Angry Pastor Rejects the Idea of God As a Black Woman in The Shack
A pastor in California is part of a faction of Christians upset about
Octavia Spencer’s role as God in the movie adaptation of William P.
Young’s controversial 2007 novel The Shack. Spencer is black, you see, and God is a white man.
Certain Christians are mad not only about this depiction of god as a
black woman, but also the movie’s basis in universalism and the idea
that all humans make it into “Heaven.” The plot of the movie—which stars
Spencer, Sam Worthington, and Tim McGraw, and hits theaters in March
2017—goes as such (via IndieWire):
A man whose daughter was murdered during a family camping trip sinks into a deep depression and begins to lose his faith. One day, he receives a mysterious letter encouraging him to return to the site of his daughter’s murder and finds the physical manifestations of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and God, who takes the form of an African American woman played by Octavia Spencer. Unsurprisingly, some Christian figureheads object to Spencer’s role as well as the film itself, which purports to be a faithful adaptation of Young’s book.
Astonishing,
because God is de facto white? Here with some constructive criticism is
Joe Schimmel, pastor of Blessed Hope Chapel in Simi Valley, California
who told
Christian News Network, “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 in Hebrews 1:1-3 –…lends itself
to a dangerous and false image of God and idolatry.”
Will God smite the pastor for being so judgmental? Hard to say.
What say you?
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