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The Hunger Games

Mike

Mike

Member
My 9th grade son is reading a book for his English class called "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. I read the books for his reports so I can comment on his very lengthy reports. This one's interesting with faith and social implications.

I won't give anything away if anyone intends to read it.

Set in the future, it's a cruel world set up in districts. Each year, a boy and girl are selected from each district to represent their own. The games are televised throughout the world where the children are thrown into an "arena" which is really a secured area of land, and it's a brutal survival game. It's kill or be killed, all for the entertainment of society. It gave me some good talking points to discuss the Christian response to this premise.

I liken it in a way to the gladiators. If you are anti-war, your feelings would be obvious. But if you don't see war being in conflict with scripture in all cases, would you have a problem with this? It's hard to put yourself in this situation completely, but would you say you'd kill to not be killed. In taking away the perceived nobility of war, where you are fighting for a worthy cause, would this eliminate you willingness to kill? Would you lay down your life, rather than kill for the entertainment of society?

I asked my son, and he said he would hide out and not kill anyone, but that's not an option. If you did, eventually it would come down to you and one other. And there has to be a winner. I could not conceive of a situation where I would. I would have to lay down my life rather than take the life of one who is also innocently thrown into the arena.

Can anyone suggest validity for taking another life to save your own that is consistent with faith? :chin
 
Mike said:
My 9th grade son is reading a book for his English class called "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. I read the books for his reports so I can comment on his very lengthy reports. This one's interesting with faith and social implications.

I won't give anything away if anyone intends to read it.

Set in the future, it's a cruel world set up in districts. Each year, a boy and girl are selected from each district to represent their own. The games are televised throughout the world where the children are thrown into an "arena" which is really a secured area of land, and it's a brutal survival game. It's kill or be killed, all for the entertainment of society. It gave me some good talking points to discuss the Christian response to this premise.

I liken it in a way to the gladiators. If you are anti-war, your feelings would be obvious. But if you don't see war being in conflict with scripture in all cases, would you have a problem with this? It's hard to put yourself in this situation completely, but would you say you'd kill to not be killed. In taking away the perceived nobility of war, where you are fighting for a worthy cause, would this eliminate you willingness to kill? Would you lay down your life, rather than kill for the entertainment of society?

I asked my son, and he said he would hide out and not kill anyone, but that's not an option. If you did, eventually it would come down to you and one other. And there has to be a winner. I could not conceive of a situation where I would. I would have to lay down my life rather than take the life of one who is also innocently thrown into the arena.

Can anyone suggest validity for taking another life to save your own that is consistent with faith? :chin
Click to expand...

Jesus was condemned to save our lives

He had spiritual warfare with unsees principalities to save our lives

So I hold the view that if God calls me to take another mans life for any reason at all- I will do it.

But if my killing is of selfish pride and not out of love for both parties -
I would die there dead...

Good thread:thumbsup
 
Interesting senario and book, I'll see if I can read it.

It depends. Running and hiding is indeed a response, IMO. For me, I would probably let myself be killed. But I guess it depended on what the Holy Spirit was guiding me to do. To kill like that in cold blood for me would take some doing - and for what gain? To live is Christ but to die is gain. However, this approach kinda fails when the other person is in the same mindset. The we have WWI all over again. :D
 
Nick said:
Interesting senario and book, I'll see if I can read it.
Click to expand...

I should have said in case it matters, this is not a "Christian" book or author. My son goes to a public high school, so in America, that means - stay clear of anything faith related. In looking at the theological implications, I was just helping my son keep his antenna up.
 
Mike said:
I should have said in case it matters, this is not a "Christian" book or author. My son goes to a public high school, so in America, that means - stay clear of anything faith related. In looking at the theological implications, I was just helping my son keep his antenna up.
Click to expand...
I know it's not a Christian book, and I did also know your son goes to a public school. I went to one as well, so I know what goes on (or doesn't go on) in there.
 
Wow, that book sounds amazing. Was it written for teenagers?

I would say that no I would lay down my life. Wasn't it once said that to murder another is like fracturing your soul? (or am I getting that from harry potter :lol)
 
Oats said:
Jesus was condemned to save our lives

He had spiritual warfare with unsees principalities to save our lives

So I hold the view that if God calls me to take another mans life for any reason at all- I will do it.

But if my killing is of selfish pride and not out of love for both parties -
I would die there dead...

