Fans have been wondering why Disney's adaptation of "A Wrinkle in Time" does not reference Bible or mentioned about Jesus.
Screenwriter Jennifer Lee responded with the question she has been receiving about it and said that she wanted the film to be more "inclusive."
"What I looked at, one of the reasons Madeleine L'Engle's [book] ... had that strong Christian element to it wasn't just because she was Christian, but because she was frustrated with things that needed to be said to her in the world and she wasn't finding a way to say it and she wanted to stay true to her faith," Lee said, eliminating the biblical references that L'Engle included in her orginal work. "And I respect that and I understand those feelings of things you want to say in the world that need to be said that are out there. In a good way, I think there are a lot of elements of what she wrote that we have progressed as a society and we can move onto the other elements."
In the children's science fantasy book, Meg travels through space to find her missing father. Three celestial beings guided her journey with scriptures from 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 and John 1:5. In the book, Charles also realizes that Jesus is a fighter of evil and even asks Meg's friend to read bedtime story from the book of Genesis. But these scenarios were not found on the film.
Instead, Lee said she is more focusing on the battle between light and darkness as she described it as universal.
"In a sad way, some of the other elements are more important right now and bigger - sort of this fight of light against darkness. It's a universal thing and timeless and seems to be a battle that has to keep being had," she said.
Meanwhile, another film producer, Jim Whitaker said that the movie features a strong element of faith.
"I think the movie has many faith elements in it. It's truly a journey of a girl who, without seeing and having real evidence of her father, makes a bargain to travel throughout the universe to find him," Whitaker told Jesuit publication America magazine. "And I think that's a really powerful metaphor and statement that's worth considering about the nature of faith. How you have faith, without being able to have 'real' evidence, is kind of the key, and challenge, of life."
