Nicolas Cage Should Be In Jail

by Ben Howard

Today I'm going to take a bit of a break from the Who We Are Instead series because it's my blog and I can do that. Impenetrable logic, I know.

I want to take a break to talk to you about Nicolas Cage. More specifically, I want to talk about why Nicolas Cage should be in jail.

No, not the actual Nicolas Cage. I have no illicit information about the beloved (?) actor. I'm talking about his character Benjamin Gates from the National Treasure movies.

Over the weekend I watched most of National Treasure 2: The Legend of Curly's Gold Book of Secrets. Why did I watch this movie you may ask? Well...it was on. I think that reason is good enough.

If you don't know the premise, Benjamin Gates is a historian/treasure hunter who finds a major fortune in the first movie while evading the machinations of the actor who would become Ned Stark. In the second movie, he is tasked with clearing the name of his ancestor Thomas Gates who is implicated in the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. However, in the process of clearing his great-great grandfather's name he learns of an ancient treasure (name check!) and goes off in search with his sidekicks/family in tow.

Here's the thing, in his quest to clear his long dead ancestor's name and in effect change nothing about the present, Gates commits or attempts to commit the following crimes: Breaking and entering, grand theft, trespassing, hacking, attempted manslaughter, attempted vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident, breaking out of jail, kidnapping the President, espionage against a friendly government and some light treason.

I'm just saying it really shouldn't matter what happens at the end of the movie because according to almost any measure of justice, Benjamin Gates should go to jail and possibly worse if we stick close to the treason argument.

But he doesn't. Because it's a movie. And he's the hero. And the hero doesn't go to jail at the end unless he's Danny Ocean (but only for a few months).

It's really convenient that everybody in an action movie knows it's an action movie. I mean even the extras know how to avoid the cars in the chase scene or the stray bullets that never seem to hit the heroes.

I always wonder about this kind of weird mundane stuff. The things that happen after the adventure. How did the Congressional hearings regarding the Transformers turn out? Did someone decide to start watching the Watchmen? How did the revolution in V for Vendetta go? Will the Avengers face a lawsuit for destroying a city?

I think this is an important perspective to have, especially as a Christian. Not that I think these are actual serious questions, but the ability to have concern about the day to day existence of life once the adrenaline wears off. Everybody wants to be the hero, not so many people want to be the community organizer ten years after the hero saves the world.

When I was 18, I went down to Mississippi for a week to do relief work after Hurricane Katrina. One of the things I remember hearing was that volunteers are always around at the beginning, maybe the first six months to a year, but the real rebuilding can take five to ten years to complete. Not as many come down to help out in years five and six. The heroes are gone and they think the story is over.

This is actually something that has always bothered me about short term mission trips, especially for teenagers and college kids. It allows us to have this kind of Christian Hero Fantasy Camp experience, but then we return back to home and comfort with all the memories of “those cute kids,” but their day to day is probably the same as it was before meeting us.

I'm not meaning to sound cynical, but it's something to consider and something to think about. Do we know what kind of story we are in? Do we know why we are doing the things we are doing? Do we realize that this is real life?

Benjamin Gates is allowed to do whatever he wants with no regard for the long-term consequences because he knows there won't be any. His story will be over in about two hours.

We are not allowed the same luxury. We live in the real world. In the real world, action heroes are overrated and real heroes fight through the day to day grind to try and do a little better to try and help a little more. They know that they won't win, they understand that winning was never the point, it was always about trying, it was about doing justice and mercy even when it was hard and when it hurt.

We can be heroes, but it takes more than one day.

Peace,

Ben

You can follow Ben on Twitter @BenHoward87 or email him at benjamin.howard87 [at] gmail.com.

Also, you can subscribe to On Pop Theology via RSS feed or email on the top right corner of the main page.

Playoffs, Drama, and Jesus

by Ben Howard

I’m going to say something really controversial. I mean this will be more controversial than anything I’ve said about any topic since I started writing this blog. Prepare yourself.

I think playoffs are stupid.

*watches a beer bottle flash by his head and crash against the wall*

Yeah, I know, pretty shocking. That’s the kind of thing you might hear on an ESPN show that was being needlessly provocative, but unlike Stephen A. Smith, I actually believe it.

You tell which of these options sounds like a more reasonable way of determining a champion. A team plays each other team in the league, once at home and once away, at the end of the season the team with the best record wins the league.

Or, a team plays 162 games a season, most of them against teams in the same division, the rest against teams in the same league, except for 12 scattered around to random teams in a different league. Then the best teams, provided they win their division, or win a wildcard spot which includes another one off game, play in a 4 week tournament in which they have to win 11 games in order to be champion.

Pure simplicity and reason points towards option one, European club soccer, over option two, Major League Baseball.

So why do playoffs persist? Why are sports fans adamant about adding playoffs to college football? Why is the college basketball tournament a billion dollar enterprise?

I have a theory.

Playoffs exist for the same reason that romantic comedies and action movies exist. We don’t just want champions, we don’t just want heroes, we want dramatic champions and dramatic heroes. We want champions who go the very brink of defeat only to stare defeat in the face and laugh at it.

We thrive on the drama that shapes the event even if its manufactured.

Since the church is made up of people, it operates the same way. Conversion stories are dramatic, being raised in the church is boring. Soaring emotional ballads where we tell Jesus we love him are dramatic, hymns are old and boring.

In manufacturing the drama we miss the point that while there are certainly ecstatic highs and lows in life, they are not the thing that defines our existence. Beauty and peace and contentment are things we find in the everyday, not in the so-called “mountain top experience.”

We are not a people in search of a faith and a tradition that provides us with thrills, but instead a faith that shapes us into humans the way we were created to be human.

We focus so often on the drama of Christ, the violence of the crucifixion the crescendo of the resurrection, that I wonder if we miss the deeply profound simplicity of Jesus as human. The Word made flesh who dwelt among us.

There is nothing wrong with the soaring heights of a dramatic story, but it does not define the story. The story is the whole, not just the ending. Jesus is the entirety of his life, the incarnation, the teaching, the parables, the prophecies, the love, the crucifixion, the resurrection and the ascension. None of those is a microcosm of the story, they all work together.

The story of the church is the same. It is every bit and every piece. Not just the big moments, but the little ones and the average ones as well. Every bit is part of the story, not just the memorable parts.

A season makes a champion, not just a game.

Peace,

Ben

When he isn’t railing against the implications of playoffs and drama, Ben likes to watch playoffs and drama. I mean, seriously, its exhilarating. You can follow him on Twitter @BenHoward87 or email him at benjamin.howard87 [at] gmail.com.

Also, you can subscribe to On Pop Theology via RSS feed or email on the top right corner of the main page.