The setting for this trendy teenage tale is an
oppressive nation called Panem that occupies what once was America.
From its well-protected Capitol, it controls its 12 regional Districts using sophisticated surveillance
and communication technology.
The main character, sixteen-year-old Katniss, lives with her mother and
twelve-year-old sister, Prim, in District 12, the poorest in the land. Since her father died in
a coal-mine disaster, Katniss has been the family's sole provider. Day
after
day, she
and her friend Gale hunt rabbits and gather herbs and berries on
forbidden government land.
As
George Orwell
and our globalist leaders
knew well, common enemies and celebrations inspire solidarity. The rulers of Panem
seem to agree. Their catalyst
for oneness is the annual "Hunger Games,"
which bear an ominous resemblance to the deadly but popular battles in the ancient Roman Coliseum.
Each of the 12 Districts must offer a yearly
contribution to the Capitol in
the form of two chosen "Tributes": a boy and a girl (ages
twelve through eighteen).
According to standard government rules, those twenty-four Tributes will kill each other
until only one is left. And while the teenagers fight for their lives, the eyes of every household across
the land are glued to the televised
battlegrounds. That's the law.
Somehow the Capitol is able to film every
dramatic scene. The agonizing fear of the hunted, the cruel plots of the
strong, the miserable hiding places, the horrible injuries, the freezing
night-time temperature, the manufactured rain... everything is visible to
the families across the land. Their tears or cheers would depend on the fate of their own two
Tributes -- and on the success of the pre-game promotion of popular contenders.
The Tributes are chosen through a lottery.
In District 12, the lot falls on sweet little Prim, who screams out in
terror.
So big sister Katniss rushes forward to take
her place.
Perhaps the author was inspired by the old Greek myth about Theseus,
son of the sea god Poseidon. You may remember the story. A
monstrous Minotaur inhabits a labyrinth under the magnificent palace of King Minos. Half man and half bull, it
feeds only on human flesh.
Periodically, seven maidens and seven young men were
sacrificed to the menacing beast.
In this myth, the mighty Theseus arrives just in time for
the human sacrifice. He offers to take the
place of one of the young victims. Not wanting Theseus to die, the
daughter of King Minos gives him a magic ball of thread that would guide him
through the maze of the labyrinth. He finds the beast surrounded by
skulls and bones and kills it.
Let's compare that myth with the courage of
the lowly but faithful David, the shepherd boy who became king. When the giant Goliath threatened the
nation and challenged Saul's soldiers to fight him, they
trembled in their boots. Neither myth nor God's Truth could arouse them to
try. So the young boy volunteered -- and won! Why?
Not because he was
strong and clever, but because -- in his weakness -- he trusted His sovereign Lord. He knew that
"with God all things are possible.” (Mark 10:27)
Commanded to Kill
The Tributes are brought to the Capitol for a
week of training, grooming
and publicity. After all, the success of the games demands heroes and
heroines. Building the needed familiarity involves pre-battle promotion for each team. In glittering
outfits and bathed in artificial flames, Katniss and her partner -- presented as lovers --
win praise from across the nation.
Their next stop (the final one for most) is this
year's chosen wilderness. Unlike the more compassionate Peeta, Katniss is
focused on personal survival. She trusts no one! After all, no one is safe until
all others are killed. That rule would change before the games are over, but not yet.
Not until nearly all are dead.
After hiding in the forest, desperately searching
for water,
escaping deadly bugs, surviving horrible injuries, and killing human foes, Katniss is back at the starting point with two other
survivors: Peeta and their
shrewd arch-foe Cato. Injured and desperate, all three face a new, unexpected threat:
twenty-one murderous wolf-like "mutant" beasts -- part animal and
part human. As Katniss observes,
"Cato lies on his side at the very top of
the horn, twenty feet above the ground, gasping to catch his breath....
Now's my chance to finish him off. I stop midway up the horn and load
another arrow, but just as I'm about to let it fly, I hear Peeta cry
out. ...the mutts are right on his heels. 'Climb!' I yell....
"The mutts are beginning to assemble. As
they join together, they raise up again to stand easily on their back
legs giving them an eerily human quality. Each has a thick coat, some
with fur that... vary from jet black to what I can only describe as
blond. There’s something else about them, something that makes the hair
rise up on the back of my neck...
