Is Superman supposed to be....Jesus?

Get ready...this is a REALLY LONG POST!! But you can handle it, it's about superheroes and stuff...

Oh yeah, and there's tons of spoilers ahead, so...prepare yourself.

It would be an understatement to say I went into The Man of Steel with incredibly low expectations. First of all, I'm a Marvel girl. Though I do enjoy a good Batman movie or Teen Titans cartoon, I feel that DC characters tend to lack the amount of depth and diversity found in their Marvel counterparts. Secondly, DC's last attempt at a Superman movie, Superman Returns, was enormous flop (as was their attempt at a Green Lantern movie, and their sad, sad attempt at Alan Moore's Watchmen.) And thirdly, the critics' reviews of the movie were pretty harsh. BOY, WAS I WRONG.

This movie was fantastic...in EVERY WAY. Great casting, brilliant writing, dynamic film style, mind-blowing special effects. Henry Cavill is a perfect Clark Kent, by far surpassing even Christopher Reeves. Every aspect of the old Superman that seemed ridiculous or cheesy is replaced with the same sort of seriousness found in The Dark Knight trilogy (thanks, Chris Nolan!) By far the greatest DC movie ever made. Maybe even rivaling The Avengers for greatest superhero movie ever made (coming from me, that's a huge freakin' deal.) What's most surprising though, is that it's DROWNING in allegorical symbolism.

For one thing, it's mentioned twice that Clark is 33 years old, the same age that Jesus was when he was crucified. When Zod demands that he surrender himself, or else Zod will destroy the Earth, Clark goes willingly and allows himself to be handcuffed, even though it would be super easy for him to escape. There's even a scene where he goes to see a pastor and there's a stain-glassed window of Jesus on the Mount of Olives conveniently located behind Clark's head. He and the stain-glassed window Jesus are even facing the same direction and have the same expression. It was overwhelmingly symbolic. This got me thinking about how many stories in popular fiction are based on the story of Jesus and how common it is for fantasy heroes to make decisions that parallel his death on the cross. I think this is indicative of how powerful the story of the gospel is, since writers have pulled from it time and time again to make their characters deep and selfless; representing the ultimate good. I've pinpointed some qualities that seem pretty commonplace in characters who take on a Christ-like role in their stories.

• The character is in the role of a leader or a mentor
• The character is from another world, but doesn't stick out as alien (human-looking alien)
• The character has supernatural abilities
• Despite having supernatural abilities, they keep it roughly hidden or refuse to flaunt it (humility)
• The character voluntarily sacrifices himself to save others
• The character miraculously returns to life
• The character's sacrifice saves the entire world
• The character confronts a Satan-like enemy

Thousands of characters exemplify at least one of these qualities, but occasionally there are characters that have nearly every single one! This doesn't necessarily mean that the character is supposed to be a straight-up allegorical representation of Jesus (such as Aslan,) but that the character's situation borrows from the story of Jesus, usually for the purpose of revealing the character's goodness and emotionally charging the audience. Here's a small sampling of popular characters who are put in Christ's self-sacrifice situation.

Harry Potter

     Christ-like qualities:

• Supernatural Abilities
• Humility 
• Self-Sacrifice
• Resurrection
• Saves the world
• Satan-like enemy

Yes, I know that tons of Christians think that Harry Potter is all black magic and divination. C'mon, people, it's a fantasy story! It's also by far the best selling book series to date, so it's influence in out culture is impossible to ignore. Anyways. In the final installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry is forced with the decision to face his life-long enemy, Lord Voldemort. He knows that this final encounter will end with either his death or Voldemort's, so of course he's terrified. However, Harry knows that Voldemort will destroy both his world and the non-wizarding world if he's allowed to rise to power, so Harry offers to face him alone, and allows himself to be tortured and killed. Because of the innocence and selflessness of his sacrifice, Harry is able to overcome the dark magic, return to life, and destroy Voldemort. If that's not a rehashing of the gospel story, I don't know what is. Oh, and he's regularly called "The Chosen One" throughout the series, so there's that too.

Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings)

• Leader/ Mentor
• Supernatural abilities
• Humility
• Self-sacrifice
• Resurrection
• Satan-like enemy

Gandalf is an interesting character because although he is present in several of Tolkien's books, he is never cast as the main character. He tends to hang in the background, pulling off fantastic feats that few of his companions even get to witness. Although his friends know he is a wizard, none of them really know how powerful he actually is because he's so dang humble about everything. He 's easy-going;  a lover of animals, pipe-smoking and happy little hobbits. So when Gandalf does bust out, everyone is shocked. The most Christ-like set of scenes we  see Gandalf in are in The Fellowship of the Ring, when Gandalf volunteers to fight the Satanic-looking Balrog in Moria to save the lives of the fellowship. It appears to the fellowship that Gandalf falls to his death in order to destroy the monster, but in reality he survived and the two battled on, eventually resulting in Gandalf's victory. Later in The Two Towers, Gandalf's return is heavily reminiscent of Christ's reveal to his disciples. Not only is Gandalf alive again, he is the new-and-improved Gandalf the White whom Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli fail to recognize.Other characters in Tolkien's works play allegorical roles such as Aragorn (the unassuming ranger who turns out to be the king of Gondor) and Eru (the creator of Middle Earth featured in The Silmarillion.) It should be noted that J.R.R. Tolkien was a Catholic and encouraged his friend and  fellow fantasy writer, C.S. Lewis, to return to Christianity. Speaking of C.S. Lewis....

Aslan (The Chronicles of Narnia)

•  Leader/Mentor
• Human-looking alien (well...Narnian-looking Non-Narnian)
• Supernatural Abilities
• Humility
• Self-sacrifice
• Resurrection
• Satan-like enemy

This one's pretty obvious because C.S. Lewis actually intended Aslan to be the Narnian incarnation of Jesus, so the similarities between Aslan and Jesus kinda go on and on. First of all, Aslan made Narnia in the The Magician's Nephew, so he's even Old Testament Jesus as well. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is by far the most gospel-like book in the series, where we see Aslan offer himself to be mocked and killed by the White Witch in Edmund Pevensie's place. When Aslan comes back to life the next morning, the Stone Table to which he was bound breaks (which could represent the ripping of the tabernacle curtain.) Also, Susan and Lucy are there to witness Aslan's resurrection in the same way that Mary and Mary Magdalene were there at Jesus' empty tomb. In The Last Battle, Aslan leads the children into a "New Narnia" at the end of the age which essentially mimics the New Heaven and New Earth mentioned in the book of Revelation. Yeah...

The  Doctor (Doctor Who)

• Leader/Mentor
• Human-looking alien
• Supernatural abilities
• Humility
• Self-sacrifice
• Resurrection
• Saves the world
• Satan-like enemy

Anyone who watches Doctor Who knows that the Doctor is far from a perfect hero. He's had to make some tough choices, some of which involve abandoning his companions in parallel universes, destroying whole races and planets,  lying, cheating, stealing and running away from responsibility. For a character that's done so much bad to be considered a hero, he's got to have a remarkable character that makes up for it all. The writers of Doctor Who have used Christ-like situations to redeem the Doctor's character countless times since the show first aired in 1963. He's constantly standing up to insidious villains, offering to sacrifice himself for his friends, and, of course, doing whatever it takes to save the universe. And of course, he's come back to life countless times through regeneration. In the episode, "The Satan Pit," he even meets a beast that looks and behaves like the devil himself.

  Not to mention this little get-up he donned in "The Wedding of River Song."

