Well, I can imagine Caleb sticking in people's craw. And many Christians do dislike Buffy, Harry Potter, you're right. I guess maybe I'm just thinking that the whole vamp/Christian legend, lore is so ingrained in Western Culture, people don't even think about it too much. I don't remember people, before Caleb, getting too upset about the portrayal of Catholics/Christians in Sunnydale. I just didn't hear it. The main complaints I recall are that it was pagan, slightly nihilistic, agnostic. Not explicitly anti-Christian or anti-Catholic.
The criticisms of Revelations seem more specific because the show is more specific.
But maybe you're right about the Buffy backlash. I don't discuss the show enough with folks (outside this board) to know.
Now I need to find out if there's a Catholic consensis out there about Buffy...
Whoa. Found something interesting. A massive piece drawing comparisons between Buffy and her Scoobs and The Catholic idea of the Church as a 'family" united by a common morality, belief system. The Scoobs as the "Christian Family"....
"In the whole, the show's depiction of Christianity is no less--and in some cases considerably more--harsh than its depiction of any other social institution. What I do want to suggest is that the show is susceptible to an interpretation in terms of Christian faith and the domestic church. Critics of Buffy the Vampire Slayer have amply shown how the supernatural creatures and situations of the show often serve as metaphors for the dilemmas of growing up, of psychological development, and of ordinary life.[25] However, by appealing to the supernatural to develop these themes, the show can also provide a model or metaphor for the transformation of ordinary social realities--like the family--in the light of the transcendent. Hence, it can be constructively re-visioned as an intriguing and possibly influential conversation partner for the U.S. bishops and other North American Catholics who wish speak about the family as domestic church."
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Domestic Church:
Revisioning Family and the Common Good
http://www.slayage.tv/essays/slayage6/Locklin.htm
I'm sorry, posting so much stuff today....
But this one is interesting as well. A conservative Christian woman criticising Buffy, and Joss for being a mushy, guilty feminist. And she's claiming that Joss's 'verse is a closed system too in a way, like Christianity....
"Tellingly, one of the scenes that Christians most frequently cite to show the role of redemption on Buffy "” the scene where Xander's love stops a grieving Willow from destroying the world and turns her good again "” was ripped off from a rather well-known book (A Wrinkle in Time) by a Christian, Madeleine L'Engle.
Speaking of which, it's instructive to look at another Christian fantasy writer whose work has enjoyed massive popularity. Now, neither Joss Whedon nor J.R.R. Tolkien shows God playing an overt role. But there's a crucial difference: There is a God in Tolkien's world. The references in The Lord of the Rings are subtle, but they're unmistakably there, especially for readers of The Silmarillion, in which his mythology is more fully explained. (I haven't read it, but for a recent research paper, I did enough poking through Tolkien's letters and biographies to get the idea.) Unlike with Buffy, there is a First Good who is stronger than what Whedon calls the "First Evil."
Furthermore, Tolkien's theme is that mortals must not seek power for themselves, for it brings only corruption. The divergence between Buffy's mythology and Christian theology can be summed up in one of Buffy's lines from the last season, spoken to a group of slayers-in-training: "There is only one thing on this Earth more powerful than evil, and that's us." And that's because "” um, well "” that would be because . . . well, they have lots of power! And they're against evil! So, naturally, that combination means they'll be able to defeat evil.
Not so for Tolkien. His characters, with all their nobility and goodness of heart "” and the considerable powers that some of them possess "” are not strong enough to defeat evil, not on their own. I don't want to give too much away for those who don't yet know the ending of The Lord of the Rings, but I'll say this much: While certain characters' wise and merciful decisions contribute to the outcome, the final victory is won by no one but the unseen, benevolent power that rules Tolkien's world, intervening with a miracle when all seems lost. Because of the nature of power, and the fact that only One is good enough to be fully trusted with it, the story could turn out no other way.
Tolkien, unlike Whedon, was criticized for not portraying his evil characters clearly enough. That was a conscious decision on his part; he believed that wallowing in depictions of evil did far more harm than good. But he certainly had a handle on the other side of the equation. He was able to share a realistic, compelling vision of goodness because he actually believed in it, and in this, his work succeeded where Buffy failed.
It's not that atheists can't tell a good story, or that Joss Whedon isn't a talented writer of fantasy. The problem is that his closed universe "” closed, at least, to the idea of a loving God "” didn't give him enough to work with. Fantasy has to be grounded in reality to be completely convincing, and Whedon's was not. (Even some of his most ardent fans have been complaining about inconsistencies in the show for the past two or three seasons.) Or to put it another way, "if therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matt. 6:23, NKJV) You can have all the talent in the world, but without a clear understanding of the nature of reality, at best all you've got is a pop-culture phenomenon that ultimately trivializes the great themes it tries to deal with.
For some, that's enough. For Christians, it shouldn't be."
http://www.boundless.org/2002_2003/features/a0000763.html
