It’s a tale as old as time. No, I’m not talking about Disney’s live-action version of “Beauty and the Beast,” I’m talking about non-Christian companies doing something that makes Christians mad and all of losing our minds over it. That old tale is happening more and more these days, and we keep perpetuating it.
The brouhaha surrounding the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast is a CLASSIC example. And I am totally guilty of buying into it. When I first heard that director Bill Condon was touting an “exclusively gay moment” in the movie, I was irritated. NOT because of the moment per se, but because this “moment” might force me to have a conversation with my child that I wasn’t yet ready to have, IF I let her see the movie. After all, no matter what you believe about homosexuality, it’s topic that at least skirts sex, and I don’t want the timing of that conversation to be forced. I want time to explain it to my child, how we view God’s design of and purpose for sex, and how no matter who you are attracted to, you are loved and cherished by God. I want to carefully and thoughtfully tell her how we treat people we don’t agree with with love and respect and how we hope they would do the same for us.
I don’t want to have to scramble and try to “come up with something” after I’ve been blindsided by a scene I wasn’t expecting in a family movie.
That was honestly my main objection. As Sara Wallace said, I should not have been surprised that Disney was pushing an agenda and adding a scene to normalize homosexual feelings to the movie. Why should I expect Disney to put my Christian beliefs into their movie?
My husband and I are big Beauty and the Beast fans, and the story is special to us as we saw the animated version in the theater when we were young teenagers. (Yes, we are THAT old.) So, I bought tickets as soon as they went on sale, long before Condon whipped up a frenzy with his “exclusively gay moment” talk.
And I went, this past Saturday, to see it.
You guys…I loved it. I think it was very well done, not over the top, but perfectly well done. The singing, the dancing, the cinematography, the acting…all FABULOUS.