He dresses like Jesus now. Jesus is cool.---->

What I find most interesting about the Doctor's Christ-like nature is that Doctor Who is very much not a Christian television show.  For the most part, the universe in which the Doctor lives is one chiefly governed by science and every trace of supernatural phenomena always turns out to be some weird alien or a futuristic technology that we don't yet understand. In short, it's a God-free universe. However, it's hard to ignore the Christian influence that makes the show so attractive, whether the writers intended to put it there or not. We humans long for a hero who can do the impossible, who knows nearly everything, and can rescue us from things too big and scary to want to think about

Other popular characters who follow this trend include: *deep breath* Spock (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,) The Silver Surfer (primarily in The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,) Captain America, Iron Man (in both The Avengers and Iron Man 3,)  Jean Grey (Uncanny X-Men,) Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Spider-Man, Gurgie (Disney's The Black Cauldron,) Kida (Atlantis: The Lost Empire,) Buffy (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,) Flynn Rider (Tangled,) Rory (Doctor Who,) and Captain Jack Harkness (Doctor Who and Torchwood.)    

 If you take a good look at the original list, these aren't situations that most of us face in real life. In fact, throughout all of human history we've seen VERY few people whose self-sacrifice is followed by a return to life and VERY few people whose actions have saved the ENTIRE world (I can only think of Jesus, actually...) So, for so many fictional characters to share these qualities and situations could only mean one thing: we, as humans, are obsessed with story of Christ's resurrection. It's a natural human reaction to be moved by that story. Even people who aren't Christians or claim to be uninterested in religion are obsessed with that story, or else it wouldn't be recycled over and over again. 

Starve Yourself Pretty

“. . . hell is wanting to be somewhere different from where you are. Being one place and wanting to be somewhere else . . . . Wanting life to be different from what it is. That's also called leaving without leaving. Dying before you die. It's as if there is a part of you that so rails against being shattered by love that you shatter yourself first. (p. 44)” 
― Geneen Roth, Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything

Being hated is horrible feeling. What's even worse, however, is hating yourself. While women (and maybe men too...) have always struggled with wanting to be more attractive, today's women are living in a world that practically encourages self-hatred. Women and girls naturally compare themselves to other females around them and mentally rank themselves as more or less beautiful. We even do this when it comes to images on television, billboards or magazines. Comparing yourself to every woman on the street takes a toll on your self-image, but as soon as you start comparing yourself to a perfect, thin, styled, photoshopped image of a model it becomes virtually impossible to feel beautiful.

Now, I may only have been an anthropology major for a couple of semesters, but I'm going to go ahead and jump to the conclusion that our culture is indirectly destroying the lives of our young women. The way I see it, there are two ways we determine what is "beautiful": the way of natural attraction, and the way of cultural ideals. Naturally beautiful traits are those that are considered attractive by nearly every person regardless of when and where they live. Cleanliness, facial symmetry, and overall health are all examples of some pretty basic naturally beautiful traits. Cultural beauty, however, is when we get all out-of-whack. For example...

The ancient Aztecs believed that it was beautiful to have long, pointed skulls. A few short weeks after being born, they would wrap the back of their babies' heads while their skulls were soft and moldable so that when they grew up, they could have beautiful heads. Back then, they thought it was beautiful. Today? Pretty dumb.

During the T'ang dynasty in China, an empress was born with small, deformed feet. This gal felt so self-conscious about her tiny feet that she decided to make it so that tiny feet were actually considered beautiful. From then on, it became necessary by law for all girls to bind their feet so that they would stay short and deformed forever. This would make them "beautiful" like the queen. Ouch. Purposely deforming your own feet isn't beautiful at all...it's just dumb.

During the Renaissance, Europeans thought it was attractive to have high foreheads. Those that weren't lucky enough to be born with big foreheads shaved their hairline back an inch or so. It was like the reverse effect of bangs. Also, it wasn't uncommon for women to shave off their eyebrows (think Mona Lisa's look.) Think about it: no eyebrows and big, shaved up foreheads. Dumb.

In 19th century America, wealthy plantation owners were looking for every excuse to justify using slaves. With this sort of mindset, fragile, fainting women who were too weak to work came to be considered attractive. Women strangled themselves with tight-fitting corsets which made them short of breath, prone to headaches, and even sometimes dislocated visceral organs. Some wealthier women even went to far as to having ribs surgically removed so that they could get their corsets tighter. I'm sure if a cone-headed Aztec were to see one of these women, they'd have one thing to say for sure: "That's just DUMB" (except, they'd say it in their Aztec-y language...)

