ParaNorman and the Fear of a Christian America
— Monday, September 3rd, 2012 —
It’s not every animated film that features zombies, witches, and corpses falling on top of troubled children. But, just in time for Halloween, LAIKA pictures gives us ParaNorman, about a troubled little boy who saves his small-town from zombies. As I watched this movie, I couldn’t help but wonder if this movie was less about zombie wars and more about culture wars.
The film introduces us to a marginalized and bullied middle-school boy, Norman, who sees dead people. In fact, he speaks and converses with the ghosts of the dead, but seems socially paralyzed around the living. He hears his parents arguing about him in the next room, mostly because his father is embarrassed of him. “He’s afraid,” Norman’s mother reassures him. “Not afraid of you; he’s afraid for you.”
As the movie goes on, Norman’s town is threatened by a curse that a hanged witch (the town of Blythe Hollow is obviously based on Salem, Massachusetts; kitschy tourist industry and all) pronounced on the village some three-hundred years earlier. The zombies aren’t just any old disembodied corpses, searching for brains. They are the re-animated remains of the Puritan judge and jurors who sent this “witch” to her death. In the end, we learn that the alleged sorceress was, in fact, a child who, like Norman, just seemed “different.”
On the one hand, I had to smile a bit at the casting of the zombies as Puritans. After all, Massachusetts Puritans didn’t just persecute witches but also my Baptist ancestors. On the other hand, though, I wondered whether the Puritans here weren’t a stand-in for all of us who claim a Christian witness in contemporary America.
At the very end of the film, one of the leading male characters mentions his “boyfriend.” And Norman’s embarrassed Dad and worried Mom are similar to the kinds of themes that often show up in “coming out” stories these days. And, of course, there’s the theme of “fear” of the “other,” which many of our neighbors believe motivates a Christian sexual ethic. Perhaps all that’s coincidental, but I doubt it.
That doesn’t, mind you, make me think of this movie as subversive or dangerous. Quite the opposite. I think it might be one more window on how the people we are called to love view us. The movie itself veers at times toward empathy. If there’s any group easier to be demonized by Hollywood, one would think it would be undead Religious Right activists. But the Puritan zombies in this film are seen, ultimately, as motivated not by hate but by confusion and fear. They are cursed and damned not because they’re evil but because they are wracked with guilt.
I think some empathy in the other direction is called for as well. Is it true that some past generations of Christians have used Caesar’s sword for ends Jesus expressly forbade, that is the advancement of his kingdom and the purity of his church? Yes. Is it true that some Christians have sometimes spoken to the outside world more in fear than, as Jesus did, with tears and pleadings for repentance? No doubt. Does that mean the caricatures of persecuting Puritans apply to those who maintain that human flourishing depends on certain limits to sexual and economic and other forms of rapaciousness? No.
Still, it’s good at times to eavesdrop on our neighbors’ conversations, at least those they make into movies and invite us to watch and consider. Such depictions might encourage us to think about our tone. After all, the church of Jesus Christ isn’t made up of judges and juries, at least not of those outside the church (1 Cor. 5:12). We are, though, made up of those who were once zombies. We were walking in a kind of living death, driven by our insatiable appetites (Eph. 2:1-3). We were haunted by our demons, and by our future damnation. The only thing we have to say for our guilty consciences is the lived life and shed blood of Another.
A movie like this one is easy to lampoon. It’s filled with some cliches of the righteous outsider, the marginalized hero, the crusading moralists. But perhaps underneath all of that is a muffled cry for some conversation, from one guilty conscience to another, seeking for some way to break an old, old curse.
14 Responses to “ParaNorman and the Fear of a Christian America”
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I found your article to be very interesting, Mr. Moore. I found it through your Twitter account while posting an article of my own about “Paranorman.” It sounds like I appreciate many of the same things you do about the film. It’s a film that doesn’t irresponsibly demonize anyone. That’s why I especially appreciate it as a children’s film. It doesn’t pretend that the world is a black and white place filled with easy answers. There’s a lot of gray. The enemies aren’t the monsters; the enemy of the film is ignorance of the “other.” It may, in fact, be “othering” itself. That’s why I think it’s a little dangerous to start using terms like “us” and “them” when referring to Christians and non-Christians? Liberals? Hollywood? I can assure you that Hollywood is overwhelmingly “liberal” just as my home state of Texas is overwhelmingly “conservative”. Both have their share of extremely kind, generous people and both have a large amount of stubborn ignorance unwilling to struggle with this morally gray world we find ourselves in.
Like you wisely pointed out, let’s start having more conversations with our neighbors instead of eavesdropping on the “other.”
I wouldn’t have wanted to give Hollywood a penny for something like this. Seems like everyone in the world misunderstands and misinterprets the Puritans…
@Neo,
You are probably right that most people misunderstand the Puritans. But didn’t the Puritans put people to death on the suspicion that they practiced witchcraft? That’s not just a misunderstanding.
@Neo,
Yes, but what does it say that a group that came to America in the early seventeenth century to flee religious persecution, would in time be persecutors themselves? Sometimes we are our own worst enemies.
For the record, the Salem witch trials are not an example of persecution. Witchcraft was a civil offense, and it was going on in the community. If anything, the trials are an example of mistrial by accepting hearsay as evidence to prosecute the innocent with impure motives.
Great post. This is kind of cultural criticism we ought to be engaging in–the kind that seeks to find the good, humbly recognizes areas to learn from, and then criticizes whatever ought to be criticized. So much of the time Christian responses to films like this are just outright condemnation of the “witchcraft” or the “anti-Christian” elements in it (Harry Potter.) Instead, we should be taking the time to examine what is going on in our neighbors hearts and minds that this speaks to and on the basis of that, thoughfully engage them for the Gospel.
Thanks for the post, Dr. Moore.
Sorry, unimpressed. I’ll say this movie is subversive. It’s meant to be a kids’ movie and one of the main characters talks about his “boyfriend??” This is TOTALLY inappropriate for children of the age this filmed might be geared too. My parents didn’t even explain homosexuality to me until I was in my teens. Which is as it should be. Now, we’re just supposed to accept the fact that every 7 or 8-year-old in America is already “up” on all that? Not I. I will fight the culture that’s corrupting these kids to my dying day.
Which brings me to my next point: You’re darn teuton we’re motivated by “fear.” Fear for young souls. Fear that the other side in these culture wars will get to their hearts and minds before we do and ingrain the values of the left into them. Maybe that sounds like “us” vs. “them,” but that’s just the way it is. Our “fear” is real, it has purpose, and it is a legitimate motivator for action on the part of the church.
No, I’m not some wild-eyed cook calling for violence, and no, I’m not part of some cult like Westboro Baptist. I am a Christian who cares about our children and about the future of this country, and I guess I know just a little bit too much to smile genially at films like this. You may not understand the evil of its point, and you may not understand the evil of its goal, but subtle as it is, it is there, and it is doing its job. So what if they tried to portray the Puritans with a modicum of sympathy instead of universally painting them as foaming-at-the-mouth crazies? Big whoop. Am I supposed to be pathetically grateful? I don’t care what they think of me or how they portray me in the movies. My own conscience is clear before God.
The time for “conversation” is over. You don’t pull up a chair and pour a cup of tea in the middle of a battlefield. That’s where we are right now.
I’m sorry, I was typing excitedly very early this morning and would like to re-word a couple things in my post.
I meant to say “this film is geared to.”
That is all.
;)