What Would Jigsaw Do?

I'm a fairly squeamish person, and so horror movies don't generally figure into my regular media consumption. I have seen the trailer for the latest SAW movie, however, and was a bit surprised at the rather daring nature of it. The trailer doesn't show much, of course, as there is little in the film that could legally be shown on broadcast TV. The part that caught my attention was that the letters "WWJD" appear at the end of the trailer, and the viewer is made to know that this stands for "What Would Jigsaw Do?"

Of course, the "What Would Jesus Do?" marketing phenomenon happened about ten years ago, and as far as I know, is fairly dead in Contemporary Christian circles. And we're the better off now that it's dead. Others before me have rightly pointed out that the movement was a mere calling people to the Law at best, and to self-salvation at its worst. But the fact that we are so far past that part of Evangelical history, and that the makers of the latest SAW movie are using it for their advertising, suggests that the SAW creators don't have a clue of what's going on in Evangelical circles. On one hand, this could mean that the SAW creators are living somewhere that Christians are fairly rare. This, of course, would mean Hollywood. On the other hand, this also suggests that Evangelicals haven't done anything really significant in about ten years to cause people such as the SAW creators think that they've moved beyond this fad.

So this is another case where the Church is to blame. The SAW creators are smart. They know that if they piss off Evangelicals, then we'll raise a fuss that will find its way into the mainstream media. That will bring free advertising, and they'll sell more movie tickets as a result. I'm not particularly interested in giving them that kind of attention. But I'm sure I don't have to. Some Evangelicals somewhere who think they can save the world through brewing controversy over this will do it themselves. Meanwhile, the Evangelical Church is still shown to have little impact on the world around it. In this case, I don't think we're being made fun of because we are making an impact, though that may be true in some small way. It seems to me we're being made fun of moreso because we're silly and immature, and therefore we invite the mockery.

But I'm not angry that they're making fun of Evangelicals in doing this. Heck, I make fun of Evangelicals myself, and that on a regular basis. (The point may be made, however, that it's a little different for me to do it. It's the difference between making fun of one's own brother, and somebody outside of the family making fun of him. The former can; the latter better be careful.) I am angry, however, at the replacement of the name of Jesus with "Jigsaw". That is blasphemy, though it might not have been intended as such. Whoever came up with the idea of using the “WWJD” logo for the movie is blind, foolish, and dead in their sins. So one can hardly take them seriously. It may be best that, as Elijah did at Mount Carmel and the Psalmist spoke of God doing in Psalm 2, we simply laugh at the stupidity of the SAW creators and mock them in return. They think they know what true terror is. But the truth is that they don’t even have a clue. And unless they repent, they will one day find themselves victims in the most terrifying horror movie of all.