Today, America is obsessed with thinness again, but in a different way. Rather than going to unhealthy lengths to squeeze into an hourglass-shaped corset, today's woman feels the pressure to diet and diet and diet and diet and diet and diet and diet and diet down to a size zero because we treat body fat like it's some sort of parasite. Now, we may not have a conceited empress telling us all to starve ourselves, but we do have a culture-making  agent present that's pretty powerful as well: the media. The media doesn't come out and say "You're fat! Starve yourself until you're as thin as Nicole Richie or you'll never be beautiful!" but it gets pretty close. Look at an issue of "Star" or some other celebrity gossip magazine and count how many times a celebrity is criticized for being fat. Count how many diet pill, weight-loss program and workout equipment ads they play in one single commercial block. Look at clothing ads and see how many mention a "slimming" effect. 

Do you see a pattern here? We as humans have always known what's beautiful and what isn't, but we complicate things by adding in cultural ideals. Even after millenniums of self-destructive behavior, we still haven't smartened up at all. In my opinion, we've gotten even dumber because now girls are practically encouraged to hate themselves when they're not good enough (FYI: No one's ever good enough. There's always someone out there who's unimpressed.)

I would go so far as to say self-destructive behavior for the sake of beauty is more than just harmful; it's sinful and wrong. However, I believe it is the images we expose ourselves to that are the main culprits. Babies don't come out of the womb with body issues, it is something that developed over time. Keep in mind that media affects the brain on a subconscious level. The best way to fight its influence is to acknowledge its effects with your conscious mind. When a runway model appears on screen, remind yourself that the woman you see is literally starving to be as thin as she is. When you see a flawless face or body in an ad, keep in mind the many wonders of photoshop. Being a little chubbier than some overpaid model is nothing to be ashamed of. If you lead an active lifestyle and eat healthy, you are living more of a life than that stick-figure ever will. 

A couple months ago, the fashion industry announced that any model size 6 or bigger would now be considered "Plus Sized." Considering the average American woman wears a size 14, calling a size 6 woman "plus sized" is a huge insult. Even former supermodel and "America's Next Top Model" host, Tyra Banks, wouldn't meet their ridiculous expectations. 

"The truth is that if I was just starting to model at age 17 in 2012, I could not have had the career that I did...I would've been considered too heavy. In my time, the average model's size was a four or six.  Today you are expected to be a size zero. When I started out, I didn't know such a size even existed." 
--Tyra Banks

I think the obesity epidemic in America is a horrible thing. I don't, however, believe the solution is to create a culture obsessed with weight loss. We should strive to be healthy, not to be thin. We shouldn't idolize any sort of body type or physical appearance, we should praise accomplishments and character traits. Everyone wants to be beautiful, but that definition of beauty changes constantly. Our bodies are just going to turn to ash when we die, so rather than obsessing with what they look like, let's focus on what we do with them. Let's workout because it makes us healthy and makes us feel good afterward. Let's eat food that satisfies our physical needs but also not be afraid to eat a hunk of cake once in a while. Let's be healthy and live rather than waste away.

Why I'm Social Networking-Sober

HYPOCRISY FLASH! Since the publish of this post, I've created an account on twitter (@SCGryphon) so yes, I'm a hypocrite, since that is considered social networking. HOWEVER, I've found that many of the elements I hated about facebook are absent from Twitter due to it's format. It's more like a bunch of miniature blogs than the big tangled spaghetti-plate of drama that is facebook. Anyways.

The following is a conversation I've had with probably a dozen people over the past three years:
"Do you have a facebook?"
"No."
"Why not? You should get one!!"
"I had one. I deleted it."
"Yeah, I did that once...you'll be back in a couple days."
"No, actually I deleted it years ago. I have no desire to go back."
"Well that's dumb, you need to get one..."

1 out of every 13 people in the world is on facebook. Not 1 out of every 13 in America, not 1 out of 13 teenagers. Even when you factor in the millions of starving people in third-world countries, babies who are too young to read, old-folks who still haven't figured out email, and the countries which have outlawed it entirely such as China, you're still left with that absolutely ridiculous ratio. Facebook as a company is worth more than Nokia, Starbucks, and even Disney (which includes my beloved Marvel, since Disney owns the rights to Marvel now.)

