Shortly before World War Two, the Japanese pretended to befriend the Manchurians on the northeast frontier of China; they even pretended to respect a newly-installed Manchurian emperor. But their true intent was only to weaken China; and as depicted in the historical movie "THE LAST EMPEROR," they never really had any respect for the Manchurian ruler who had been allowed to think he was the equal of Japan's emperor. It is a common tactic of aggressors to pretend respect--until they feel ready to crush you.
Thus also in the culture wars, as shown by TNT's very NON-historical movie (broadcast in 2001), "THE MISTS OF AVALON," from Marion Zimmer Bradley's feminist-revisionist Arthurian novel. Early on, one of a bevy of super-duper sorceresses reassuringly tells a Christian, "The old religion embraces yours;" thus we are supposed to understand that the Christian would be a stupid bigot if he considered Wiccan-type Earth-goddess religion to be hostile to Christianity. But later, another witch-priestess tells Arthur, "You have called on God and the Goddess; it is the Goddess who answers." That makes it plain, if it wasn't plain already, that the "equality" of religions was just like the "equality" of Japanese and Manchurian emperors--a mere tactic to make it easier for one side to smash the other.
The whole movie hammers away at an unvarying theme that their pantheistic goddess can do anything for anyone, whereas Father God cannot do anything at all. And if you're in doubt about the pantheism, it's made unmistakable when Angelica Huston rattles off the tired old cliches about "balance" --good and evil being equally valid in the pagans' opinion. One feeble reference is made to Christianity offering forgiveness for sins; but even that only comes off as wishful thinking by a pitiful character, and it still leaves the Biblical God with no practical power or authority.
As in many such cases, I have to repeat that the folks at TNT are legally free to make films with any cosmological preference they like. But as in many such cases, they hypocritically pretend to be open-minded and even-handed ...while actually taking one and only one side, beginning to end. Occult-pantheistic paganism is every bit as hostile to Christianity as Christianity is to occult-pantheistic paganism; but since Christianity has the honesty to state this fact up front, the dishonest pagan side pretends that only Christians perceive an incompatibility, and so are uniquely "intolerant."
Read the Chronicles of Narnia. When you get to the closing volume, The Last Battle, follow the progression the bad guys use to suppress the faith of Christ--"Aslan," in these books, being by C.S. Lewis' own telling Christ Himself. First they make the Lord out to be "equal" to the false god Tash, coining the name "Tashlan;" but they don't take long to return to just plain Tash, because the intent always was to get rid of Aslan altogether.
Thus with the "AVALON" miniseries, which doubtless warmed Ted Turner's God-mocking, wife-dumping little heart. All the pagans' "tolerance" of Christianity is intended for no other purpose than to make Christianity superfluous until it is forgotten. Author Ms. Bradley, having passed away some time ago, is now being made most vividly aware that there is only one Creator; that He has chosen to be known as "He," not "She;" and that those who deny this are calling the Lord Jesus Christ an idiot or a liar for having called God His Father, and only Father, never Mother.
Yes, Ms. Bradley knows better now--a bit too late, unless she came to a repentance that we never heard about. Let us pray that we profit better by the clear and obvious statements of God's Word. Let the pagans have their confusing mists; give me the Living God, Who is all light with NO "balancing" darkness.
