Discussions Some questions for SW fans that are Christians

I know that there are some, maybe even a lot, of Star Wars fans that are Christians. I am one. Christians' faith and practice can widely vary from a very liberal view to a legalistic view. By definition, those on the legalistic side wouldn't even be fans of SW. Me, I tend to be on the more conservative side, and more so as I get older, read the Bible more with the attempt to "internalize" God's word, His intent, His plan, etc. These questions are more for those that fall somewhere in the middle to just to the point before where you believe your beliefs keep you from having anything to do with SW.

I've been a SW fan since '77 (I was 7 when my dad drove us to town to see a new space movie). After that, every birthday, every Christmas, every time of getting gifts, every time I was able to get something at the store...it was SW. My younger brother went from one thing to another (Smurfs, GI Joe, Transformers, etc.), but not me. It was always SW. My collection grew pretty big and I was one to take care of my things. I still have it all. SW became a part of my identity. I played all of the games, read all of the books and comics, even made a costume and joined the Rebel Legion. I even have SW stickers on my car (to the embarrassment of my wife and kids...that's one way to get my kids to not want to drive dad's car *wink*). In my sophomore year of college I accepted Jesus as my Savior. It took a while for me to really grow in my faith though. I found that I was/am very interested in future things and studied Bible prophecy and have become pretty knowledgeable on that subject.

As I stated, I had read all of the books and comics. My favorite SW era was post-RotJ, though I did still the other eras. News of the Disney sale was exciting. Tons of new SW material was exciting. Then the "Legends" news hit...I was upset, but still tried to have a positive attitude about it. I read A New Dawn and Heir to the Jedi (Luke is one of my favorite movie characters) and wasn't impressed at all. I couldn't even get into Tarkin and haven't read Lords of the Sith mainly due to the big deal the media made of a character in the book being a homosexual. Yup. You got it. I believe what the Bible says about homosexuality being a sin, against God's design, against one's own body, abomination...but yet, still covered by the blood. The only sin that is not forgivable is unbelief in Jesus. So, that character was a turn off for me. I began to think more and more about whether or not SW fandom could coexist with my faith. But, I continued on, looking forward to more Rebels TV, the new Marvel comics, and especially the new material set post-RotJ...and Aftermath was at the top of that list.

I'm a spoiler junkie, I'll admit it. I read everything people were putting out there about Aftermath...and...well...more homosexual characters. *sigh* And in an interview, the author, Chuck Wendig says that he intends to expand on that in future books. I peaked in the "diversity" threads on the lit. boards and those that either are homosexual or support that sexual choice are ecstatic.

I'm still conflicted. I've decided to no longer read the new books. However, there is a problem. They've announced that every new book, comic, tv show, movie, etc. will all be part of the official canon story of SW going forward. So characters in a book can and will show up in the other mediums. If I just stop reading the books (where all of the new homosexual characters have been introduced thus far), they'll eventually show up in the comics, tv shows, games, etc. What are the chances that some or all of those homosexual characters (and ones that haven't even been introduced yet) will show up in the movies?

I'd like to know what the thoughts are of other Christians.

Are you willing to accept the inclusion of several homosexual characters in SW and continue your fandom?

Do you think the amount of homosexual material in SW is only going to increase? If so, what will you do, if anything?

The representation of homosexuality in the entertainment industry already disproportional to the percentage of actual homosexuals in the population (somewhere between 1% and 2%). Until now, SW was within that proportion where there were only a couple characters that were homosexual, or at least it wasn't blatantly obvious. They were fairly obscure characters vice major protagonists.

How do you feel about SW going in this direction?

 

Hate to break it to you, but homosexuality was a subject brokered in the old EU as well. Karen Traviss even introduced a married gay couple in the Legacy of the Force series that didn't seem at all obscure to Mandalorian fans such as myself. Enjoy the new EU, don't enjoy the new EU, read the new stuff, don't read it, but homosexuality is a fact of life in our society as well as in the GFFA and excluding characters with such a background, or pretending they don't exist, seems rather less than productive.

As a warning, this thread will be on a very short leash. Any post/comment even approaching a violation of our hate speech policy will earn that poster a lengthy time out.

 

Give me a PM if you woukd like Skywalker2B.

 

Bardan_Jusik, the characters that I referenced in my post were those Mandos. They were not major characters and their choice of sexual activity was not a prominent point in the book(s) they were in. In fact, many people even missed that they were homosexual until others pointed it out (myself included).

I REALLY wanted to enjoy the new EU, but, as a Bible believing Christian the new direction of promoting homosexuality as normal, etc. greatly diminishes my ability to enjoy the story. When SW novels and comics started hitting shelves in 1977 up until Karen Travis, homosexuality was NOT "a fact of life...in the GFFA" (as you put it). And, like I said, until Disney, until Lords of the Sith, it even though it existed (again, thanks to Karen Travis) it was more in proportion to the percentage of the homosexual community within the population....about 1%. So, it wasn't really an issue then. But something has changed. A new direction is being taken. To paraphrase Padme from RotS, SW is "going down a path I cannot follow".

So, how is not making it a point to highlight a SW character's choice of sexual activity "less than productive"? How is pointing out a SW character's choice to live a homosexual lifestyle productive? Are you telling me that for about 30 years SW books, comics, movies, tv shows, etc. were "less than productive"? Because, like I pointed out, they did not promote, or even mention, homosexual characters back then.

 

I'm a Christian with mostly the same POV as you, Skywalker2B, as far as I can tell. I fall more on the conservative side. That said, I'm reading all the new books. I read Lords of the Sith and really enjoyed it, and I'm reading Aftermath now. I think Paul S Kemp approached this correctly. He included an LGBT character where the LGBT aspect was just a part of who she was. It wasn't forced upon the reader, it was just stated as a fact that she had a wife and then the plot moved on. Since there is a percentage of the population that is LGBT on Earth, I imagine we should expect some in space. I don't need to agree with every action of every character, or every aspect of their personality. In fact, good characters should be relatable and thus should have flaws.

In Aftermath, which I'm halfway through now, I felt that the LGBT agenda was a bit more force-fed to the reader. That said, I take issue with the writing style of the book (too many sentence fragments) and so I'm not enjoying the book as much for all those reasons. I don't know if the LGBT characters will show up again or in other media, and it doesn't matter to me. If half of the new characters we are introduced to are LGBT, that would be a problem. But again, the proportions should reflect that of the real world. It just makes sense.

I understand the Christian arguments against this. How it's entertainment and we shouldn't have an agenda pushed upon us (leave that for Star Trek, right?). But to me it doesn't matter. There are so many sinful things that happen in Star Wars that it makes no sense to point one out. Just keep rooting for the characters, while flawed, that you agree with the most.

 

Because it is less than productive to pretend that people don't exist simply because a segment of the population is uncomfortable with them. Nor is it "promoting homosexuality" to say that homosexuals exist and include homosexual characters in a work of fiction.

In any case, after consultation with other site staff, it has been determined that your post crosses the line of our forum's hate speech policy. Goodbye.

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Likewise, this thread will now be locked as it seems nothing good can come of it.