"Then one of them...with silky waves of
blond fur takes a running start and leaps onto the horn. Its back legs
must be incredibly powerful because it lands a mere ten feet below us,
its pink lips pulled back in a snarl. For a moment it hangs there, and
in that moment I realize what else unsettled me about the mutts. The
green eyes glowering at me are unlike any dog or wolf, any canine I’ve
ever seen. They are unmistakably human. ... The blonde hair, the green
eyes, the number ... it’s Glimmer [one of
the dead Tributes]. I fire into its throat. Its body
twitches and flops onto the ground... [His second death?]
"...I examine the pack, taking in the
various sizes and colors. The small one with the red coat and amber eyes... Foxface! And there, the ashen hair and hazel eyes of the boy from
District 9 who died as we struggled for the backpack! And worst of all,
the smallest mutt, with dark glossy fur, huge brown eyes.... Teeth bared in hatred. Rue!
[She was a sweet, twelve-year-old girl before
she was killed]...
"Have they been programmed to hate our
faces particularly because we have survived and they were so callously
murdered? And the ones we actually killed... do they believe they’re
avenging their own deaths?"
No answers were given. But the realms of
myth, imagination and occultism have their own ways of making mysterious
manifestations and mystical reincarnations seem plausible for
the moment. (That moment is usually long enough to plant disturbing
suggestions in the minds of the readers.)
Many of today's most shocking images reflect the
occult myths and practices behind shamanism, Hinduism, sorcery, witchcraft
and Native American traditions. Others mystical changes are crafted through
sophisticated technology. Made to stir excitement and feed emotions, they all clash with
Christianity. Consider these warnings:
"There shall not be found among you
anyone who... practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who
interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who
calls up the dead. For all who do
these things are an abomination to the Lord..."
Deuteronomy 18:10-12
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather expose them." Ephesians 5:11
We shouldn't be surprised by such stark
contradictions to America's founding beliefs and values. After all, The
Hunger Games fits into a dark world that supposedly replaced our own
increasingly corrupt land. With today's delight in digital deceptions and mind-changing
stimuli, our former free and moral nation may well fade away, swallowed up
by a dictatorship that could encompass the world.
The Better Way
You read the comments near the top. Why were
the readers so enthralled? What kinds of values did they find so
captivating? Why do they "feel good" about a futuristic culture that
turns mass murder into entertaining games? Let me guess:
- The captivating killing fields?
- The strong, self-confident heroine?
- The sensual, shimmering, fiery costumes in the opening ceremony?
- The mandatory romance that titillated
Panem's nation-wide audience?
- The reincarnated Tributes whose dead
bodies revive and return as snarling wolf-like predators?
All these themes and fantasies fit our
times. They stir curiosities that can't easily be quenched. They spread corrupt
values that guide future behavior and preferences. They dull our children's
desire for God's truth and ways.
Through schools and entertainment, their
minds have already been attuned to a culture of
myth, violence, sensual thrills and feminist superiority. Biblical truth
is incompatible with mind-changing messages that bombard them
from the Internet, computer games, peers and books.
Following the crowd becomes natural; following God is not.
Yet, for our children today, the only safe place
is with God -- hidden in Him, walking with Him, and
wearing His armor. We need to pray for
them -- asking God to shelter them in His love and fill them with His
Spirit, so that they too can know Him and love His Word.
"O our God... we have no power
against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know
what to do, but our eyes are upon You."
2 Chronicles 20:12
"Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might.
Put on the
whole armor of God, that you may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
"For we do not
wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take
up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand."
Ephesians
6:10-13
"Yet in all these things
we are
more than conquerors through Him who loved us. "
Romans 8:37
See also
Twilight
Obsession | The Armor of God
C. S. Lewis:
How mysticism & the occult are changing the Church
Deceived by a counterfeit
"Jesus" - The
Shack & A Course in Miracles
Home |
© Berit Kjos, 2012
( but feel free to copy it)
Comments:
From
Mona McNee in
England:
The
television set is now used as a baby-sitter. There are hours and
hours of BBC and CBBC for children, nearly all animation, not
real life. We were far better off playing in the street with
other children, or inside with parents! The time left by BBC is
taken over by the state, younger and younger children are kept
in "nursery" on school premises. I look at tower blocks and
"development estates" and feel human beings are being treated
somewhat like battery hens!
From Joan:
Just skimmed the review, but it
reminds me that the last two times we have been in Barnes
and Noble and trying to find good books almost in vain. We
were amazed and sickened to see the shelf after shelf and a
center aisle table as well, of teen fiction. ALL of it was
sick and violent. The covers alone were enough to raise goosebumps at the same time the stomach turned.
What on earth are parents
thinking to let their kids wallow in this stuff?
