Samson Smash!

"Samson said, 'Let me die with the Philistines!' Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived" (Judges 16:30).

My friend Gordon Jennings asked me to draw a cover for a comic book for the Contact Church's summer camp. He wants to have something to print on t-shirts for the kids. The theme is Superheroes of the Bible. So I drew a picture of Samson bringing down the temple of the Philistines.

Sin, Temptation, and the Dark Knight

This is not a review of The Dark Knight, the latest Batman movie, but it is a post about one of the movie's major themes. A good review can be found at http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0004153.cfm.

In The Dark Knight, we see the Joker creating chaos and desperation through terrorist attacks upon the citizens of Gotham City. His ultimate goal appears to be to cause enough distress among the people of the city that they will turn on each other, harm each other, and murder each other.

The Joker convinces one police officer to aid him by bribing her. Since she was struggling with paying her mother's hospital bills, she caved in to the Joker's offer and became an accomplice in murder.

In one scene, the Joker rigged two ferry boats with explosives. As the ferries were crossing the bay with people trying to escape the chaos in Gotham City, the Joker cut their power. He provided a trigger devise for each ferry, but each devise would trigger an explosion on the other boat. Then he announced that the people on one boat could blow up the other ferry. If they did so, they would survive. If neither ferry exploded by midnight, the Joker would blow up both of them. The people were facing the choice of murder or be murdered.

The Joker exploited a weakness in human character, a weakness acknowledged in Scripture: As people become more desperate, they become more vulnerable to the temptation to commit evil acts against others. For example, in Deuteronomy 28:53-57, we read, "Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you. Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. The most gentle and sensitive woman among you--so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot--will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities" (NIV). As Jesus said, "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold" (Matthew 24:12, NIV).

Unfortunately, we don't need to get very desperate before we are tempted to sin. Losing a few hours of sleep over a few nights can make us vulnerable to impatience and outbursts of anger. A tight budget can tempt us to cheat others out of their money or to refuse to help someone in greater need.

While The Dark Knight has a few flaws, it explores some weighty issues surrounding human nature, sin, and temptation. In showing our vulnerabilities, it humbles us. It reveals how close we may be to becoming villains ourselves.

Iron Man: Learning to be Responsible

This afternoon, I took my family to see Iron Man, a new movie based on the comic book series. As usual, I enjoyed it. I nearly always like summer action movies based on comic books.

In this movie, we meet Tony Stark, the head of a major manufacturer of weapons called Stark Industries. Tony is a super-smart, super-rich playboy who has never grown up. He develops all kinds of weapons for the U.S. government, but does not think about how they may be used or misused. In fact, he thinks of no one but himself (as can be seen in the way he uses women for his pleasure and treats them like trash afterwards).

Early in the movie, Tony is ambushed in Afghanistan by a group of terrorists who demand that he build a powerful weapon known as the Jericho missile. During his capture, the terrorists injure his heart and another captured scientist creates a device to keep his heart pumping. Soon Tony learns that his weapons are being bought on the black market by terrorists. His inventions are not making the world safer; they are being used as tools in the hands of evil men to harm the innocent. As the two scientists pretend to assemble the missile, they are actually building an Iron Man suit which they plan to use in an escape attempt.

During the escape, the other captured scientist loses his life to save Tony's. Before he dies, he urges Tony, "Don't waste your life." The entire experience changes Tony Stark in profound ways. He ceases to be the self-absorbed brilliant playboy and becomes a man. He embraces his responsibility to protect the people who had been placed in grave danger by his earlier irresponsibility. The rest of the movie tells the story of a man who has finally grown up.

I liked the message of Iron Man and look forward to buying it when it is released on DVD.

Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer

Last week, Janet, Christopher, and I saw Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, the second in the series of movies based on the comic book. This movie was quite a bit better than the original.

I have always been a fan of the Silver Surfer. He struck a deal to be the slave of a world-devouring monster so that his girlfriend and home planet would be spared. As a result, he roams the galaxy looking for worlds with life-energy for his master, Galactus, to consume. I always found his story to be an interesting moral dilemma for a comic book to explore. (Is the Silver Surfer a villain or a hero? It depends on which planet you live on...Earth or his home world.) I was reminded of our world's child soldiers, the poor and homeless orphans who are kidnapped and forced to serve in corrupt militias around the world (look around http://www.worldvision.org for more information about child soldiers). They commit horrible acts, but they are doing so because of the evil men who have enslaved them.

I liked how Susan Storm convinced the Silver Surfer in the movie that he had a choice. He did not need to serve Galactus. He could choose to save Earth. Sometimes we need the encouragement of others to do the right thing.

I also appreciated the wish of Susan and Reed to live a normal life together. In the end, they chose to use their powers to protect and benefit humanity, even though it meant living as celebrities without the privacy and anonymity of a private life. Their sense of responsibility reminded me of the message of the Spider-Man movies and comic books ("With great power comes great responsibility").

I like good summer action movies, and I thought that this was a good one. I enjoyed it as much as Alien vs. Predator from a few years ago (and that one was surprisingly good). In addition, Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer promoted good, solid, ethical ideals...choosing to do good even when it meant sacrifice, and a strong sense of social responsibility over personal self-interests). It was worth seeing.

Comic Book Heroes

"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48, NIV).

"With great power comes great responsibility" (Uncle Ben to Peter Parker, the amazing Spider-Man).

I'll admit that I'm a nerd. I love comic books and comics strips. I always have. I always will. From my childhood, I remember Mom and Dad reading the Sunday comics and comic books to me before I could read myself.

I loved the X-Men. (The first two movies captured the essence of the comic books that I read in the late 1970s and early 1980s). The New Teen Titans were great in the early 1980s (but the cartoon series of a few years ago was a disaster for those of us who enjoyed the comic books). I developed a sense of social justice from reading Green Lantern/Green Arrow. I read and enjoyed all kinds of comic books until sometime in the early-to-mid 1980s, when I found other interests to occupy my time. But I still have fond memories of spending hours reading the great morality plays of my childhood.

I started thinking about comic books today, because Spider-Man 3 opened in theaters this morning. Spider-Man was a superhero that all people could love, because he was so normal in so many ways. He had acne. He was misunderstood. He disappointed the people he loved. He succeeded in some areas and failed in others. However, he was driven by an inner sense of responsibility to do good in his life. He was a good role model (as were many other superheroes in those days) for children wrestling with questions of right and wrong. I am thankful that my parents read such material to me, and that they encouraged me to continue reading such material on my own.

I have not seen Spider-Man 3 yet, but here are some links to movie reviews and articles about the movie from Christianity Today:
www.christianitytoday.com/dispatch.html?code=headline&url=/movies/reviews/2007/spiderman3.html

www.christianitytoday.com/dispatch.html?code=headline&url=/movies/interviews/samraimy.html

www.christianitytoday.com/dispatch.html?code=headline&url=/movies/commentaries/passionpeterparker.html