On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 23 - On Superheroes

by Ben Howard

Ben, Jesse and Sebastian sit down to discuss superheroes, superhero movies and why we love them so much. We talk about superheroes as salvation figures, whether Superman is Jesus or Moses, how superheroes respond to our desire for control over chaos, and how the ethos behind superheroes presents a negative view of humanity. We also talk about weird stuff like when Superman fought the Ku Klux Klan. Join and enjoy our rambling and kind of ridiculous ravings.

You can download the podcast by clicking here. Or you can subscribe to the podcast by searching "On Pop Theology" in the iTunes music store. If you download the show through iTunes, please be so kind as to rate and review us. We want your feedback and it helps the show to grow. 

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Peace,
Ben

If you have any questions, comments, or if you just want to say hi, you can contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com.

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• On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 22 - Jason Collins, Homosexuality, and Christianity
• On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 21 - Doctor Who, The Hunger Games and God w/ Julie Clawson
• On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 20 - Sex, Violence, and the Gods of Westeros

 

Superman: Our Post-Post 9/11 Hero

by Steven Lefebvre 

I defy you to find a person who is more excited about the upcoming Man of Steel movie in June as I am. However, as a youth minister I am finding it difficult to rally my pupils around the release of this movie. In contrast, last summer I spent a week with my teens making a Batman movie in honor of the release of the Dark Knight Rises and it was the most popular idea I have ever had.

I have seen it in the media, I’ve argued with my friends, and I’ve heard it in the groaning of students when I told them we’re going to make a Superman movie this summer. America loves Batman and Superman is too "June Cleaver."

Let me tell you why you loved Batman:

Christopher Nolan’s Batman is a masterpiece of connecting mythology with culture. When the franchise began in 2004 we were living in a post 9-11 world. We didn’t trust anybody. Not Muslims, not the Bush Administrations, not even our own opinions and perspectives. Post modernity was on everyone’s lips. We began unpacking the metanarratives; that is the story behind the story. Everything was up for speculation and evil was everywhere, even within my own soul.

Enter Nolan’s Dark Knight; a story that ultimately discusses that eliminating the evil in this world must begin within. Bruce Wayne conquers his fears and doubts by embracing them. And the ends justify the any means necessary if your heart desires justice and there’s a lunatic threatening to kill everyone (remember that Sonar machine Wayne had built using everyone’s cell phone). In a post 9-11 world we needed a hero to teach us how to deal with all the uncontrollable evils in this world: By being on the side of justice at all costs both in our actions and in our character.

And then last summer someone killed a bunch of people in a theatre in Colorado, coincidentally during the release of Nolan’s final chapter to his Dark Knight trilogy. And I believe we’ve never been the same since. It seems in the last year public mass killings is all the news reports on, just when it gets quiet someone sets off a bomb during the Boston Marathon or shoots some kids in Connecticut.

Our conversation has dramatically shifted from terrorists in the Middle East to terrorists next door, and now we find ourselves in what I am calling the post-post-9-11 era. We’ve shifted from airport security to gun control, racial profiling to background checks.

It’s not so much about what to do about evil in this world, it’s about asking an even bigger question: Is humanity doomed? Are we as a society deteriorating? Do I need to carry weapons on my belt to protect my family and me? Can I trust anybody? Are people good?

The answer I have to all of those questions is: yes.

To quote Fred Rogers: ‘Whenever I saw something scary on the news, my mother would remind to look for the people who are helping. There are always people helping.”

Whether it is underpaid and overly criticized teachers taking bullets for their pupils or people running into the blast site to help, we as the human race have beaten the terrorists simply by way of virtue. 

And this is the overarching story I believe Zach Snyder will tell us in his Superman epic. You see, Superman is a demi-God, his battle isn’t with bullets or being overpowered. Superman’s battle is with humanity as a whole. Are we the kind of people worth saving? Why does Superman with all of his power choose to serve us rather than rule over us? Why in light of all the evil things we do, does Superman race into burning buildings, stop rock slides, and save Lois Lane from a helicopter accident? Because we as human beings are worth saving!

Superman exists to demonstrate to us the good in humanity, something we all need to be reminded of as our 24-hour news cycles perpetuate a lost and broken narrative about all of us.

Superman is the hero of post-post 9-11 America.

Shalom.

Steven is the Director of Youth and Young Adults at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He also rocks a fantastic bow tie. Check out his blog Adventures in Emerging Young Adulthood and follow him on Twitter @stevenlefebvre.

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology.
 
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• The Paradox of Superman
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• What Nolan's Batman Movies and Jesus Have Taught Me About How to Respond to the Shooting in Aurora 

Rule Number 1: Your Faith Lies

by Ben Howard

I only started watching Doctor Who about a month ago. Depending on your position on the nerdcore scale this is either totally meaningless or an egregious error in judgment that possibly puts into question whether you can ever trust me again.

Now, I'm not thoroughly indoctrinated (see what I did there) into the mythology of the show since I've only watched the most recent three seasons and a handful of earlier episodes. However, even in that small amount some of the larger themes have definitely caught my eye. The Doctor's refusal to use violence is almost prophetic in the way it speaks into our cultures obsession with force and bloodshed. I also love the way the Doctor is both playful and profoundly sad thus showcasing the fact that silliness is not disconnected from seriousness.

There are tons of examples of wonderful truths being spoken and explored by this show, but the most fascinating aspect of the show that I've encountered so far is also a very simple one.

In fact, it's rule number one: the Doctor lies.

