I don’t watch R-rated movies anymore. I hardly even watch PG-13-rated movies. The exceptions I make to this rule are few and far between and well thought out. The last exception I made was American Zion. The one before that was Saints and Soldiers. American Zion was rated PG-13 for the violoence inflicted upon early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints depicted in the movie, a historical drama. Saints and Soldiers, also a historical drama, is based on the true story of an American soldier fighting in World War II Germany against the people he had earlier served amongst while serving as a missionary for The Church. It, too, earned its PG-13 rating for the violence it depicted.

I choose not to watch R and PG-13-rated movies in an attempt to follow the counsel of modern-day prophets to avoid violence, vulgar language, and immorality in movies. Unfortunately, the Classification and Ratings Administration doesn’t follow the same guideline, resulting in PG-rated movies that contain all of the above undesirable elements. Therefore, their ratings serve me only as a guideline. In the end, I must use my own judgement and follow the promptings of the Spirit in order to determine what is appropriate for me to watch and what is not. As for The Matrix, I first saw the movie a couple of times in the theater before I made the choice not to watch R and PG-13-rated movies anymore. Since then, I’ve also seen it a couple of times as edited for TV or by Clean Flicks. Additionally, I’ve seen the Clean Flicks editions of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

It didn’t take long for me to notice the Gospel symbolism in the Matrix, as well as other literary allusions. And each time I’ve watched it, I’ve discovered more. It’s been like peeling back the layers of the proverbial onion. Now that I’m studying philosophy, I’m finding philosophical allusions in The Matrix as well. Once, when visiting the office of Cy-Fair College Associate professor of philosophy, Jason Moulenbelt, I noticed some books on The Matrix on his bookshelf. One of them, The Gospel Reloaded, was written by a friend of mine, Ecclesia pastor Chris Seay. The other two are The Matrix and Philosophy and More Matrix and Philosophy. On another occasion, lifted a couple of layers of the onion and gave me a peek underneath. A conversation with another professor (this time a zoology professor at BYU), who was interested in the layers of meaning in The Matrix, cinched it. I ordered all three books from Amazon.com and patiently awaited their arrival. The Gospel Reloaded was the first to arrive. I read it in a couple of days.

In The Gospel Reloaded, Chris explores spirituality and faith in the Matrix (as stated in the book’s subtitle). He also covers literary allusions from the more obvious, such as those to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, to the more arcane, such as those to Orpheus and other figures in Greek Mythology. He explores Morpheus as John the Baptist, and God the Father; Neo as his Son, Jesus Christ, or the Messiah; Trinity as the Holy Ghost; and Cypher as Judas Iscariot, and Satan. Chris also explores Gnostic and Buddhist references.