Live from the Swanson Basement-Hunger Games

[dawbs]

How stupid can one be to hold up KING DAVID as the be-all and end all of moral-behavior by a biblical hero.

That's all I've got at the moment :-P

[dairyfreelife]

I'm just going to put a spoiler warning at the beginning of the post. Don't read it if you don't want spoilers.

She doesn't dump the bees on Glimmer in the end. It's actually more of the middle. (And if I remember correctly, she kills the D4 girl in this way as well, but in the movie they kill her off during the bloodbath.) In the end she shoots Cato - a mercy killing. She also kills Marvel after he kills Rue. This does not make her evil. It's like during a war; killing in self-defense is not evil, which is a biblical fact. David may not have killed Saul, but what about Goliath? Also on the evil list for killing are Moses (Exodus 2), Samson (Judges 15), Elijah (1 Kings 18), and Micah (Judges 18), among countless others.

If by "curses at God" she means that Katniss uses the phrase "Oh my God!", then in the movie, yes, she does. In the books, I don't recall ever seeing that phrase, or any cursing, now that I think of it.

Even if by "feministic" they mean she takes care of herself instead of letting a man take care of her, you can't really call Katniss a feminist. Her dad takes care of her as long as he is alive to do so, and she lets him. When he leaves, yes, she goes out and hunts, which is "manly", but she takes care of a her sister. Isn't childcare a proper role for a sister? And then in the Games she takes care of Rue, also childcare. She takes care of Peeta, a male, when he is sick, nursing him back to health, and then continues to cook for him. She does "disobey" him when she goes to the feast to save his life, so I suppose they term that feminism?

Self-centered? Wow. I don't even know where to begin here. She does what she has to to stay alive, yes, but she isn't even doing it for herself. She has to get home for Prim and her mother. She doesn't want Prim to have to try to go on without her. Katniss is a far cry from self-centered.

As noted above, it's "May the odds be ever in your favor", unless I somehow missed "May the gods be with you".

What? Man has no will to survive? What was Gale then? Peeta doesn't have faith that he'll survive, but he's one man. The other men we're exposed to have will to survive. Even Haymitch drinks to keep himself surviving; if he had no will to survive he'd kill himself.

And I'm guessing the "good guy" they're referring to is Cinna. In the movie, yes, he has six piercings, but where is the body mutilation or tattoos? In the book, he's described by Katniss as very normal-looking, with only some gold eyeliner in terms of looks she isn't used to. No mutilation, no tattoos, no piercings. If they wanted something to complain about, there is makeup, but that's it, and no comment was made about that? Also, I guess I missed the scene where he was like "Yo, Katniss, I'd like you to meet my boyfriend!", because surely they aren't just going with the assumption that all fashion designers are homosexual? Cinna's sexuality was NEVER mentioned. Ever. Also, while he is a good guy, the good guy they want to portray is Peeta, who is certainly the "manly, chivalrous guy".

My sister is seventeen, and our parents still make the decision about which movies she's allowed to see. She has no problem with this 98% of the time. I had a problem with pretty much all the time, so I just watched what I wanted and didn't tell them, and they tried to make this decision for me until I moved out in August, and still believe I follow their guidelines, and I'll be twenty tomorrow. (If anyone cares, most of their decisions are based on pluggedinonline.com, which is run by Focus on the Family. This site was actually pretty positive about The Hunger Games, however, and they got the point.)

I was just giving a run down of what they said. I've neither read the books or seen the movie. I plan to do so on my summer break (read the book).

In the last quote, it was more that her dad had to come with her and had to be there to help her see the movie in a Biblical worldview, not that she didn't make the decision on what to see. It seemed odd that on older teen would need her father to help her make moral decisions. They mentioned in the sermon that they talked and commented throughout the movie. My sister does that too, asking "what are they doing" "What's happening?", but Emily said her father was trying to keep her from "getting pulled in to the movie". Sounds to me like Mr. Swanson refused to let his daughter enjoy the film at all. He even mentioned taking seven pages or so of notes.

