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Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105
(262) 763-3021
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Pastor Scott Carson
Grace Church of Burlington
July 17, 2005
“Without a Biblical worldview, all the great teaching goes in one ear and out the other. There are no intellectual pegs...in the mind of the individual to hang these truths on. So they just pass through. They don’t stick. They don’t make a difference.” George Barna
Do you have a Christian worldview? Worldview matters. It’s inescapable and inevitable. A worldview is simply a comprehensive understanding of reality. Our worldview determines how we order our lives, govern our decisions and shape our actions. It’s not surprising then that worldview shows up in our daily lives...sometimes, subtly, other times, very overtly.
The importance of worldview is illustrated in the latest “Star Wars” movie, Revenge of the Sith. While the typical person thought that this was just an entertaining sci-fi movie, it had a very powerful worldview...and it was an anti-biblical one. The final episode in the “Star Wars” film saga, Revenge of the Sith, opened in theaters in mid-May to record-breaking audiences. Creator George Lucas’ six-part story clearly has advanced a non-Christian worldview throughout each film. And this is no less true in Revenge.
In the climatic scene in a hell-like molten lava pit, Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi battles his now former apprentice Anakin Skywalker who has succumbed to the “Dark Side” of “The Force,” casting his allegiance with the evil Sith Lord Darth Sidious. Before they begin their light-saber duel, Anakin – newly renamed Darth Vader by his new master – declares to Obi-Wan, “If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy.” Obi-Wan replies, “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” There it is: worldview. In this case, it’s pluralism – the belief that there is more than one understanding of ultimate reality. Characteristic of the confused religion of Lucas and the hodge-podge of New Age and Eastern philosophies that “Star Wars” is wrapped around, in the mouth of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi is the assertion that absolutes – definitive truth – can be associated only with the Sith, the bad guys. Never mind that the very claim itself is an absolute!
Now some see in this and other statements in “Revenge” criticisms of George W. Bush and his war on terror. Whether or not that is accurate, there’s no doubt the “Star Wars” franchise has been used to propagate a worldview that is contrary to the one found in the Bible. “The Force” is an impersonal, god-like reality which has good and bad attributes that are subject to manipulation by human agents. In direct contrast, Scripture tells us God is personal, good, just, omnipotent and omniscient.
Revenge opens with the now-familiar scrolling text explaining the current state of affairs: “War! The Republic is crumbling under attacks by the ruthless Sith Lord Count Dooku. There are heroes on both sides. Evil is everywhere.”
The bad guys (the Sith) are not entirely bad, and the good guys (the Jedi) are not always good. All this fits with the notion that absolute truth cannot be ascertained and only those who partake in the “Dark Side” of “The Force” entertain such ideas.
Interestingly, Obi-Wan’s anti-absolutes statement is strikingly similar to assertions made recently by conservative political commentator George Will. In a May 23rd column for Newsweek, “The Oddness of Everything,” Will recounted a recent commencement address he gave at the University of Miami. Noting the incredible complexity of the universe, including our own earth and the makeup of human beings, George Will concludes that such reality is the result of “accidents, contingencies and luck” which should cause the graduates to “understand the vast and mysterious indeterminacy of things” in their participation of the human story. What’s his worldview? Naturalism. It’s evident in his assertion, “really: we are all residues of the Big Bang.” Perhaps with militant Islam in mind, George Will claims the “greatest threat to civility – and ultimately to civilization – is an excess of certitude.” Obi-Wan Kenobi couldn’t have said it any better! And George Will adds, “It has been well said that the spirit of liberty is the spirit of not being too sure that you are right. One way to immunize ourselves against misplaced certitude is to contemplate, even to savor – the unfathomable strangeness of everything, including ourselves.”
While Christian humility dictates that believers not think too highly of ourselves or be dogmatic on peripheral matters, George Will’s rejection of certitude goes too far. In and of ourselves, we cannot be certain of anything. But because the Creator of all things has spoken to all of humanity for all time in His living Word (Jesus Christ), and His written Word (the Bible), the absolute truth about the ultimate matters of life is there and can be discovered.
Worldview matters. As believers, let’s be prepared to give an answer when the unnatural worldviews of our day are promoted by Hollywood, the news media, the courts and even our neighbors.