The Hunger Games (An Unpopular View)

I have no doubt that what I am about to write here may cause some controversy among my friends. I have agonized and prayed about this post for 3 days. Which brings me to this moment.

Up until about a week ago, I knew nothing about The Hunger Games. I have not seen the movie or read the book. However, after seeing dozens and dozens of posts on Facebook about it I decided to do some research. What I found disturbed and shook me to the point where I felt I could not be silent. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which 24 children (ages 12-18) are chosen to compete in a televised event in which they battle to the death. This is horrifying. I'm sure there are other layers to the story but in everything I've read over the past 48 hours, the battle is the main thrust. I cannot imagine being entertained by such a vicious idea. More than that, I cannot imagine God, the creator of man, sitting in a movie theatre being entertained by a movie that is based on violence and the destruction of man.

Hunger Games director Gary Ross says, "Is it violent? Yes. Do we back off from what it is? No, we don't."

"Which is why it's still terribly hard to read the book or watch the movie at times. The career tributes are older kids from the richer districts who are trained from childhood to kill, and several of them decide to team up and hunt the remaining kids. We see them kill as a pack—delivering quick stabs with a knife and a spear—laughing as they call out encouragements to one another. We see a large teen snap another boy's neck. A dead teen is shown with an arrow in his chest, and a poisoned girl lies dead on the ground, her skin a light shade of blue. We see "news" footage of a boy swinging a blood-covered brick." (From pluggedinmag.com)

The novel ranked in fifth place on the American Library Association's list of most banned books for 2010, the reasons being it was "sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and violence."

I also read many reviews that were positive but even in those the violence was mentioned over and over. I have to be honest here, it breaks my heart that this is what our society is watching and enjoying! Have we truly become so calloused, so desensitized? I do not believe this is what God wants from His people! To sit and enjoy and pay to watch the very things His word says we are to stay away from! We are to be in this world, but not of this world. And what kind of world is it when assault and murder are considered acceptable entertainment?