One of my favorite pastimes is ruining movies for myself by reading reviews and online articles ahead of time. Lately I’ve been keeping tabs on Disney’s latest animated release, Strange World. I found a quote from a review that I believe says a lot about where we are as a culture right now.

Richard Whittaker from the Austin Chronicle praised the film for being “a rewarding continuation of the studio’s recent narrative fascination with overcoming divides rather than evil”. To me, this reflects a problematic shift in our society’s focus. When unity is sought after without a proper understanding of what’s good and evil, the enemy becomes divisiveness rather than evil itself. When this happens, morality becomes irrelevant and anything can be made acceptable as long as we can adequately unite under a consensus. These themes have been showing up in my dystopian series, where the desire to preserve unity is used to justify Nazi-like atrocities. Unity is a noble cause to fight for, but it means nothing if it’s not rooted in truth.

While we shouldn’t deliberately drive a wedge between people, being virtuous in a fallen world will sometimes have that effect. Even the Prince of Peace, whose birth will be celebrated later this month, was destined to face severe opposition and cause division within households. We can’t focus so much on avoiding conflict that it prevents us from doing what’s right and saying what needs to be said. Our best chance at bringing a deeper, lasting peace and unity within our homes and our world comes when we are impelled out of love to guide people to the truth.