According to various nerd news websites, a Christian radio host condemned Star Trek Into Darkness for promoting bestiality. The scene in question involves a romantic tryst between Captain Kirk and two alien women. The host contended that because of evolution and speciation, Kirk was pretty much violating God’s prohibition against bestiality.
Romantic relationships between different species are nothing new to the Star Trek universe. As many have pointed out, Spock was the product of interspecies mating and Kirk tried sleeping with anything as long as it was a female. I’ve never once thought about the sinfulness of interspecies mating in the Star Trek universe. Mostly because the true brokenness in this world is much more serious than fake people having sex with fake species.
Not only is this condemnation of Star Trek Into Darkness ridiculous, but it’s also upsetting. A lot of the nerd news sites I frequent picked up this story and now associate it with Christianity. I’m a Christian and I hate being associated with asinine beliefs like this one. Hopefully most people will understand that this radio host doesn’t speak for every Christian Star Trek fan, but I’m sure there will be some who paint us all with the same crazy brush.
People have a lot of preconceived notions about Christians that we need to work against. Honestly, worrying about bestiality is not nearly as bad as some of the other things people do in the name of Christ. So whether we’re nerds representing Christ or just Christians representing Christ, we need to always make sure we are actually representing Christ.
And I’d like to think Jesus would have been right there with me on the opening night of Star Trek Into Darkness, interspecies shenanigans and all.
This brings up a broader and far more interesting question: What would Christianity’s (and maybe Christ Himself) reaction be to actual First Contact with an intelligent, technological extraterrestrial race?
It’s a…TV show… /facepalm
Technically it’s a movie. 😉 But you still make a valid point.