the fundie problem with fantasy

There's something that I keep noticing about fundamentalist Christians. This started with an article in the newspaper that I read about certain people objecting to Halloween, thinking it's somehow demonic. There was a rather insightful comment in the story from someone who said that kids know that the monsters they're dressing up as aren't real. It's harmless fantasy to them. But some adults have problems understanding that.

I was reminded of this problem when I was reading the website ChildCare Action Project, a website run by people who are pretty much open, raving fundamentalist lunatics. For an example of this lunacy, check out this fragment of their review of Pinochio:

The youth of the Pinocchio era are the leaders of our country, policies. legal systems and society today. And what, may I ask, happened to prayer in school? To the Ten Commandments in public places? To Christianity in general? Hasn't Satanism become an official "religion" today? And Paganism? And how might you suspect the separation of church and state, which is NOT in the Constitution but was rather a letter from an early president to a pastor promising no national religion, became a law of the land? Maybe this multi-level inference is not as far-fetched as you might think.

A review of a Disney movie diverted into a rant about Satanism. I just have to say one more thing on it, the suggestion that maybe Paganism had become an official "religion", and of course what a bad thing that would be. I REALLY wish I could smack the person that wrote this upside the head. Paganism predates Christianity by a LONG time. Elements of Christianity were designed specifically to make it compatible with paganism, so that it would be easier for people to convert. It's not mere coincidence that most Christian holidays are thinly veiled copies of earlier Pagan holidays. It's marketing.

But anyay, the review site. It's good reading if you're looking for a laugh. Although I was outraged beyond belief at what they had to say about The Iron Giant.

But I'd like to mention something from the review of Pinocchio. In the review they go off on a tangent about the Blue Fairy. It was a classic Disney character, they've had fairies and magical godmothers and what have you throughout their major motion picture history. But the reviewer had a problem with them.

There is no such thing as a "good witch." If the magic does not come from God it comes from Satan.

My point is that he had no concept of fantasy. He had to decide what "real" thing was being portrayed in a Disney cartoon. I say real in quotes of course because to this person angels and demons were real. But that's just the point. He believes in the literal existence of creatures like angels and demons and witches with magical powers, yet he can't understand a FICTIONAL fairy godmother.

There's something very wrong with the thinking processes of people like that. It's too easy to say that they've gotten used to accepting the existence of absurd things and as such they're not able to understand the difference between fantasy and reality, but I think that's a little too simplified.
I think it's more a matter of a persecution complex. Like how the first portion of the Pinocchio review I quoted tried to lay the blame for the end of prayer in school on the movie, and went on about Satanism in America. Through this person's eyes the movie is either propaganda FOR Jesus or against him. Perhaps this makes sense for a person raised to believe his purpose in life is to fight to make the world over in what he thinks is God's image. Everything is a battle, if the movie isn't teaching good Christian values than it must be an enemy to be attacked.

Here, another quote from the Pinocchio review:

My "job" is to sound the horn about the coming enemy. And if what is coming is not of God, it is of the enemy.

But I still think there's a problem with the inability to comprehend fantasy and fiction. When I saw the reviewer begin to analyze what the fairy characters were, that since they weren't from God they must have been from Satan, I was actually a little disturbed. I can't imagine not being able to have a concept of "doesn't really exist" to file the appropriate things in my mind. It's like, whereas I get upset with movies when they're not realistic, this guy thinks it's all real. When I watch an overblown special effects laden martial arts scene, and see someone flying around on wires, I'm just disgusted with the whole thing (except for Kung Fu Hustle, for some reason I can accept the effects in that movie). But this guy doesn't see that. He figures that it must be evil magic that's at work.

I see a throwback to the dark ages in this mindset. I can imagine this person fitting right in in an era where someone who used medicinal herbs could be burned to death for being a witch. Since he wouldn't have understood how the herbs worked (frankly I doubt he'd understand it now, scientific literacy is not a common character trait for people like this) he would have filed it away as magic, witchcraft, and since there's no such thing as good witchcraft it must be evil and the person dispensing should have been killed.

I'm both dismayed and frightened that this kind of thinking can still survive in this day and age.