(By J. Lee Grady) A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (well, actually it was 40 years ago in a crowded theater in suburban Atlanta) I saw Star Wars. It was 1977. I was a 19-year-old college student. I was totally wowed. The special effects mesmerized me. I loved the lightsabers, the droids and Luke Skywalker’s speeder bike. I laughed when Princess Leia said of Chewbacca, “Will someone get this big walking carpet out of my way?” I cheered when the good guys blew up the Death Star, and when the evil villain Darth Vader spun out of control in his TIE fighter into the depths of space—promising a sequel. And there have been
plenty of sequels and prequels since that first episode. Altogether the Star Wars movies have made $37 billion. The film franchise’s creator, George Lucas, sold the rights to the movies to Disney in 2012 for $4 billion. And now Disney expects to make $425 million in one weekend when the next installment, The Last Jedi, opens tomorrow. When the first movie came out, some Christians immediately condemned it, claiming that George Lucas was a closet Hindu and that the movie was a satanic conspiracy aimed at planting New Age ideas into children’s minds. READ MORE
