A CHRISTMAS STORY vs. THE NATIVITY STORY

Which movie is more Christian? The answer may surprise you...

Two stories.  One a tale of fond remembrance of a Christmas long ago, written by an atheist, with scenes of fighting, cursing, avarice, deception and without a single reference to God or Jesus.  The other, a tale about the Annunciation and birth of Our Lord 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem.

Now which of these two films is the more Christian film?  Which one is a great Christmas movie and which one is heretical poison that should be avoided by all Christians?

The answer may surprise you, but A Christmas Story is far more Christian than The Nativity Story, which is heretical poison.

A Christmas Story centers on Ralphie and his desire for a Red Rider BB gun.  It shows his world, his family and scenes from his childhood growing up. It shows Ralphie endlessly pining for the one present for Christmas that he truly wants.

One of the beauties and mysteries of the Birth of Christ is how through the gift of Our Lord to us can teach us about the love of God. Children learn what good gifts are by being given good gifts.  They learn what love is, by being loved.  The desire for Christmas presents is natural, normal and beautiful, in moderation.  Children can then learn about supernatural grace and love, once they have known natural grace and love.  They can learn how much better it is to give than to receive, once they have been given something from another.

The moral failings of the Parker family are what they are.  They show no signs of Christian piety, the father swears constantly, and the family has their regular flaws.  But they also show true love and caring for each other.  The father shows his love by his sacrifices for his family, by getting his son the one gift he truly wanted, by caring for his wife and children, and by fighting their furnace with all his strength.  The mother is selfless in her sacrifices for the family, by working tirelessly to make her house a home and caring for those in that home.  The boys, while fighting and squabbling with each other constantly (as brothers are want to do), also show deep care and affection for each other.  Ralphie watches over and protects his little brother, while Randy runs to get mom to help Ralphie in his fight, and cries in worry over his brother’s upcoming punishment from their father.

A Christmas Story, while lacking the supernatural grace of the Christian faith, shows the natural grace of familial love that can point towards the super-abundant and supernatural grace and love of the Christmas season and the Incarnation.  The story never presents itself as anything other than what it is, and can be enjoyed as the Christmas classic that it has become.

The Nativity Story on the other hand, as mentioned above, is treacherous and heretical poison.  It has many fine elements in telling the story of the Incarnation and the Nativity, but like a drop of poison in a glass of water, it is deadly to the soul.

The Nativity Story introduces subtly, but definitively, several heresies including:

1.       Joseph was mad at Mary for leaving to go visit Elizabeth. The truth is that Joseph most likely accompanied Mary on this trip and the Visitation.

2.       Joseph and Mary were planning to have conjugal love and children. This heresy is rampant in the Protestant world and has even infected the beliefs of many Catholics. Mary and Joseph were never planning to have and never did have conjugal relations nor children.

3.       Mary was coerced or forced into her marriage to Joseph. The movie portrays her father, St. Joachim, as arranging and forcing the Blessed Virgin Mary into marrying St. Joseph

4.       Mary was not a consecrated virgin. As Mary even says to the angel Gabriel, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord”. The handmaids of the Lord were consecrated virgins who worked at the Temple as young girls until the time they became women. They remained consecrated virgins all their lives. People always miss the fact that at the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, both Simeon and the prophet Anna found and recognized Mary amid all the commotion and crowd that was at the Temple every single day.

5.       Mary and Joseph would have listened to and accepted the palm reading of the woman in the city. This scene, where Joseph and Mary are travelling through Jerusalem on their way to Bethlehem, shows a woman takes Mary’s hand, then read her palm and then says that she carries the baby like a son. She then tells Joseph that there is no greater joy than to see yourself in a young face. This is meant to show that Joseph experienced pain and suffering because Jesus was not his biological child, which is ridiculous.

6.       Mary experiencing labor pains at the Nativity. Again, this is a common view in the Protestant world because they have worked very hard to attempt to sully the reputation and dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary by claiming she was nothing but a common, sinful woman. The Nativity of Christ and His birth was miraculous and peaceful. The Blessed Virgin Mary remained intact and virginal before, during, through and after her pregnancy and the birth of Our Lord.

The movie, outside of these poisons, is well made, with high production quality, and holds somewhat well to the actual Biblical narrative.  It is a shame that the movie contains these poisons because it could have been such a wonderful Christian film for Christmas.  But with these poisons, it is heretical and dangerous to the faith of those watching it.  Especially those who are not strong or well-educated in the Christian faith.  That is why A Christmas Story is a safe, lovely Christmas movie, and The Nativity Story is a danger.  The problems in the family from A Christmas Story are natural problems that do not hide the fallen humanity of those in the family.  But the movie never pretends to be a faithful Christian film, while the opposite is true of The Nativity Story.