Hollywood is offering a new movie that ostensibly demonizes Biblical sexual ethics. But one apologist says the intentions behind the new movie Leviticus are far more sinister than that.
“This film is basically a not-so-veiled attempt at a broad critique of Christianity as a whole,” author and apologist Abdu Murray told CBN News ahead of its theatrical release in the United States and Australia this weekend.
Murray referred to a recent interview with the film’s director Adrian Chiarella, who said the goal of the controversial film, distributed by Neon, was to criticize “homophobia” in “many shades.”
The film follows two teenage boys living in a small rural Australian town. The boys, raised in a devout family, are struck by a curse after experiencing an exorcism-like ritual led by an angry elderly priest in a dark sanctuary. The teens are then haunted by violent beings who mean each other and take the form of the person they desire most.
Whether implicitly or explicitly, given the film’s title, the characters in the film are likely referring to the Old Testament book of Leviticus, which contains a prohibition against homosexual acts. Leviticus 18:22 says, “You shall not lie with a man as with a woman, for it is an abomination” (ESV). Leviticus 20:13 also refers to men who choose to engage in homosexual acts, declaring that “both of them have committed an abomination” (ESV).
Murray claimed that the film depicts a seemingly puritanical form of “conversion therapy” – an attempt to elicit homosexual desires in the recipient – and that “nobody else does it”. He said the film intentionally misleads Christians in order to denigrate the Biblical view of sexuality.
In fact, the language surrounding the law and conversations around “conversion therapy” is so vague that it’s sparked a legal battle.
For example, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in March that Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy was broad and discriminatory. In the lawsuit, Kaylee Chiles, a counselor in Chiles v. Salazar, said state law unfairly prohibits her from providing voluntary, faith-based therapy to children, especially on topics such as gender dysphoria and confusion.
After the High Court ruling, she said: “When young clients come to me, they often want to discuss issues of gender and sexuality. I look forward to helping them choose the goal of becoming comfortable with their bodies. Counselors who work with these young people should not be limited to promoting state-sanctioned goals, such as gender transition, which often leads to harmful drugs and surgeries.”
Regarding the seemingly intentionally vague language regarding “conversion therapy,” Murray agreed with Chiles that harmful treatments like shock therapy are no longer in use, and that the language is being used to attack the Church and Biblical sexual ethics.
“[This language]is painted with such a broad brush that it would essentially socially punish or legally criminalize any sexual ethics in the Bible, which is a moral statement,” he said.
Regarding promoting a Biblical understanding of sexuality, Murray said, “The Bible is not interested in making us sexually normal, it is interested in making us sexually moral, because it is charged with the sin of heterosexuality just as much as with any other kind of sin.”
He went on to explain, in part, why marriage is so “sacred.”
Our diversity (as men and women) is very important in the marriage union and sexual behavior in the marriage union. Because it gives us the opportunity to reflect God. But there’s something else…this is very important. Not only are we all inherently sacred because we all reflect the image of God, and marriage is inherently sacred because it gives us the ability to integrate diversity within the bond of marriage, but it also reflects something that is yet to come.
And that is…the ultimate marriage. Yes, the world will be judged, but there will be a wedding between two diversities. An eternal, never beginning, never ending, perfectly pure God and His bride (humanity) whose beginning was adulterous in many ways, but who is now purified, redeemed, beautified, and united.
“But I think more often than not, the Bible doesn’t forbid dusty old men in dusty old days who were displeased and used God to baptize their prejudices,” Murray continued. “God is not simply forbidding something; He is protecting something. He is protecting the sacredness of every human being and the sacred gift of marriage, making possible a form of expression of unity in diversity and foreshadowing things to come.”
Murray urged Christians not to be discouraged by films that denigrate Christianity and the Bible’s view of sexuality.
He said that through the Bible, believers “have a beautiful story to tell about sexual salvation in the Bible.”
Murray did not suggest that Christians should see the film, but he acknowledged that it will be talked about and encouraged believers to use the film’s release as an opportunity to talk about the gospel and what God has to say about sexuality.
“We have a message of hope, and sometimes Hollywood just happens to give us that message of hope,” he said. “The Gospel is such a powerful story that we sometimes share it by accident.”
Watch the full conversation with Murray in the video above.
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