No, No, No--Not Noah

The past few days my Facebook feed has been bombarded by people plunging into icy cold water, posting photos of themselves without makeup, and now complaining about how unbiblical the new Noah film is. Our society is overtly self-centered and everyone has an opinion on something (myself included--I do realize) but how are any of these things providing positive contributions to society? Ok--the polar plunge--as annoying as the videos are, at least is being used as a means to raise monetary funds to support a specific cause. But the Noah bashers--why? 

First off let me say this--I am Christian. I am well versed on the Bible. And I do follow Biblical principle.  That being said--when was the last time any of you went to see a film based on a book and the film turned out to be exactly like the book? Never. How many of you still go to those movies knowing that the movie will be different and that Hollywood is capitalizing on your enjoyment of entertainment? Further more, since when do we care more about hollywood's selfish capitalization off of entertainment, more than we do on drug companies capitalizing off of the sick? 

Ok, so we've got the Noah film, which according to most of what I've read doesn't follow along with the Biblical text, and even worse--wait for it--shows Noah and company wearing stitched clothing that of course would not have been available during the time of Noah. These so-called critiques are so  adamant on the evil nature of the film that they even cast judgment on the representation of Noah as being suicidal--of course this makes Noah most un-Godly. Like any text, the Bible is a subjective piece of art (even if we believe it to be divinely inspired) that is up for interpretation. 

With that being said, have you ever stopped to think about how Noah might have felt when God came down and told him to kill off the entire population of mankind? Furthermore, how might it have felt to be stuck on a rocky wooden boat full of smelly animals without sight or hope of land? I would rather think, that like any normal human being, and believe it or not, Noah was one--would have felt imense human fear and possible thoughts of suicide. 

Some of these Noah critiques claim that the film mythicizes the Flood story--I hate to inform, but Noah has already been mythicized. As a child growing up in a conservative church environment, we were taught all the Bible stories and saw each character as his or her own hero. All these characters were strong and overcame their weaknesses, but it was rarely emphasized upon that these characters were humans. They were not perfect. They were not always Saintly. Stories like the Flood, Samson and Delilah, Moses, and Abraham's test all fail to emphasize the full depth of the struggle the characters underwent fulfilling God's commands. As humans, I'm sure depression, thoughts of suicide, and even extreme anxiety were emotions that these individuals underwent. There ability to emotion is what makes them human, and even capable of fulfilling the Creator's tasks. 

 Why is it wrong for an artist to take a story and paint a real picture of what a real human would have felt upon God's demand to kill off all humankind? After all, haven't we mythicized Noah, Moses, and Abraham enough? Haven't we Sainted them over and over again as perfect followers, when they were no better than any of us?  We are all flawed people. Our own judgment of a human made film only serves to underscore the intensity of flaws that we all cary with us.