May/Jun 2002

The Gospel...According to Star Wars

By Bob Liparulo

Is George Lucas' made-up universe a faith-stimulating metaphor or just a New Age Jedi mind trick?

George Lucas says he fantasizes that when he dies God will look down at him and say: "You've had your chance, and you blew it. Get out." Star Wars fans may snicker at the thought.

After all, the man has not only thrilled a generation with wholesome movies, but he also hued his made-up universe with the Force--a faith-stimulating God metaphor, right?

Well, let's put it this way: The gatekeepers who shot their arrows of spiritual concern at the Harry Potter movie should have long ago rolled out the howitzers on Star Wars. Don't chivalry, camaraderie and selflessness lose their oomph in a context of anti-Christian ideas? But for the most part, Christians have failed to raise a battle cry over the spiritual perils of the Force--typically, for one of two reasons.

Collective Silence

Some simply checked their brains at the theater door in the bin marked, "It's only a movie." They should consider this line from a 1999 Maclean's article: "The all-pervasive halo of media culture illuminates North American lives with a candlepower no moral authority, church or state, can hope to compete with."

In other words, movies affect us, our behavior, our beliefs. If they don't, why have a ratings system or care about what our children are watching and listening to? "Every idea," said Justice Holmes, "is an incitement."

The other reason for our collective silence is we just didn't spot the perils. And no wonder: They're hidden among values we do want to teach our kids and reinforce in ourselves.

"The backbone of the Star Wars plot is solidly Christian...redemption, overcoming temptation, self-sacrifice," Charles Colson says. "Real art captures our hearts because it taps into deep moral truths."

We sense a deeper spiritual leaning in these films, which is no accident.

"[The Force] is designed primarily to make young people think about the mystery," Lucas told Bill Moyers in a Time magazine interview. "Is there a God? What does God look like? What does God sound like? What does God feel like? How do we relate to God?"

God and 'the Force'

OK, so as religion columnist Terry Mattingly asks, "Is the Force the same thing as God?" Christian Star Wars fans have convinced themselves that it is, which renders the concept of the Force palatable.

"The Force is an analogy for God," they say, "the way Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia represents Jesus." Trouble is, the Force, as Obi-Wan Kenobi explains it, is "what gives the Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together." That's Eastern mysticism and pantheism, not the God of the Bible.

But Lucas' god-making doesn't stop there. When Yoda tells Luke Skywalker, "Seek the power within you...use the Force," he's describing New Age beliefs. And by making the Force "a balance between good and evil," Lucas incorporates Buddhism's dualism, which denies the existence of an omnipotent God; instead, there is a "good power" that is in constant struggle with an equally potent "evil power."

Even this muddled theology was intentional. "I see Star Wars as taking all the issues that religion represents and trying to distill them down into a more modern and easily accessible construct--that there is a greater mystery out there," Lucas said.

"I remember when I was 10 years old, I asked my mother, 'If there's only one God, why are there so many religions?' I've been pondering that question ever since, and the conclusion I've come to is that all the religions are true."

"The trouble with saying that all religions are equally true is that it makes all religions equally irrelevant," says Philip G. Ryken, author and pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. "If they are all the same, then why does it matter what anyone believes?"

The claim that no religion is better than another, called moral relativism, flies in the face of Jesus' words: "'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me'" (John 14:6, NIV).

Muddled Theology

Upon the first movie's opening in 1977, Lucas discovered that his muddled theology was good for business. "When the film came out," he said, "almost every single religion took Star Wars and used it as an example of their religion."

In such a theological stew, of course Christians would see Christian symbolism. In the first trilogy, Luke Skywalker is David or Christ; Darth Vader is the fallen angel; in The Phantom Menace, "midi-chlorians," a form of life living in the blood and acting as a conduit to the Force itself, play the part of the Holy Spirit; Darth Maul's hideous face conjures Renaissance-era demons; in the climax of the latest episode (Episode II), Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker and Queen Amidala take a journey of redemption through a Dantesque hell (the fiery planet Geonosis)*the only thing missing is a voice-over of the Apostles' Creed.

