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.

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There's a Thin Line Between Heaven and Here

by Ben Howard

The title of this post is a taken from a show called The Wire. It's a really great show, and I expect I'll write about it at some point in the future, but today's post isn't about the show. This post won't be about pop culture at all, it's just something I need to write. It's about that line and it's about what that line means.

As a lot of you may know, I live in a not so great neighborhood. It isn't necessarily dangerous, but it does have it's seedier elements. In the time I've lived in my apartment I've been broken into three times. Needless to say, that can be a bit frustrating, but such is life and things are just things. However, the last break-in brought about a new experience. A few weeks after the house was broken into, we received word that the perpetrator had been arrested. We're still awaiting word on the outcome of the case, but the prosecutor is convinced he'll go to prison for at least a few years.

Ever since the arrest, I've felt strangely about the entire situation. Since I had the guy's name, I visited his Facebook page. I found out he has a girlfriend and a young daughter. At first, I thought I might be feeling guilt for my role in his probable incarceration, but that wasn't it. He chose his course of action, I never had any control over the situation. I don't feel guilt, but I do feel sadness.

I'm sad for people who feel like they have to steal in order to survive and I'm sad for children who have to grow up without fathers. I'm sad because of a system that treats people like nuisances and rap sheets and robs them of their humanity while simultaneously saying that it's all being done in the name of justice. I'm sad because of that little twinge I feel when I see a lonely black man walking down my street at night, and I'm sad because, while I know it's wrong, I know plenty of people will tell me it's right. I'm sad because it's so easy to see just how broken things are.

There's been a lot of talk about hell in the evangelical community in the last year. In my mind almost all of it misses the point. Why do we worry so much about where everybody will go after they die, yet we have no problem avoiding the very hell that ensnares so many among us? Yes, hell is real. Hell is addiction and pain. It is violence and abuse and depression and that glazed over look of defeat, the loss of hope. Hell is the place where we throw those we no longer know what to do with. Hell is all of the brokenness that batters us on every side. It is the destruction of our very humanity. Hell is here.

The church's task is not about defining where we go when we die. Our job, our mission, the reason we exist is to join with the work of God and the Spirit to bring heaven to the places where hell has infected our day to day. We are in the business of redemption and salvation, not prognosticating about the afterlife. We are being called to bring about the abolition of war and poverty; to stand with the isolated, the hated, and the miserable. We are called to bring reconciliation between the oppressed and the oppressor, between the victim and the criminal. There's a thin line between heaven and here.

Peace,

Ben

You can contact me on Twitter @BenHoward87, leave a comment or email me. I'd love to hear your thoughts.