Good thread:thumbsup
Click to expand...

i hate these, as neither side is really wrong.
wonderful values clarification.

mike if society is that cold and does it for entertaiment . sigh

i will add to the list of things that i as a vet struggle with from time to time.

i can when need be watch terrorist acts and watch them uncensored, i do this for training and nothing more, but if i dont check myself i can be easily desensitised to death.

that being said in this case that could happen.

and what if you are the sole provider for your loved ones and they need to feed them as they cant work?
 
That was an excellent series. :thumb

Just to clarify, there's more to the plot than what you stated, though it's a good summary.
In the story, the games were put in place because of a previous rebellion on part of District 13. The Hunger Games were made to basically show everyone in the other districts that the government was all-powerful and the games were minor compared to what they could make happen. For certain districts, it was seen as more for entertainment. For the less favored districts, it was for necessity. But it more for the government's power-kick in any case. After the games, the government often forced the players to do less desirable things for profit at the threat of harm coming to ones they love, if my memory does not fail me.
Now, the games themselves were immoral no doubt. Given the murder, the pride, greed, and the crimes agaisnt the children that they were founded on. But would it be wrong for the children to play these games and kill in them? Given they were forced, there is really no way around them playing in it. It's a mandate that two kids from each district participate. So would it be okay to kill in self-defense? That's a good question and I would have to say depends more so on the circumstance and individual.
Another question brought up in the novel is killing to defend another. Would that be okay?
Personally? I can't say what i would do given I have never been in that situation before. However, I'm not an emotionally strong person. I could not deal with killing someone after the fact. In the games, I would probably try to injure them in a way that would prevent them from harming me. Also, I know where I am going. What about the other person? So I would most likely die.
But to defend another person? That I really can't answer, because it is something I might do and could justify.
 
how bout inserruction. rise up and take over the govt? and remove it.and put an end to that stuff.

better to die free then to die in captivity like that.
 
@jasoncran

True, and in the end they did. However, it is necessary understand the state of districts in the book and if one were to apply the situation to reality. It was much like China is today, though worse.
There were two urban districts that lived a good life, as they were closer and loyal to the Capitol (think govt). The rest were poor and few people owned weapons. Those who did were poachers as hunting was illegal. The general extent of their weapon was a bow and arrow. The Capitol had extremely advanced technology. So it would be equavalent to the modern US going back in time to fight a colony in the late 1700s, early 1800s. Until the uprising took place involving foreign aid, no one had the means to rebel for one.
Then there's the fact that all one has to do is comply to the govt's demands and their family, friends, loved ones, etc. will be safe and in the lap of luxury.
Examples were often made. An old man was shot for whistling during a govt event. An entire city was bombed for a group of rebels. In the end, the main character lost many of her friends and family, which she had joined (and one) the Hunger Games to save. So seeing the price of rebellion, it wasn't very appealing.

Apply this to today. What if this happened now? Would it be easy as overthrowing the govt and puttign an end to corruption?
 
if you look at the war of independence it was that way in a sense.

we wounldnt have won if the french, and others didnt assist.
 
Cheyenne, I purposely kept out many of the details to avoid ruining the book for anyone who plans to read it. You said a few things I hope people will have glossed over who do. If you do plan on reading it, don't go back and probe too deeply. This was the only book in this series I've read, and only to look over my son's work. It was a good one, and I think I'll read the others.
Killing anyone in this scenario with the idea of defending another is not a viable reason IMO, since by the rules, only one can survive. You are making the choice of who will survive. You could say that if you know one person has family that depends on her/him, you are helping to serve others who need her/him, but that would be your perspective; your opinion. Everyone feels they have a reason to be The One. Is it your decision to determine who that One is?
 
Murder is murder. Two wrongs don't make a right.



We could play with the scenerio and say, what if one was strong, kind, powerful and had rich friends with who they had the possibility of toppling the govt and bringing in peace and the other was just a normal person. Wouldn't it be better to kill the normal person 'if' you were the one who could change that world?

But here we have to transgress Gods law to do it. Murder. Doesn't go away.

God gives no justification for murder. None. Justice, absolutly, but murder is not justice.

So no, there is no justification under the christian faith for taking anothers life unjustly under any circumstances. The pharisees used that argument to murder jesus.

War is a completly different scenerio. Trying to confuse the two is deliberatly muddying the defining lines.
 
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1 John 3:11-24

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
 
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