AIBU to find this inappropriate for a Christmas family service?

[Vanechka]

I'm not Christian, but I found that really creepy and disturbing.

RS Thomas was an Anglican priest.

It seems familiar, I think our church may have used it in the past. It is a bit creepy though and not to my taste.

Gosh! Anglican priest here. I would want to understand the thinking of the person who decided to include this in a service (if I'm understanding correctly that this is what happened)... I certainly wouldn't use it - the figures are too scary for children and the message is not well-explained.

It’s garbled and confusing and apart from the John 3:16 reference at the end bears no resemblance to scripture.

I don’t like it.

I was going to say much the same. Apart from a bit of scripture at the end, all the rest was unbiblical nonsense, and seemed to be merely a string of awful metaphors generated by AI, combined with some unpleasant imagery - all conjured up from goodness knows where.

No right-thinking Christian minister would use it at any service (unless perhaps they were illustrating the devil’s work).

YANBU - it’s quite scary!

What in the Christ is this (literally!)
How is this anything about Christiantity?
Also, the graphics are too try hard tech.
Very, very strange pressing 'go' and 'try' on the snow globe. WTAF????!!!

Thank you! Thought I was going mad. It’s not the poem that offended as much as the visuals. This was played at the conclusion of a Christmas Day family service, in the presence of lots of small children. It’s made by the Evangelical Alliance and in tune with their account of the Gospel as cosmic child sacrifice on behalf of unlovely humanity (depicted as zombie creatures here). Probably the vicar thought it was a fab evangelistic tool but it was just grotesque. Travesty of traditional Christology. Made the effort to take along my autistic son who really struggles with church and wished I hadn’t.

@Vanechka Hi, I just need to correct you there, sorry - but it is not made by the Evangelical Alliance. The people who were very ill-advised to make this animation, merely state that they ”subscribe to the Evangelical Statement of Faith”. All I can respond to that is, well anyone, even satan, could say that. By the Fruit of the Spirit they will be known.

IF (a big if) it was a Christian venue that played the film at the end of a Christmas Day family service, I would be having strong, scripturally-backed words with the church leaders. Just because a poem is written by a man who was allegedly an Anglican priest and Welsh poet doesn’t mean we have to leave our brain cells behind and accept the imagery as ‘christian’.

Are you objecting to the poem or the film?

The poem is merely a poem. It is NOT a Christian poem. The film is merely a film. It is NOT a Christian film. They are what they are and open to critical analysis, like all ‘art’, if that is your bag. Even from a secular pov, I like neither. The film was cheap and poorly devised, I presume by some sort of AI. The poem, when you read the script is full of really ill thought out metaphors and was very lazy. But this is not a thread to perform subjective analysis, so I won’t be pursuing that here.

The objection is to false teaching and preaching … the wolves in sheep’s clothing are amongst us.

Maybe calm down a bit? Regardless of your opinion of the poem, RS Thomas worked as a parish priest of the Church in Wales his whole life. I suppose that whether you consider that evidence that he was a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ depends on your point of departure.

Gosh that video does seem very unsuitable for a family Christmas service.

I don't dislike the poem or RS Thomas in general (he's from a community that I know and understand). The imagery in the poem is harsh but starkly beautiful to me and I hate that someone tried to express it in a naff cartoon. I feel it reduces the words to some kind of trite horror comic strip.

I would definitely give some feedback to the leadership if this was shown at my church

Are you always this rude? I am perfectly calm dear. I would gently suggest to you that you re-read my response to your question by using some comprehension rather than through a need to create a false narrative. Please do not misrepresent me, for your own agenda. Thank you, kindly. Please also see the guidance at the top of this board because if you are seeking something other, the whole site is open for you to play on. 😀

just to repeat, in case you missed it in your haste to be rude and to misrepresent : The objection is to false teaching and preaching …

The warning that wolves in sheep’s clothing are amongst us, has never been more accurate. Such false teachers and preachers need to seriously consider God’s warnings.

My apologies to @HotBath 💐 Please disregard my suggestion to read the guidance at top of this board. I was in Christian Mumsnetters and thought I was still there. Embarrassed much. 🤣 . I can’t edit that bit hence my apology. That said, the rest of my post still stands 😀

I just need to correct you there, sorry - it’s made by Speak Life which appears to be the youth evangelism arm of Evangelical Alliance, or at least v closely associated with the EA. See here: https://www.eauk.org/organisations/speak-life. It’s directed by Glen Scrivener who is on the EA website presumably as an employee, or at least an authorised associate.

The service was evangelical CofE. Purportedly Christian. I will make a complaint in new year, thank you all for confirming this wasn’t me overreacting. I don’t object to the poem at all; as others have said, a poem is a poem, not a statement of doctrine, and it could have been interpreted quite differently to depict human need (as I think was intended by the “thin arms”) rather than human depravity or monstrosity.

@Vanechka That’s fine - I am always happy to accept correction if I am wrong 😀, and would never get huffy about such things. However the link you quoted leads to a 404 dead end. Evangelical Alliance did not make the animation (as you previously stated they had) but another organisation did. Other than Speak Life saying they subscribe to the EA’s statement of faith, I am unable to find anything that proves what you previously claimed. EA have included SL in their “hub for inspirational stories and resources”, but it is not clear that there is any ‘ownership’ there. This makes me wonder if the EA have done due diligence to include such an organisation for resources and inspiration. There is a link for ‘revival media’, but that re-directs which always makes me suspicious. I feel an email coming on …

The important thing on which we agree is that it is the wrong thing to have been shown.

That’s awful and presumably is liked by so called Christians who rule through fear - I suspect they mention Hell a lot. There’s not much of the Bible in there is there?

Was is produced by Jimmy Swagger? Are members of the relevant churches encouraged to pay a tithe?

Fair enough - and perhaps I got huffy, sorry! Should be more careful with the attribution. At the very least one can say it’s by an organisation publicly endorsed by and closely associated with the EA; I have no particular stake in attributing it directly to the EA, though I don’t like their doctrine either.

Also clergy.

I know the poem and generally I like RS Thomas' work. It is sparse and can be as bleak as the Welsh hills in winter.

I think the illustrator has a particular theology that is affecting the imagery in this film. Having looked at the statement of faith I'm suspecting that they were influenced by penal substitutionary atonement which is part of the EA statement of faith. There are other answers to the question 'why did Jesus have to die?' but this is the one that you will find preached in most EA churches. I can see why this church, if it is an evangelical church, chose to show the movie as this is a cornerstone to their theology.

I think the poem's beautiful, perhaps an odd choice for a Christmas service though. Not watched the video.

Creepy, weird garbage.