New Age Worldview

Do these symbols signify a biblical worldview? Not any more than wearing a cross makes a person Christian.

In The Phantom Menace, Lucas introduced his most disturbing Christian pilferage. Anakin's mother says about him: "There was no father...I can't explain what happened," implying Immaculate Conception. Later, the Jedi Qui-Gon calls Anakin "the chosen one."

"Such elements undermine belief in the existence of the personal God of the Bible," says Tom Snyder, whose Ph.D. dissertation at Northwestern University was on the religious and psychological meanings of the movies of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and who now edits Ted Baehr's MovieGuide.

Anakin's virgin birth is especially troubling when coupled with what we know of his future, that he becomes the evil Darth Vader, far from the Christ figure this twist implies. Is Lucas blatantly snubbing believers or just imbuing his stories with his own misguided notions?

"New Agers believe that divinely born world teachers periodically appear to illustrate the divine Force living within and around us," offers Thomas Horn, owner of Raiders News Update (raidersnewsupdate.com). "The Phantom Menace gives impressionable young minds a subtle introduction to New Age mysticism."

Ryken thinks there's nothing subtle about it. "Star Wars theology is essentially New Age theology. There is no God, only a mysterious cosmic 'Force.'"

A Real-Life Obi-Wan?

According to his biographer, Dale Pollock, Lucas based much of his concept of the Force on the works of author and self-proclaimed sorcerer Carlos Castaneda (who also inspired Anton Szandor LaVey to write The Satanic Bible). Many Star Wars aficionados believe that Obi-Wan was modeled on Castaneda.

In an address to the National Arts Club in 1985, Lucas noted that he was entirely without direction until he stumbled upon mythologist Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Later, he invited Campbell to Skywalker Ranch, Lucas' moviemaking complex in Northern California, for a private screening of the first trilogy. He was hoping to please his mentor and was not disappointed; Campbell proclaimed the movies "good, sound teaching."

The scary part is realizing the worldview which informs Campbell's opinions (and upon which Lucas built the Star Wars universe). In his books, Campbell calls Christianity a "cult" and Jesus a "myth." "That old man up there [God] has been blown away," he said. "You've got to find the Force inside you."

These are the philosophical roots of the most pervasive and enduring cultural phenomenon of the past quarter-century? The one we happily watch with our kids, who eat it up like popcorn?

According to Jason Ruspini, webmaster of the unofficial Star Wars home page (one of thousands of Star Wars Web sites): "It was natural that my generation would latch on to these stories. They were much more attractive and appropriate than the ancient myths of Judeo-Christian theology. How could these draconian and antiquated stories possibly compete with the majesty and scope of the Star Wars universe?"

Forget the Force, Use Your Brain!

The Phantom Menace's Qui-Gon tells young Anakin, "Feel, don't think"--that mantra of false religions, lest their followers wise up. Christianity, on the other hand, is a thinking man's religion.

Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind'" (Matt. 22:37). The Bible calls the Bereans noble for studying Scripture "to see if what Paul said was true" (Acts 17:11). We are called to be equally noble.

To be sure, some Christian organizations have risen to the challenge. ChildCare Action Project: Christian Analysis of American Culture (capalert.com), for example, rightfully give the Star Wars movies high marks for avoiding sex, foul language and hateful attitudes, while objecting strongly to their handling of spiritual issues. Most, however, only briefly mention the films' "questionable" theology (if at all), without emphasizing the seriousness of the transgressions.

Why Harry Potter alarmists haven't seized on the problems with the Force must be one of those Jedi mind tricks. At minimum, the Star Wars movies deserve the same informed scrutiny.

Says Colson: "Filmmakers whose cultural roots are within the Christian heritage sometimes mix Christian truth with whatever religious views are currently the rage, and we have to help our kids recognize the difference. Teach them how to discern both the good and the bad aspects of the film."

Bob Liparulo is a free-lance writer and reviewer. Before researching this article, he was a huge fan of the Star Wars series.