Monday, May 16, 2005
Books explore ties between popular culture, faith and values
Sleeping through Sunday school? Dozing through your devotionals?
Never fear! Superman is here, with something else more powerful than a locomotive: the Gospel.
Turns out that generations of American kids who fidgeted through Sunday services may have unknowingly received faith-based values from the Man of Steel and other characters in comic books and popular culture.
Austin writer Greg Garrett, in his new paperback "Holy Superheroes!" by Pinon Press, tries not to take the comparison too far. After all, comic books were not written for religious purposes. But the point is to see what the popular narratives can teach about life.
Consider, for example, Greg Garrett's comparison between Superman and Jesus Christ:
_ Superman was sent to this world by a wise and powerful father and was raised by an earthly family.
_ His miracles showed he was something special _ some might even say godlike.
_ As an adult, he embarked on a mission of salvation for the world.
In Batman, Garrett finds an incarnation of God's justice. The story of Spider-Man carries a theme that great responsibility comes with great power, and the followers of the X-Men learn that violence doesn't solve bigotry and hatred.
Garrett, who is studying to become an Episcopal priest, knows marrying popular culture with faith-based values is kryptonite to some Christians. But he believes mythic heroes "pull us to what is noble in our nature, remind us of what we need to be doing and why we're here on the planet."
The writer, who is also an English professor at Baylor, grew up in a Southern Baptist home where he appreciated the beauty of the language in the King James Bible.
He also developed a fondness for storytelling. But his slim, spiritual-themed volume is not about winning souls.
"I was raised an evangelical Christian, and I'm kind of off that," he said. "I'm a devout Christian, but I'm about far as you can get as far as someone trying to enforce his beliefs on anybody else."
Garrett maintains that universal truths can be found in the colorful, caped heroes of America's past. Superman, for example, was invented in 1938 by two Jewish teenagers as a force for "truth, justice and the American way."
He's not alone. New Testament scholar Burton Mack writes that secular popular culture myths "draw their power from their uncanny similarity to features of the biblical epic."
Mack, in "Who Wrote the New Testament?", compares the Lone Ranger with Jesus "coming into a world unable to solve its problems."
God can even be found in places some consider godless, like R-rated movies, Garrett and others contend.
Presbyterian minister Ed McNulty took Quentin Tarantino's film "Pulp Fiction" _ criticized for its violence _ as a movie about the concept of grace.
"In scripture, God almost always communicates with people not in so-called religious ways but in secular ways," said McNulty, who produces a Kentucky-based film journal called "Visual Parables."
Garrett, 43, previously gained widespread attention for "The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in the Matrix," with Houston pastor Chris Seay. In their 2003 book, the authors examined the action movie for hidden spiritual meanings.
The idea angered some conservative Christians. Conversely, Garrett said, some secular critics panned it because of its Christianity.
"Gen X and Gen Y, what we largely call the unchurched, seekers, people who are spiritual and not necessarily religious _ they got it," he said.
Associated Press
05/15/2005
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