Welcome
to Tuesday!!! It's time to enter into a world of staff and
Scripture. It is a world that is filled with tantalizing nuggets of
wisdom and mesmerizing tomes of tempo. And on occasion a tale as old as
time... Welcome to Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!
"Beauty and the Beast" by Angela Landsbury from the 1991 Disney Animated Classic
"Beauty and the Beast" - Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson end credits song from the 1991 soundtrack
It
isn't really that unusual for a song from an animated film to become
part of the culture. With the advent of the internet and youtube.com,
this phenomenon has occasionally reached a fevered pitch. Seriously,
how many versions from how many people did you see for the now iconic
song from Frozen, "Let It Go" (Tuesday's Musical Notes will be
doing this song sometime...). This doesn't count the myriad of children
who broke into song at the most inopportune moment...but I digress.
Here are some of Disney's top-performing songs, most of which are animated favorites.
Top 10 Highest Charting Songs from Disney Movies - streamingdisney.com
Top 10 Highest Charting Songs from Disney Movies - streamingdisney.com
Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts) was originally hesitant to record the title song for the movie Beauty and the Beast.
Her concerns centered around her aging voice and ability to sustain longer notes. She was assured by the writers, Asman and Menken, that
her character was the only one who could sing the song. Lansbury agreed
to record "Beauty and the Beast" and was able to do it in one take.
The song would go on to win a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and
the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
The Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson single version not only went to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it garnered several awards as well. It won the Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It also helped introduce the world to Dion as it was on her eponymous 1992 album, exploding an already growing career in the recording industry.
And now we step into the controversy...
Beauty and the Beast 2017 - trailer
Beauty and the Beast 2017 - trailer
Perhaps
you have heard that Disney has remade the animated classic into a live-action (well as live-action as you can for talking candelabra and
clock, etc.) film. Perhaps you have also heard that there is a
controversy swirling around what promises to be another Disney triumph
at the box office. If you haven't heard, the character of Le Fou in the
live-action film has apparently had his attraction for Gaston made
more pronounced. This has caused such a stir that Russia is considering
banning the film because of the character who in some reports is obviously a
homosexual. Facebook erupted with "conversations" regarding LeFou.
Some well-intentioned folks have considered starting a boycott against
the movie and Disney (again).
What's a Christian family to do?
The Bible has much to say regarding "sin". A biblegateway.com
query produces over 1300 references in the New International Version of
the Bible concerning the word "sin". The result of the very first
"sin", the disobedience to God's commands, was ex-communication from a
perfect garden. The result of the very last "sin" will mean separation
from the perfection of heaven and more importantly separation forever
from God. So you can see, this very small word has some pretty big
implications.
With regards to our conversation regarding Beauty and the Beast please consider the following:
1)
A much larger word, "detestable", has been bounced around in
association with the sin of homosexuality. Another biblegateway.com
query on this word produces much fewer results, but some that are
incredibly significant for today's Notes. Perhaps you have heard that
Jesus described "homosexuality" as detestable. If it's in the Bible
that Jesus said this, I can't find it, in fact, the only time we see
Jesus describing anything as "detestable" is In Luke 16:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2016%3A14-16&version=NIV;MSG.
2) Christian families should consider the tools of normalization that the enemy uses to make sin look "cool". If we do this we find our television entertainment becomes very limited. From the overtly adulterous The Bachelor, and The Bachelorette, where the next to last episode features premarital sex between the "star" of the show and his final "rose bearers', to the very conservative Last Man Standing, which aired an episode featuring lesbians, the enemy has obviously gotten a stranglehold on our choices for television entertainment. I suppose there is the NFL...oh wait, there was a great deal made about a homosexual player not too long ago wasn't there?
3) As Christians, we must remember that folks need to work. Many years ago, I was the manager of an entertainment store. When we opened, against my desire, wishes, and outright disdain, we had a section in our book department called "lambda" which was a codeword for our homosexual section. Very quickly it was discovered by some Christian friends in our area and they came to me suggesting that they would boycott the entire store because of this section. My response...you certainly can do what you need to do, but consider the point that I am a brother in Christ, attempting to make a living for my family, your boycott would directly impact that living, including my ability to tithe to my church. If you would like to see this section go away, make it a money issue.
Make sure that you and your friends purchase as many of our Christian
books as possible so I can continue to expand that section. Eventually, I
will have to make the "business" choice to eliminate lower volume producing sections. This seemed very plausible to my Christian brother and within the next year, we eliminated the "lambda" section.
My point is, that we don't know what Christian brothers and sisters are fighting from the inside of Disney and other corporations to keep the enemy at bay with entertainment choices. Boycotts in general do not work, they only hurt the people we would least be likely to want to hurt. Be supportive of the good stuff and there won't be room for the bad.
Back
to our question. A Christian family, when faced with the dilemma of
the cultural shifts that are so prevalent in our society should simply
tell the Gospel. Tuesday's Musical Notes respects the leaders of
households who daily make a choice regarding how much of the culture
they will allow into their family's structure. The family unit is one
of God's most treasured gifts and it is up to moms and dads to make the
decisions as to how much or how little of the influence of the world
they allow to impact their home. That being said, as Christians we
have to be careful to express our disagreements with that culture in
loving ways. Don't get me wrong, we should always call sin what it is,
however, we carefully evaluate our message and how it is expressed. If
we spend our time and energy telling the positive message of the Gospel
of Jesus, we won't have time to be seen as "haters" against a society
that has a destiny apart from God. "Turn or Burn" is not a message that
resonates with our world, I'm not convinced that it ever has. Jesus
said something about this when He was asked what the greatest
commandment was. The Gospel of Jesus as written by Mark 12:28-34 New International Version of the Bible
Please do not misunderstand. As followers of Jesus, we should be against sin. Homosexuality is a sexual sin, as are adultery and pornography. We fall short if all we tell a person in the midst of that sin is that they are sinners. Too many times we stop there and don't tell them the story of redemption that awaits them through belief in Jesus Christ. The even better thing is what we can be for. The Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to overcome ALL sins. Belief in Jesus and repentance of that sin, sometimes on a daily basis, is the better argument to a world that doesn't know any other way.
You have to make the decision for your family regarding whether you will see the new Beauty and the Beast.
If you have been blessed with children, this decision will be
especially important. Be careful not to engage in the rhetoric the
enemy uses to espouse hatred. Make sure that everywhere you go,
everything you do, and everyone that you engage, understands that there is
another tale as old as time, true as it can be...
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving you,
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