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
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Also, remember to "Like" On Pop Theology on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @OnPopTheology for all the updates, posts, and links throughout the week. Finally, if you'd like to stream the podcast, you can do that here:
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.
One of my tasks at work includes responding to emails that come in to our general inbox. I've only been in this particular job for about two months, so I only began responding to these emails about a month ago. This inbox has become one of the highlights of my day and it's not because of the conversations with customers. Apparently, someone, once upon a time, signed our general work email account up for Tea Party email blasts and they are AMAZING!
Not only have they taught me about Barack Obama's numerous secret identities (did you know he was born in Kenya?!?), I also learned that he's a card carrying member of the Communist party!!! I didn't even know they made cards for that anymore!
But let me save the best for last, apparently, if Barack HUSSEIN Obama doesn't win this election, he's planning a military coup to overthrow the government!!! Granted, if you have the ability to mount a military coup then I'm not sure why you'd go through the grueling process of a campaign, but....exclamation points!!!
Clearly, I'm being entirely facetious. At least I hope it was clear because most of that was taken verbatim from the emails I'm referencing. I've never been a fan of conspiracy theories. I think we landed on the moon. I think the JFK assassination was weird, but there was only one gunman. I'm confident 9/11 was not an inside job. I would say that banks did not commit fraud during the financial collapse of 2008, but they certainly committed stupidity. And yes, I'm convinced that Barack Obama was born in the United States, assuming convinced is the correct word for something I never questioned for a moment.
It's really hard to lie that big without people finding out. Ask Richard Nixon. So why do these stories persist? Easy. We don't trust each other. At all. In fact, you can probably say that we're terrified of each other.
A couple weeks ago Peter Enns wrote a great article entitled "Dear Christian: If the Thought of Either Romney or Obama Getting Elected Make You Fearful, Angry, or Depressed, You Have What We Call a Theological Problem." He goes on to talk about how politics have become a rival eschatology to Christianity and how hope in politics has replaced hope in an authentic salvation that politicians and governments can never fully supply. I think he's right, but I also think we need to remember the call to love our neighbor and remember that "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear." This is what I was getting at yesterday when I said that I want to know what you're for, and not what you're against. I want to know what you love, and I want that love, that hope, that anticipation for something better to drive out the fear that infects us all so deeply. Will a person be able to provide this? No. Will an election take us closer to the world as it was intended to be? I can't say that it's likely. But we can still hope. We can still try. We are not called by God to recreate and redeem his world on our own, we are called to work alongside him as he reclaims and redeems his creation. Maybe politics can help in this redemption, and maybe it can't, but either way let us remember that the person on the other side of the aisle is just as much God's creation as we are. They are our neighbors.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are our neighbors. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are our neighbors. The members of the Tea Party are our neighbors. The Occupy Movement are our neighbors. So are the Israelis and the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Iranians, the Muslim Brotherhood, the English, the French, the Germans and anybody and everybody else across this planet. They are all God's creation and let us remember that we love them, no matter what. 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.
Hello everybody! Today we have a guest post from Josh Kiel. It's really good, so I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.
Peace,
Ben
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by Josh Kiel
I'll just say it, I think South Park is
a great TV show. For all of its blatant offensiveness and
scatological humor it does have moments of deep insight where it
critiques our society and our culture. This post is about one
of these moments, though possibly an unintentional one. A few
years ago, the creators of South Park made a trilogy of episodes
titled “Imaginationland.” As you can assume, Imaginationland is
an imaginary place where all the characters of human imagination
live. The plot of this trilogy involves Imaginationland being
attacked by Al Qaeda terrorists who, in an attempt to “make our
imaginations run wild,” end up unleashing the bad characters of
Imaginationland upon the good. The story climaxes in a battle
between good and evil, with one character from the real world,
Butters spurring the good characters onto victory by imagining
weapons for them.
There are a variety of points that this
episode attempts to make regarding fear, terrorism, the power of our
minds to control us and so on, but there is another interesting
statement that the creators may or may not have intentionally made.
It just so happens that the creators of South Park include Jesus as
one of the imaginary characters in Imaginationland. At first, I
saw this as outright blasphemy, but then, late in the episode there
comes one very brief moment that stuck out in my mind and gave me
pause. In this scene, the real person (Butters) is imagining
reinforcements and enhancements for the imaginary characters in order
to turn the tide of the battle. As part of the reinforcements
Butters imagines Jesus with an M-60 machine gun. It is in that
moment that I think the creators of South Park, perhaps
unintentionally, justified Jesus presence in Imaginationland.
Throughout history and even today there have been calls to fight a
"Christian War" in the name of Jesus I can only
believe that these calls come under the banner of an Imaginary
Jesus. From observing the culture of Christianity today I see
multiple instances of an Imaginary Jesus expressed in a variety of
ways. Some are easy to spot. Imaginary Jesus is the War Jesus,
the Prosperity Jesus or the Santa Jesus, or the It's Okay to Hate the
Gays/Muslims/Atheists Jesus. There are more subtle ones as well
such as the Holier Than Thou Jesus or the Look Out for Number One
Jesus (on whose side I occasionally err), or the Self-Loathing, You
Must Doubt Your Redemption Jesus. I see all of these versions
of an Imaginary Jesus as efforts by us to try and change who Jesus is
as opposed to changing ourselves when we fail to live up to who we're
called to be. Christ came to Earth for the salvation of
all mankind through his death and resurrection. To be followers
of the one who came not to judge the world, but to save it and who
also instructs us to love God with all our hearts and love our
neighbors as ourselves is a call to display these characteristics in
spite of being broken people in a broken world. I know that
when I fail to exhibit these traits there is a desire to justify my
failure in some way, to convince myself of my own righteousness
instead of my need for forgiveness. I think this is where a lot
of our Imaginary Jesus depictions come from. In the end so many
versions of Jesus boil down to an inner conflict in which we try to
justify our relationships with the people around us and the person we
have been called to be. We try to make Christ more like
ourselves instead of striving to make ourselves more like Christ.
When we think of Jesus do we see the Incarnation of Freedom and
Redemption or the Lord of Oppression and Hate? Do we see him healing
people or holding a machine gun?
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
