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Not All Christians are Happy about 'The Shack' Movie

  • Veronica Neffinger

    Veronica Neffinger wrote her first poem at age seven and went on to study English in college, focusing on 18th century literature. When she is not listening to baseball games, enjoying the…

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  • Updated Jan 15, 2017

A film version of the popular book The Shack will be released this spring, and many Christians are concerned about its message.

Although The Shack deals with Christian themes, many Christians have noted the heretical way it portrays God.

Although the film has not yet been released for general audiences, Pastor Joe Schimmel told Christian News Network that if the film follows the book closely, Christians should be wary of its message.

The Shack tells the story of a man whose daughter has been killed. He is given a mysterious message to meet at “the shack” where his daughter was apparently killed. While there, he encounters three characters who are meant to represent God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. These characters help him overcome his grief.

However, God is portrayed as a plump African-American woman and the Holy Spirit is portrayed as an Asian woman with a Hindu name.

“Young’s pretentious caricature of God as a heavy set, cushy, non-judgmental, African American woman called ‘Papa’ (who resembles the New Agey Oprah Winfrey far more than the one true God revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ—Hebrews 1:1-3), and his depiction of the Holy Spirit as a frail Asian woman with the Hindu name, Sarayu, lends itself to a dangerous and false image of God and idolatry,” stated Schimmel.

Schimmel even preached a message at his church titled “The Shack and the Seduction of the Church.”

“Tragically, these heresies are reflected in the aberrant fictional theology presented in The Shack. These are not mere trivial matters but strike at the very heart of God’s character and the gospel that saves our eternal souls,” added James B. DeYoung, author of Burning Down The Shack: How the ‘Christian’ Bestseller is Deceiving Millions.

 

Photo courtesy: Wikipedia

Publication date: December 21, 2016