil.
[00:11:45] Paul talks about this in Corinthians in a different kind of way. Of course he talks about if your brother thinks it's wrong to eat meat sacrificed to idols. Then don't eat meat sacrificed to idols in front of your brother. But notice what he doesn't say is, It's wrong to eat meat sacrificed to idols. He actually says it isn't wrong. You can do it. You have freedom. It's fine. But your brother has a weaker faith and what we have to do is love your brother. That is more important than your personal freedom. Okay, that's in personal living out choices. So it's more important that I love my brother than that I demand my personal freedoms. Don't get the two ideas confused here because we're talking about, as storytellers, it isn't wrong to have a fantasy element where there's magic. That's just silly. It's just silly. We need not be afraid. We need not be afraid to expose ourselves to those things. We need not be afraid.
[00:12:47] In fact, we need not be afraid to send our kids to secular colleges. We need not be afraid to engage in politics or to enter the marketplace of ideas and debate. We need not be afraid. The only time we should be afraid is if our faith is weak. I'm not afraid when people ask me questions about Christianity, even if I can't answer it. Because I am confident, I am persuaded that there is an answer even if I don't know it. I'm not afraid. Anybody who is afraid of being challenged or is afraid that they're going to be tainted simply because they're talking to a group of non christians or simply because they're engaged in this community or that community or whatever the case may be, their faith is weak. Strong faith does not need to purify the world. Strong faith can see the world as it really is and feel the very real feelings that that reality evokes. We need to have a paradigm shift. A major paradigm shift if we're going to remain relevant in culture, which we ought to be. We need to stop trying to keep ourselves clean. Now don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying, oh yeah, let's go wallow in it. Let's go get dirty. Let's go embrace and indulge our flesh and our whatever the case may be. No, of course not. But we need not be afraid to go into the temple and talk to those with different beliefs. We need not be afraid to go to a bar, to dance, whatever the case, whatever your particular brand of fear is. Or to expose yourselves to rated R movies. Or to read books with magic. We need not be afraid. And if you are, then I would challenge you to look at the quality of your faith. Because you don't need to be afraid.
[00:15:06] If this has been helpful to you and you enjoy this episode, may I challenge you to share it? Just share it. Find somebody that you think would benefit from these ideas, these discussions, and tell them to give it a listen. Maybe we're making a difference here.
[00:15:23]