Star Wars' Religious Allegory.

• Author: Holder, R. Ward
• Position: RELIGIOUS GROUNDS

STAR WARS DAY is upon us: May 4 is the day aficionados of the movies, games, toys, and unending merchandising surrounding the films have come to celebrate as "May the Fourth Be With You Day." Being old enough to remember the original 1977 movie, "Star Wars," when we did not have to refer to it as "Episode IV: A New Hope," I also recall when by my own grandmother thought it blasphemy for a young college man from her Pennsylvania church (not me) to speak to the religious messages of the series in an adult Sunday school class. To say she was not pleased at the notion is to be careful with my words.

Yet, we have come to learn that George Lucas and his writers, in creating one of the most-successful film franchises in history, did put a great deal of thought into the good vs. evil themes that inhabit the movies.

Star Wars Day has been celebrated almost since the first film's debut. The site StarWars.com notes that its first apparent print reference was in the London Evening News, in a congratulatory ad to Prime MinisterElect Margaret Thatcher on her victory on May 4, 1979. The message said, "May the Fourth be with you, Maggie. Congratulations!" In more contemporary popular culture, the commemoration has become a running gag on the CBS megahit, "The Big Bang Theory."

The theme of religious messages in "Star Wars" also has demonstrated some serious crossover chops. The casual searcher can find an article on Crosswalk.com, a popular Christian evangelical site, on "5 Christian Messages in Star Wars," or the more academically oriented searcher with access to the American Theological Library Association's database can find such scintillating titles as "The difference between religious narratives and fictional literature: a matter of degree only," or "'Wars not make one great': redeeming the Star Wars mythos from redemptive violence without amusing ourselves to death."

"Star Wars" indeed does contain several significant religious messages, not the least of which is the idea of The Force, which frequently seems to function much like faith in Christianity. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus chided the Disciples that they were unable to perform an exorcism because of the weakness of their faith: "Truly I say to you, if you have faith as of a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." This was much like The Force. Luke Sky walker watched Yoda use The Force to lift...