God Lifts UP, its People who Drag You Down.

It’s been a while since I posted anything faith based in a blog, but a situation arose for a friend of mine that I think bears addressing.  I won’t get into all of her story, if you know her then you probably already know the basics, but her story is just that, her story.  You want to know, let her tell you if she deems you so worthy.

There was one particular comment during the whole thing that caught my attention and it addressed sexuality and sin and, indirectly the concept of shame and it got me thinking: What kind of being did God initially intend us to be?

To better understand that, we need to look at what affects occurred after the fall from grace.  Going to Genesis 3: 7-10 “7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.””

We get from this passage that the immediate negative effects of disobey God is the introduction of sin into the world and with it death.  God didn’t intend for us to die, that wasn’t in the blueprints, but it’s a result of the corruption that sin brings.  But death is a pretty far off concept for Adam and Eve at this point, who live for several hundred years past this event.  No, the immediate result of this action is the feeling of shame.

Shame is a very useful tool of evil minded people and entities.  Shame, guilt, regret are all things that weigh us down as people, and if you are weighed down you can’t soar to the heights God has prepared for you.  Think about it.  Don’t you feel heavier when you are replaying your most embarrassing moment in your head, when you think about all the problems you’ve caused, all the strife going on in your life?  You do, there is an almost tangible weight holding your heart down, like…chains.

The chains of guilt, shame, and regret are very real, but they can be shed.  This is one of the points of Christ coming to Earth and walking among us, and why his actions are still being talked about two thousand years later.  His actions are an embodiment of what God wants his relationship to be with us.  To understand that, you need to look at who Christ was among the most.  He hung out with the…sinners.  The people who society shackled with…wait for it…shame, guilt, and regret.  He did that to shed them of these chains, to bring them to the heights God wants them to ascend to.

At absolutely no point in the Bible does Christ expect his followers to be perfect.  In fact, its their imperfections that he appreciates, because with your own issues comes and understanding, an empathy with people who are dealing with similar issues.  You know who make the best counselors?  The people who have walked through the same fires as you.  God knows you are a work in progress, because He’s the one doing the work.  He’s bringing you to a point where He needs you to be and its faith in Him that allows us to let Him do His work.

Regardless of what you have done or what you are going through, He’s always with you and he wants you to shed those chains of shame and guilt and regret.  Does that mean you’re going to suddenly be this perfect being?  Absolutely not.  You are going to stumble, and there will be opportunity for shame, guilt, and regret to come back.  That’s life.  But you have to make a conscious choice to let that weigh you down.  When the world looks at you and says “I’m going to spread your dirty laundry all over the place.” You look back at it and say “Okay.” Because God already loves you for who you are, and nothing the world says is going to change that, regardless of your sin.

And let me cover one other thing before I close this off:  What exactly constitutes a major sin?  Did you break up a marriage?  Did you cause someone to turn away from God?  Did you kill someone?  I don’t mean metaphorically, I mean actually directly kill someone.  Because I hear a lot of people talking about how certain types of sexuality are sins and, frankly Christ was remarkably quiet about that.  Yes the Old Testament talked a lot about how men should lay only with women and so forth but that’s when Israel was a very small nation and you got more Israelites by making babies.  Back then homosexuality was basically treason.  By the time Christ came around, this was not a problem and his ultimate silence on the matter makes me believe that was probably no longer an issue.  He wasn't exactly subtle by saying "Love is the most important thing." 

I think, as long as you aren’t violating someone’s human rights or causing deep psychological (or physical) scars you’re probably ok.

Anyway, hope that helps.

God bless.

Superheroes and Faith

In the recently released trailer for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, there is a brief clip that features a massive statue of Superman with the words “False God” scrawled across his chest.  Now obviously the character of Superman would never present himself as God, or even “a god”, but it does raise an interesting question; how do you handle faith in a world with superheroes?

First, I want to clear up some definitions:  Faith as defined by Merriam-Webster is “strong belief or trust in someone or something: belief in the existence of God: strong religious feelings or beliefs: a system of religious beliefs.”  The Bible defines faith in Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Yet in, say superhero films, you “see” the amazing all the time.  You see the things that shouldn’t be possible fly all over the world.  How do you deal with a question of faith in a world that has Thor and Loki and the Hulk, in a world that has the King of Atlantis working alongside a man who can run faster than the speed of sound and the last survivors of alien races?

Just yesterday I saw a meme that featured Captain America, pointed out “Met two gods, still a Christian.”  This drew a line of dialog from the Avengers film; where in Captain America was in pursuit of Thor, Loki, and Iron-Man.  Black Widow states “Might want to sit this one out, those guys are basically gods.” To which the Star Spangled hero replies “There’s only one God, ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.”

When that line was spoken in the film, my wife and I fist pumped and laughed, but now thinking about it, it probably shows the most well rounded opinion of the fantastic things going on, and speaks to just how people of that universe approach faith.

Steve Rogers sees Thor and Loki not as they have been perceived by mythology, but for who they are.  They are another race, another species, and not celestial beings.  He treats aliens and their fantastic abilities and powers no different than he would the Tony Stark, because to him, they really aren’t any different.

It’s a problem we see in our own culture.  We see men and women with amazing talents, namely actors and athletes, and we hold them up on high and attribute to them special qualities, and hold them to a higher moral standard.  When they fail to meet our lofty standards we demonize them.

This is paralleled in the trailer for Batman v. Superman.  Clearly society, or at least a group of society, has lifted Superman above the rest, holding him either to a higher moral standard or even deifying him, and when he either refuses or fails to follow that path, they demonize him, decrying him as “a false god.”

But in Man of Steel, Superman never held himself above other people.  In fact, when faced with a difficult choice, he went to a pastor, he sought out a higher authority, he sought out God, he acted on…faith.

Yet, if you notice, the characters that ultimately lead to questions of faith aren’t technically human.  Thor, Loki, and Superman are all aliens.  Now I’ve heard it said that aliens would invalidate faith by proving that we, humans, are not God’s only creation…but if you go back to the Bible, it’s never stated that Earth was the only thing in the cosmos that God created life on.

Let’s take a look at what the Catholic Church as to say.  I go to them because they are considered the ultimate right-wing, ultimate conservative, ultimate nay-sayers and surely they would be the first to stand up and say aliens aren’t possible because they aren’t mentioned in the Bible…

Well, doing a quick Google search on the topic, you find officials with the Catholic Church; all the way to the Pope himself, when faced with the question “Do you think alien life exists?” shrug and say “Yeah, probably.”

While the Catholic Church could be considered the ultimate “creationists” they also admit that creation is a really big thing.  There is a lot to creation that we are discovering every day.  New species, impossible lifeforms are being found all the time, but that doesn’t make the church rip up Bibles, nor does it make them wave their finger saying “that’s just not real.”

Obviously in the universe contained within the films themselves, they are faced with the irrefutable fact of alien life, main characters are aliens after all, but their existence doesn’t immediately discredit God.

In fact, nothing discredits God.  Even the characters who have amazing powers to traverse impossible distances and venture into the dark unknown admit there is something more powerful out there, something they can’t understand.  It’s why they learn, why they study, because they are still amazed by a greater knowledge yet to be discovered.

So is there a place for Christian faith in, say the Marvel or DC movie universes?  There absolutely is, because even when you have a bunch of answers, they only lead to more questions.

Thanks for reading.