reading "was killed by" is a l-o-t different than watching and hearing someone thrust a 14" knife

... so, reading J.K. Rowling's books is okay, it's just seeing the movies that's a no-no then, is it?

(Disclaimer: I don't like her books or their derivatives. It just seemed like an obvious comment to make.)

Why does he condemn these biblical principles when they appear in popular culture? Is it possible that so fervent a Christian is ignorant of the content of the Bible, so that he doesn't see the parallels?

I don't think it's that at all. These people KNOW that biblical principles can be found outside of the Bible. That's why they're so threatened. If people can read about these concepts without the divine word of god to guide them then what do they need the Bible for? They don't. And that's exactly why they must condemn these when they appear outside of a religious context. It doesn't matter if someone else is saying the same thing. It only counts when it comes from god.

As a snarky aside, did anybody else notice:

...reading "was killed by" is a l-o-t different than watching and hearing someone thrust a 14" knife into a man's body, repeatedly, slowly at first, seeing the steel of the blade disappear, appearing more stained with each withdrawal as blood spews, splatters and pools, the body twitching with each new thrust until it twitches no more then pumping eight rounds of .45 bullets into the body with steely coldness to make viciously and brutally certain the victim is dead.

I'm reminded of that joke about the two monks that ends with the punchline, "Why ask me how it felt to touch a woman? You're still carrying her!"

Elektra: "'You did what you had to do' to excuse lying"
Rahab the harlot is rewarded for lying in Joshua 2:4 to protect the Israelite messengers.

Don't forget the Egyptian midwives lying to pharoah or King David lying to the Phillistine king while attacking surrounding villages behind his back.

Shakespeare in Love: "talk of selling daughter for sex"

The Biblical thing to do would be to offer her up as a sacrfice. Or, if there's a mob outside you're door just offer them your two VIRGIN daughters, maybe, that'll appease them.

X2: "sacrificial suicide to save others"

Uh, isn't that an unselfish and GOOD thing for someone to do? No bible reference needed. These guys are scraping the barrel.

Imagery:
Woman drives a pike through a fleeing chieftain's temple (in the head).
10,000 Edomites thrown off a cliff
Babies getting dashed against rocks
Babies getting eaten by people

Compared to other ancient stories, I'm sure the Bible is rather tame. But, the fact that it presents a lot of violence as being sanctioned and even commanded by god far more than outweighs the sketchiness of the details.

Alex Weaver said:

If anything, I've always felt more unsettled and repulsed by graphic depictions of violence like the one he describes, rather than the triumphant, summary exhortations of the slaughter the bible contains.

This is exactly why so many Xians can stomach idiotic stories like the conquest of Canaan or Noah's ark - they never try to picture millions of drowning children and their parents. If they could see this crap it might make them less tolerant of the violence within it.

The best example is where a man being brutally executed is dismissed as only being a film while a Disney film, which has roughly the same score on the WISDOM scale, has "...behavioral, moral and value implantation dangers." The movies were The Passion of the Christ and The Incredibles.

I have more in my "CRAP Alert" scale.