The "May the gods thing" was a bit confusing, but he said a few times in a small section and he may have said something close to "odds in your favour" or something, but he made it sound like they were using "May the gods be with you or in your favour." I couldn't go back to hear it again without having to reply the whole thing. Once was more than enough. :?

K and E said the bees were at the end so that's what I wrote. I think they just wanted to show she was not some "good girl" or something. I know, right? They use Exodus to quote when you should and shouldn't kill and I had to keep myself from laughing at that. Totally picking and choosing based on your agenda there.

Kevin complained that there was not anything about God in the film and claimed that Katniss is a pagan and that she curses at God and that shows her religion. I'm just going by his claims. Doesn't make it fact. I've enjoyed reading all the refuting here of his claims. Even though I've not read the book or seen the film, I knew he was clearly missing a huge elephant in the room with the film. I mean, come on, preparing for war and killing Christians through this film? That's what he got out of this and nothing else.

As for Chinna, quoting Mr. Swanson's words. From your descriptive, it's probably the gold that made him think the guy was "feminine" and therefore "homosexual." He was using the good guy as a reference to our culture in that as well.

Swanson's a tad bit off his rocker in his thoughts. He's misplaced the logical part of his brain.

And debrand, I agree. I thought the statement that God would save them if they refused to kill someone else to save themselves as not only very strange, but sick, rude and inappropriate. It's so easy to say what you would and wouldn't do in a drastic moral dilemma, but they don't have a clue.

Idiot Swanson actually tried to say that the Jews didn't have to kill anyone and he wouldn't have done so. I left that out because I was too shocked to think about quoting. I actually felt sick that he would even consider saying the Jewish people murdered and should not have and then suggesting that God would save him or his daughter with a meteorite? It totally came across as "I'm morally superior" and those Jewish people weren't right enough with God. I think that he thinks he's somehow in better favour with God and morally superior, which is beyond sick. For someone so "pro-life", he does not have any real respect for it. Swanson did the whole Godwin's law bit here. He compared the "good guy"'s statement to abortion and women's rights and then compared that to the Holocaust. The next I hear comparing abortion of non-viable zygotes/fetuses to the horrific starvation, gasing, buring alive, etc of the Holocaust, I want to punch them in the face and I'm a non-violent person. :evil:

I found Swanson to be morally repugnant by the end of this sermon and his daughter, Emily has totally drunk the Kool-Aid. I really hope she snaps out of it in a couple years.

[hyperactress23]

I was just giving a run down of what they said. I've neither read the books or seen the movie. I plan to do so on my summer break (read the book).

I know. I was refuting what they said; I didn't think that you were agreeing with it.

[fundifugee]

Kevin and Emily mix: Katniss appears as a good person in the beginning by sacrificing herself for her sister.

Kevin: That’s right. She steps into the place of her sister.

Emily: Her [sic] immediately draws the audience. Oh, she does this good deed and she can do no wrong.

They go into Katniss killing a girl, in the end, by dumping killer bees on her. Apparently this makes her evil. They go into a story about David and Saul and that David could have killed Saul in the same way while Saul slept. Basically, the heroine isn’t a heroine to them. She does things wrong.

Then he goes off into the crazy bin. Persecution ALERT! He goes into a tirade of how this is warming children up as Nazis to kill the Jews and

K: “Americans to killing the Christians, whatever it needs to be to prepare for what will happen in 20-30 years. This story is a great way to prepare children, even Christian children and homeschooled children for the kind of murder we may see in the future.â€

Well, it takes a bit of intelligence, but most of the books' audience is able to understand that just because you do one good thing does not make you a good person, people are never either good or evil, everyone is a mix, and there is a lot of grey area in life.

Unfortunately, this fact tends to escape religious extremists, despite the fact that their holy books are full of such examples. (King David, good or evil? )

[dairyfreelife]

I know. I was refuting what they said; I didn't think that you were agreeing with it.

I know, I just wanted to state that I had not read or seen The Hunger Games, so I could not comment on anything about it myself.

I saw it today and he definitely missed the mark.