Christian symbolism - kiss of death? (was Re:Chapels in British boarding schools)

[Lee Kaiwen]

Carol:

> BTW, I agree that JKR wasn't just protecting her plot from discovery
> by suppressing explicitly religious (Christian) motifs .... She 
 > probably didn't want to be attacked for ostensibly foisting overtly
 > Christian views on her readers by depicting those views as desirable.

Hmm, interesting question. And yet two of the 20th century's most 
popular works -- Lord of the Rings and Narnia Chronicles -- are very 
Christian, the latter very explicitly so. And even though Disney tried 
to tone down the explicitly Christian symbology, it couldn't hide 
Aslan's substitutionary sacrifice or resurrection. The movie played 
quite well nonetheless. Rhe Left Behind series has been selling well 
beyond its intended fundamentalist audience despite it explicitly 
fundamentalist themes, and didn't Mel Gibson recently make a boatload of 
money with Passion of the Christ?

I'm not convinced explicitly Christian themes are necessarily a death 
warrant even now.

--CJ