Last week, Disney’s latest animated movie, Raya and the Last Dragon, opened in theaters and on the streaming service Disney+. The first scene of the movie reveals a land where things have gone wrong. The narrator—Raya—describes it as “a dystopian world; a land that’s gone to waste.” “How did this world get so broken?” she asks.
Two short tales answer the question—one from 500 years before when the last of the dragons created a gem to stop a terrible plague called the Druun, and one from 6 years earlier when the gem was broken and the Druun returned. (I would love to analyze what the writers intended to represent by the monstrous Druun that turn people to stone—all posed in an upright attitude with their empty hands held together as if cupping water—but that is not the focus of this post. Sorry.)
Throughout the movie, Raya returns to the question of how her world got so broken. Her new dragon friend, Sisu, offers her own opinion, and the climax of the story supports her idea. But I won’t get into spoilers here. If you want to know what went wrong in Raya’s Kumandra, you’ll have to watch the movie.
For me, the greater question is what went wrong in our world?
How did our world get so broken?
Most major religions offer some answer to that question along with various ideas on how to fix our broken world—or at least how to fix our own personal brokenness. Ideologies offer opinions on how to fix the brokenness in societies and economies. Doctors offer therapies to fix the brokenness in our mental health and relationships. Scientists set forth strategies to fix our broken environment.
We have all these ideas at our fingertips, and yet so much of our world still seems hopelessly broken.
Perhaps the most comprehensive answer to the question of our brokenness can be found in Christianity. Yet even Christians disagree about what exactly the problem is and how it can be remedied.
In my new book on Christian worldviews, I lay out five general opinions Christians have about the world we live in and how it can (or can’t) be fixed:
- The world is inherently bad, stained by sin. People are basically evil. Human institutions (such as governments and public education) are flawed. “Worldly” attitudes seen in non-Christian entertainment, advertising, and consumerism are opposed to God’s desires for us.
- The world is good the way it is. God created a good world and gave us the ability to use our minds and abilities to make it even better. People are basically good, and they are capable of improving. Education and good government are essential to making a better world.
- The world is neither good nor bad, though it is affected by the consequences of sin. Christians have a duty to guide and protect cultural institutions like government and education, ensuring that they reflect godly, moral principles.
- The world is both good and bad. There is much that reflects the majesty of the Creator in nature, people, and human institutions, but all these things are also marred by sin and our separation from God. While we cannot ultimately change the world for the better, we can change lives by sharing the gospel and bringing light to the darkness through our good actions.
- The world has been affected by sin, but it was made to be good and can be good again. Christians should engage with their culture and, with God’s power, can help to transform it by intentionally living out their Christian beliefs.[1]
Which view do you agree with?
How we view our world shapes how we see ourselves and our role in the world. It affects how we treat others, what we hope for, and how far we’ll go to fix what we believe is broken. It’s part of the bigger worldview each of us has, whether we recognize it or not.
If you would like to learn more about the different ways Christians view the world, please sign up here (at the bottom of the Home page) to be notified when my book is released later in 2021. You will receive a playlist to help you as you fight your daily battles, and you will have access to other free resources as they become available.
How do you think our world got so broken? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
[1] These five views are my synopsis of the five Christian “types” identified in Christ and Culture, by H. Richard Niebuhr, originally published in 1951.
