The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games, the first in a trilogy by Suzanne Collins, is
about a nation divided into twelve districts, under the control of the
Capital. To keep the districts under control, the Capital stages the "Hunger
Games" each year. Each district is to supply a teenage boy and a teenage
girl to compete - to the death. The games have gone on for 75 years.

If morality finds its origins in society, there is nothing wrong
with the Hunger Games. If morality is based on what a society decides is
good or not good, there can be nothing morally wrong with such a
competition. One could not argue that the fight to the death was inherently
wrong if there is no standard of morality outside of society.

That's the problem when people want to say that society
determines what is right and wrong. Homosexuality is right because society
says it's okay. Divorce for any reason is okay because society has grown to
accept it. Adultery is okay because "everyone does it." Evolutionary
anthropologists like to say that all these "mores" we have developed based
on societal standards and what we, as humans, have observed is beneficial
for us.

It does not take long once you get into The Hunger Games to see
that everyone does not approve. Why? Because instinctively we know that
society does not determine what is right and wrong. There is a standard of
morality that is beyond and outside of society. There is a moral law that is
over and regulates even society. That moral law is codified in the New
Testament, the revelation of Jesus Christ. "Do unto others as you would have
them do to you" (Matthew 7:12). That is the most succinct yet comprehensive
moral law in human history.

According to an article in The Washington Times, Suzanne Collins
is a Catholic (March 31, 2012). While we disagree with much of Catholic
teaching, they do recognize that there are moral absolutes and those
absolutes are revealed in the Bible. I would be interested to know if
Collins was intending to send any theological (or political) messages with
her book.

For the thinking audience, she implicitly argued for the Moral
Law Giver - God Almighty.

--Paul Holland