It’s sad that Great Britain has forgotten God. In this misguided review of “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”, Polly Toynbee rails on God in a British newspaper “The Guardian.” Worse though, she misrepresents Christ’s sacrifice:

Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls. Did we ask him to? Poor child Edmund, to blame for everything, must bear the full weight of a guilt only Christians know how to inflict, with a twisted knife to the heart.

Apparently, Ms. Toynbee isn’t familiar with the whole concept behind salvation. It wasn’t done so we would feel guilty for Christ’s death, but so we could be redeemed from the sin that would condemn us for eternity. If she would rather suffer eternity in hell rather than bear the thought that someone else willingly suffered for her sins, I would call her sorrily mistaken.

I’m just sorry that she’s had to hear this misguided guilt trip:

Every one of those thorns, the nuns used to tell my mother, is hammered into Jesus’s holy head every day that you don’t eat your greens or say your prayers when you are told.

I’m sorry, but those nuns were wrong. Just plain wrong.

Edmund doesn’t wallow in this guilt, and Aslan doesn’t lord his sacrifice over him. Instead, Aslan offers forgiveness and redemption–and not just to Edmund, but to the whole of Narnia (the breaking of the winter spell). God is about love, not guilt trips. And He promises us that once we repent, our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west. If you haven’t yet, please accept that gift. And if you know Polly, talk to her, or send her a link to this post!