At this point in my life it's almost impossible to watch or read anything without immediately making theological comparisons. I mean, I've probably got a thousand words rattling around somewhere about how Alex Trebek is like an all-knowing God or how Wipeout is an apt depiction of the Christian walk. However, watching Doctor Who is something much more profound than that, it's more like watching the first Superman movie; it's almost begging you to compare the hero to Christ.

Before you ask, no, I am not about to say that Jesus lies. At least, not quite. It’s more interesting than that.

Rule number one comes up on the show so consistently because the Doctor’s companions have to be constantly reminded. Even though they know the truth, even though they’ve been told over and over again that the Doctor lies, they still believe him. They have faith in him.

The Doctor always saves them, always comes back for them, always makes sure that the good guys win and the bad guys lose and the, and since they believe him to be so trustworthy, they are blinded to the fact that he isn’t always truthful. Their faith, their honest, earnest and defensible faith deceives them about reality.

The Doctor tells his companions and friends that he lies, yet they believe him with unquestioning faith anyways.

I think that’s what God and Doctor Who have in common. Followers so full of faith that it can drown out the sounds of reality, so full of faith that it drown out the lessons they’ve been told over and over again about who they’re really following and how wild and unrestrained by rules he really is.

This is far from a call to stop believing, that’s impossible. Everyone has beliefs, and of course they think they’re beliefs are true, otherwise they’d get new ones. No, this is a statement about the certainty of our faith. While our faith is valid and good, that certainty is an illusion. Our faith lies.

Sometimes the things we whole-heartedly believe turn out to be wrong and that’s an incredibly difficult thing to admit. When our faith leads us astray, when our faith lies to us about the reality that actually exist, we look everywhere else for answers. We blame our parents, the church we grew up in, we blame God for not being the God we originally believed in. It’s hard to bear the tension that comes with a faith that can only ever be incomplete and fallible.

Our perception of God, Jesus, and he Holy Spirit is always, in some ways, a lie. It is always wrong. Whether it’s off only a little or a lot, the certainty that comes with faith is always an illusion.

So perhaps the real comparison isn't between Doctor Who and God, or Doctor Who and Jesus, but between Doctor Who and our constructs of God and Jesus. The reality of God and Jesus evade us, they’re complexity is something far beyond us. Remember, it says in Isaiah, “Your thoughts are not my thoughts and your ways are not my ways.”

These constructs are our creations. They come from our families, our traditions, our experiences,our fears, and our desires. They are valuable and beautiful and necessary.

But remember rule number one, they lie.

Peace,

Ben

Ben Howard is an accidental iconoclast (see!) and generally curious individual living in Nashville, Tennessee. He is also the editor-in-chief of On Pop Theology and an avid fan of waving at strangers for no reason. You can follow him on Twitter @BenHoward87.

You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology.

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The Paradox of Superman

Today a guest post borrowed from my friend Steven Lefebvre.  Steve writes a blog called Adventures in Emerging Young Adulthood and posts news on his band Steven Bradley and the Parishioners at stevenlefebvre.com.

One last thing, if you're in Nashville, tomorrow night at 7 pm we'll be watching and discussing 50/50 in the Youth Room at St. Bartholomew's.

Peace,

Ben

--------------

by Steven Lefebvre

There’s a scene in the movie Kill Bill where the antagonist, Bill, gives a poetically dark monologue about Superman and it’s the ending of which that has been racking my brain all day today:

Now at the end of this monologue Bill turns to the protagonist, Kiddo and tells her she was born a killer and will always be a killer, etc. etc.  That’s not the part that gets me though.  It’s what Bill doesn’t say in this monologue that has me stuck. 

Yes, Superman sees humanity as weak and cowardly, but Superman, who is not human, still chooses to save us.  Now the obvious answer is that he was raised by humans and therefore feels deeply connected to his adopted parents.  But if you read many of the Superman publications this is in fact the tension of Superman: why should the alien Superman save humanity?  In Superman novels time and time again, humanity is letting Superman down, giving their allegiances to Lex Luther or some other entity of evil that promises them safety and prosperity.  Even in the Hollywood-ized Christopher Reeves movies, Superman lives in his fortress of solitude and can never have Lois Lane as his own.  Superman has nothing to gain from us, and yet, time and time again, when humanity is in trouble Superman comes to the rescue.

Is this the Kingdom of God?  In a transactional, consumer world, where motivation is congruent with personal gain, is doing the thing that makes no sense, the place where God grows and the ways of death cease?

If we have been wired to believe that you do only what gives you the biggest return then doing good for the sake of others must seem alien or even foolish.  But yet, people still do good things.  Everyday.  Whether it's conscious in their minds or crammed away deep in their sub conscience people work against the empire of selfishness, power, personal wealth, and societal status to do good.  But even I, a 'professional' christian am constantly having to fight my desires to join the status quo and build my own empire.  After all it is sexier and being adored is quite a rush. 

But, where would Metropolis be without Superman?  What if Superman followed this so-called status quo?  What if Superman required Metropolis to pay him back, could they ever repay him?  Certainly not!  But yet we’d rather have Superman than no Superman at all.  Even if it doesn’t make any sense at all for Superman, we still want Superman.  Superman is good.  And if Superman is good why don't we do likewise?

Perhaps, we all try to do something today that doesn’t make sense.  Care for a child that isn’t yours.  Give money without taking any credit for it.  Be kind to a stranger, even if they aren’t homeless.  Perhaps, this may be a way to get out of the flow that doesn't seem to be going anywhere...

Shalom 

You can follow Steven on Twitter @stevenlefebvre.  You can follow me on Twitter as well @BenHoward87