The movie begins in the regular world. Aunt Em is worried that Dorthy is mentally ill because Dorthy believes OZ is real. She takes Dorthy to quack pschological expert who uses electric shock treatment to solve this type of problem. Some of his patients have been harmed and are locked up to protect him from the possiblity that someone will find out. A storm and the intervention of a young girl who is probably from OZ helps Dorthy narrowly escape, in her flight she is transported back to OZ for another adventure.

Much has been made of the Christian elements of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe". There was also some discussion of the Christian elements of the Lord of the Rings. Both films recieved support from the Christian community and Disney has tried, successfully, to reach out to the Christian community through a publicity campaign for Narnia. With the success of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings and the miraculous success of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," Hollywood is half way convinced that faith sells movie tickets. So perhaps it is time to examine what might be another Christian fantasy, Disney's 1985 movie "Return to Oz." There seem to be many faith friendly, specifically creationist messages built into this movie.

Frank Baum who created the Wizard of OZ was also Christian. There was a strong Christian, specifically creationist, message in the 1985 Disney film "Return to OZ," that was based on the books of Frank Baum. "Return to Oz" may have been the biggest budget creationist film ever made. This should be interesting news both for Disney and for families looking for movies with Christian symbolism.

Frank Baum was a fan of William Jennings Bryant. Much has been made of how "The Wizard of Oz lends symbolic support to Bryant's bimetallism. You may remember Bryant's famous line from the "Cross of Gold" speach, "You shall not press down on the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold." The gold bugs wanted the American dollar to be backed only by gold. The silver bugs, lead by Bryant, were afraid that would result in deflation that would make it too hard for farmers to pay off their loans. They thought that the dollar should be backed by both gold and silver, hence the name bimetallism. Backing the money with both metals would mean that more money could be printed, which would prevent deflation and perhaps create some inflation, making it easier for farmers to pay off their loans.

In the original book The Wizard of OZ Dorthy has to wear silver slippers to protect herself from the yellow brick road. The yellow brick road symbolized backing money with gold. The yellow brick road was made harmless by the silver slippers just as the silver bugs believed that backing money by both gold and silver would prevent deflation and therefore make monetary policy harmless. Note that the yellow brick road leads to the Emerald City of OZ. Emeralds are green, the color of money. The Emerald City is Washington and represents the government's ability of print money.

But apparently Frank Baum's admiration of Bryant did not stop at economic policy. He also supports Bryant's creationism. You will remember that Bryant lead the prosecution in the famous Scopes trial. Bryant was leading a campaign to have both evolution and creationism taught in the public schools, exactly the same position that intelligent design supporters are pushing today.

In "Return to Oz" the chief villian is the Nome King. The nomes are rock people, or at least rock creatures that talk. The Nome King wants to change from his natural state rock to a living human being. In other words the Nome King wants to go through the process of evolution from non-living matter to human.

The theory that the first single cell came together by chance from non-living matter is actually called abiogenesis, not evolution, which is the process by which mainstream science thinks the first cell became the myriad of life forms we see today, including us. Nevertheless, both evolution and abiogenesis was all part of the conflict between Darwinism and literialist interpretations of Genesis.

In the story a crucial element is Dorthy's chicken, Billina, and an egg. In the movie it no doubt seems like an arbitrary part of a silly fantasy, but Baum's is refering to the standard creationist question, "Which came first the chicken or the egg."

The villians, the Nome King and the wicked witch Mombi, are unsatisfied with who they are and are willing to do terrible things to others to change themselves. In contrast the heros are comfortable with who they are, and have no wish to change. Tik-Tok the mechanical soldier claims that he is quite happy that he is not living. This is all part of his symbolic criticism of the evolutionists.

Many creationists might enjoy the film both on the level of adventure and as a puzzle.

Other Pages on Religion in the Movies

Convince your public library to include movies with religious themes, and Catholic and Christian books in the collection.

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