The Failure of Star Wars

When I was 5 years old, my Mom and Dad took me to see a movie called Star Wars. Prior to that, I think I had seen maybe 5 movies. All Disney and all animated. In the late 1970's, a time without the Internet, cable, big screen T.V.'s, iPods, even VCRs or cassette tape players (8 tracks and vinyl only,) seeing a movie like Star Wars for a 5 year old little boy was like literally traveling to a different world for two hours. It was scary, confusing and awesome at the same time.

I remember sitting in the theater with my Dad as he read the scrolling words on the screen and not being able to understand a word he was saying. Then suddenly I was blown away by the awesome sight of ships blasting their way through space in some huge orgy of laser fire, explosions, and the entrance of the dark looming figure, later known as Darth Vader. The supreme villain of my youth.

This film, like old serial movies of early cinema, were more than enough to imprint upon me at a young age the myth making elements of heroes, bad guys, spaceships, and robots. Over the years that followed I played in the school yard with my pals mimicking Han and Luke, pretended to duel with lightsabers, or swinging on ropes like Luke across the canyon in the Death Star, saving my imaginary lady in distress. And as I grew up, the stories continued, and over time a theme began to take hold that dominated my thinking for much of my adult life.

The concept of "The Force," which Lucas came up with to explain the "spiritual" element of the hero/villain dynamic of the film, borrows heavily from Eastern religious themes. The mystic power that surrounds the characters in the Star Wars universe and gives supernatural power to the Jedi in the film, finds its origins in Buddhism, Hinduism and New Age ideas of spirituality and their explanations of the tensions between good and evil. The "Dark Side" of the Force is quick and seductive and leads to anger, fear and aggression, while the "Light Side" promotes peace, social responsibility and non-violence. For those not in tune with the moral compass of the Force, they seem to float in a mish-mash of undefined morality, hopping from planet to planet, culture to culture, where depending on the people or alien races they encounter, reacting to the pragmatic demands of the moment. Only the Jedi seem capable of a high sense of moral good. In the Star Wars universe, it's often cool and fun to be the bad guy.

People spend millions of dollars a year on costumes, books, toys, collectibles and whatever else carries the Star Wars label. There are conventions, television shows, new DVD's and games, all meant to satiate the hunger for all things in that galaxy far, far away. Many take the stories and the films too far by seeking out spirituality in some misguided search for the Force while trying to draw meaning from the films that push them toward the New Age mentality of navel contemplation in search of spiritual fulfillment (I know, I was one of these people!) Through it all however, there is a lack of accountability to any defined moral law. Only a squishy ideology of doing good to get in tune with the light side of the force drives the hero characters. To George Lucas, who once said that he was trying to give people a hope of the spiritual in their lives and to offer them guidance to a higher calling (disciples of what we might call the "theology of Star Wars,") the films have succeeded in what Lucas set out to accomplish.

Yet as a spiritual alternative to true faith in God, salvation through Jesus Christ, and the truth of His redemption of believers on the Cross, the spiritual message of Star Wars is a failure. It lacks the foundational necessity of a moral law and an accountability to the author of that law. Such is true with the Eastern and New Age religious systems which so many who love Star Wars films seem to gravitate to as a result of trying to find a earthly alternative to the Force.

The Hard Truth is that any worldly story, film, book, director or writer can only present shadows of the greatest story ever told. Any religious system that relies on man to accomplish spiritual fulfillment rejects the authority and power of God's sovereign role in salvation. Such a man centered theology rejects the true story of God's plan of salvation by grace and for His glory by the death of Christ for the sins of all who would ever believe in Him.

As a artistic presentation for fun, adventure, entertainment, and a vague reflection of redemption, Star Wars succeeds.

As a foundation for faith, a message of true redemption, or a guide to the spiritual, it is a failure.
Don't let your love for this story or any other distract you from the real truth. The true and living "Force," the Lord God. And you don't have to be a Jedi, with high levels of midi-clorians (the bacteria that allow Jedi to sense the Force) in your bloodstream to reach Him.

The man George Lucas who wrote this mile wide, inch deep story is the same George Lucas that one day must stand before a righteous and Holy God and give account. Pray that the Lord saves him if He has not done so already. An eternity in carbonite is preferable to what awaits any of us if we reject Jesus Christ. Truly the end of the path to the Dark Side.