The Superman hype among evangelicals continues. Newsweek, GetReligion.org, The Daily News Journal in Tennessee, and possibly others have been covering this angle, and most of them quote Stephen Skelton, author of The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero. The latest example of this silliness is this piece from Rick Warren’s Ministry Toolbox at Pastors.com. Here is a typical quote:
Comparing the potential to how churches used The Da Vinci Code in evangelistic efforts, Skelton said the upcoming Superman movie has more positive potential. For example, a pastor talking about The Da Vinci Code must refute the mistakes, or inaccuracies of the movie. Christians must say, “Let me tell you where they got it wrong,” Skelton said.
“With Superman, we have the positive option of telling them where the movie got it right. We have the endorsement of the storytellers,” he added. “We are the messengers, not the interpreters. You have more authority.”
“You have more authority,” as an evangelist, because of a comic-book movie!? “Authority”!? This would have been ripe for the Wittenburg Door, back when that magazine was funny.
Look, I am all in favour of pointing out the parallels between pop myths — or myths of any sort — and the spiritual realities in which I believe. And I had great fun as a child, pointing out the Christological elements in Star Wars (1977), Tron (1982), E.T. (1982), and so on. And I expect to do a bit of that here, too.
But you simply cannot reduce stories to evangelistic tools, not if the stories are any good — you have to interpret them, you have to practise critical discernment, you have to sift through their multiple meanings, you have to engage them with your heart and brain. We need to interpret movies, like all other stories, for what they actually are and not for how we think we can use them.
I’m not saying that Superman Returns will go the Last Temptation route the way the other movies did. But given how Christians have been blithely ignoring that aspect of the original movies, despite the fact that it’s oh-so-visibly there, I think it’s a little premature to be so gung-ho about a movie that we haven’t even seen yet.
And incidentally, Christians who criticized The Da Vinci Code had the endorsement of those storytellers, too — remember how Sony sponsored TheDaVinciDialogue.com? The studios will endorse just about anything if it gets people to buy tickets to their movies.
Oh, one last thing. The article linked above states:
The name of Superman’s arch enemy, Lex Luthor, sounds like “Lucifer,” the “arch enemy” of Jesus and Christians. He is the “evil one.”
Is this really an obvious connection? Because for me, Lex Luthor’s name has always brought, if anyone, Martin Luther to mind.
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