The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games movie opens in theaters this Friday, March 23rd. A couple years ago, I heard that the book was a best-seller among the teenage population, so I looked into the description of the book to see if it would be a novel I would like to read or encourage my son
to read. What I read disturbed me so much…..the apocalypse has happened (many books & movies have played this theme) and a new type of nation has emerged, which has been broken up into 12 districts. Each year 2 names are drawn from each of the 12 districts~ teenagers, 1 boy and 1 girl. They are put into an arena with every moment televised. The goal: Kill or be killed. Only 1 child will remain alive out of the 24. The child that “wins” will secure plenty of food for their district for the next year. The sound of Gladiator runs through the storyline…except that children are used and exploited and defeated…

Here is the description from the Scholastic Books website: "Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives. In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to
participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death –televised for all of Panem to see. Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows
it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love."

The book/movie suggest themes for discussion centered around 1) global warming~ this is how
apocalypse happened and 2) lack of food around the world~ people starving to death in various places on the globe. But I want to address the issue that is NOT discussed by the media~ the
children who are chosen as “tribute” for the hunger games.

The first time I viewed the trailer for The Hunger Games, I was at the theater and was completely unprepared for what came on the screen. I couldn’t even make it through the 3 minute trailer without crying…the first words that popped into my head were: propagating a culture of death. So, I want to share my concerns about this pop-culture book and movie.

The culture in which we live is indifferent towards children. The enemy has a mark on the children. His objective is to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:10). From the beginning of life, children are targets of the enemy. The womb is a dangerous place to be~ the women’s “rights” movement from the 1960s to today disregard the life of the child over the “rights” of the
mother/woman. If surviving the womb, children are vulnerable. Child molestation/child pornography/child trafficking is rampant. The enemy hates our children.

I Peter 5:8 says, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Lions prey on the weak~ devouring them. Children are weak…they are defenseless…they are vulnerable to the attack of the enemy. We (the adults/mature ones) need to be self-controlled and alert (vs 8 tells us). We need to look at the media’s propaganda and agenda. We need to look behind the curtain to see the enemy’s traps and snares for our children. This movie is propagating a culture of death.

Our children will view this movie and watch life being taken from the “least of these”. The enemy will use this as a desensitizing mechanism…more and more of this type of genre will come forth and it will be adopted as okay among this next generation. It is no longer possible to have one foot in the culture of the world and not get swept away with the current. Darkness is
getting darker and evil is being called good and good evil. With an onslaught of demonic activity in movies becoming acceptable to this culture, this is the next layer of that~ a culture of death.

Who will stand up for the children? Who will defend them? Parents, it is time to stand up; to be awakened to the reality of the culture of the movie industry. Be alert and self-controlled.

*A great website to check out before going to any movie is: www.pluggedin.com. They review movies from a Biblical worldview; examining the areas of violence, language, sexual content, spiritual content, positives and negatives. It will help parents discern what movies are appropriate for their families.