My junior year of college a fellow undergraduate running for student body president had “Unity” listed as part of his campaign platform. His oath was to unify the student body. During a debate one moderator asked the candidate, “How much unity does the student body have now? How do you intend to increase unity? And how do you measure unity so you know if you have accomplished your goal?” The candidate squirmed. Unity is a nice idea but is difficult to quantify.

Clearly the world does not have it, says a new movie that debuted in theaters yesterday. Promoted by liberal politicians and Hollywood elites the aim of this film is to bring unity to all of earth. And why not? It worked out so well at Babel (Genesis 11). A lofty goal to be sure, but unity is in short supply on our planet and its all man’s fault. Says one narrator: [Man is] “always striving against each other for power and supremacy; this has been the formula throughout the history of man.” (Actually they are right about that, but for the wrong reason. Self-preservation is not the culprit keeping mankind from living together in bliss, sin is. But they cannot use the “sin” word because that would imply the need for a Savior, and a Savior tends to get In the way of their idea that mankind can save itself.)

The film is titled “Unity: Not the Same but Equal” and attempts to invoke a longing in people’s hearts for a godless utopia where humans, animals and vegetables are all recognized as equals and discover how to forsake the formula of war and strife to find peace and harmony. In the words of the film’s director, Shaun Monson, “I don’t Know that we can raise our consciousness very far as long as some expression of life is inferior.” Why am I suddenly feeling a need to finger-paint rainbows and unicorns?

The problem with their stated philosophy, that humans, animals and plants are all equal, is that it isn’t true. It isn’t true in a Biblical sense as God placed man in authority over all the animals and plants, and it isn’t true in our hearts either. Who among us if faced with the decision to save a person or a ficus from a burning house would choose the plant? God’s law is written on our hearts and it takes a lot of self-deception to believe the life of a plant is as valuable as the life of a person.

The crux of the belief system portrayed in the movie is a very eastern one; we are not supposed to value anything any differently than another, nor are we to see anything as being any different from another because doing so is divisive. Instead we should see all as one. But this is not what God intended. Notice that during the creation account in Genesis chapter one we are told exactly what was created on each day. This is a division not only of days but of creation itself. God causes separation of day from night, for example. At the end of each of the first five days God says “It is good”. On the sixth day, after creating humanity, God makes a distinction and says “it is very good”. God then gives man dominion – that is the right to rule – over everything on the planet. That is another distinction. It makes us separate. Jesus himself said he did not come to bring peace but a sword, and the sword was division not wholeness (Matthew 1.34-39).

The problem isn’t that “we can’t seem to get along with each other, even after thousands and thousands of years” as the Unity movie website claims. The problem is that we are a people fallen from grace who need a Savior. Clearly the teachings of this movie should preclude any involvement for the Christ-follower. Sadly, among the 100 narrators for the film that consists of a who’s-who in Hollywood are a few who claim to be Christian.