Okay, enough about how big and impressive facebook is...let's talk about how I believe it is a leech to society that sucks on the brains of the people like those nasty worm-things in "Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan."

"Omg wuts ur deal??? Y rnt u talking 2 so-and-so!?!??"
Okay, I understand that it's much easier to bring up difficult topics in writing than it is to do it person. However, I've had people start fights with me on facebook, than act like there's nothing wrong when I see them in person. If it's not important enough to acknowledge face-to-face, do you even need to acknowledge it ever? Then, there's people who confront you on an issue who you don't even KNOW. If you don't know me well enough to know my favorite color, favorite type of movie, or any scrap of basic personal information you would've gathered from spending time with me in person, don't try and lecture me on some area of my life. I once had a friend-of-a-friend who never once posted anything on my wall, liked any of my pictures, and certainly never messaged me before (I barely knew this guy in person!) pop out of nowhere and send me a huge message describing how I was making the wrong choices and was essentially "giving in to Satan." WOW. Thanks so much, guy-who-knows-nothing-about-me.

"Look at all the fun we're having at this function that YOU weren't invited to!!"
Facebook shows you WAY too much of other people's lives. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. When people know everything about everybody, feelings are bound to get hurt. If you were throwing a party and certain people weren't invited, you wouldn't go broadcasting it in everyone's face. Yet, people do this all the time on facebook. Unless you were purposely trying to get back at your ex, you wouldn't flirt with your new boyfriend right in front of him. Flirting on a public page on facebook is essentially that. Of course, people don't always think of the thousands of different friends that are going to see that conversation, but they should! Some things weren't meant to be shared with the world. All this extra personal information just opens the door to unneeded drama.

Judge not, that ye be not judged. (That's from the Bible, by the way. Matt 7:1)
Perhaps the worst thing about facebook isn't what is typed or posted, but rather the thoughts it leads you to think. Often, I would find myself scrolling down the profile of someone I disliked and have a negative mental comment for everything I saw.

"An updated relationship status, eh? Did that troll finally get tired of your crap?"
"Milkshakes at Denny's again? Wow, no wonder you've been gaining weight, Chubby..."
"Yes, we all know that it's snowing. Thanks for the update though, Captain Meteorologist."

I hate to admit it, but that's a pretty accurate representation of my brain when looking at the profile of someone I'm not fond of. It's horrible, but I'm sure we all do it. What's scary though, is the fact that there are plenty of other people who look at your profile and do the exact same thing. One of the big reasons I left facebook is because I hate to think what other people's opinion of me is. I don't want people I barely know browsing through all my photos and thoughts. Sure, there are good friends who want to see your pictures because they actually care about your trip to Oregon or really do want to read 25 fun facts about you. That's only a tiny handfull of people if you think about it, though. The rest, as dark as this sounds, are either curious about you or want to watch you crash and burn. Those people don't need to see your personal information; they should be kept at a distance, just like they are in person. Also, we should stay away from the profiles of people we don't like, because God commands us not to be judgmental or we will be judged the same way. I believe the best way to get rid of this temptation is to flee from it entirely.

I know this is pretty hypocritical, since I've spend the last two paragraphs judging stupid people on facebook, but that's because I know I used to be one of them and I'm embarrassed when I look back. Not to say that people on facebook are idiots (that would probably be insulting every single one of my readers...) but that facebook is one of the many stove-top burners contributing to the gradual meltdown of society. People shouldn't be like pages on Wikipedia with every known fact about them available to public   with the click of a mouse. People were designed to get to know each other slowly as information is exchanged with the increase of trust. That is the way relationships are supposed to form, not by clicking "Add Friend."

So rather than posting nasty comments on your friends' stupid photos, delete your facebook and complain about those people on a blog where you can do all the talking. Fewer people will read your complaints, and you can pick out a cool purple and black background instead of just some dumb blue and white one.