My Superhero

A Pew research study was done last year in the United States to determine the kind of faith they align themselves with.  You could choose among many traditional belief systems or you could list yourself as having none.  What is interesting about the study is that almost one-third of the age group 18 to 29 chose “none” as there preferred religion.

What is even more interesting is that it is this same demographic age group that are targeted for what they want to see in movies…and guess what…they love superhero movies just about best of all.  Continually, superhero movies top the charts in all time popularity among moviegoers.

Do you see the incredible conflict in this message?  They are looking for someone to be the rescuer of mankind.  Sadly, they don’t even know that he already showed up and rescued us.

The superhero phenomenon got its big boost as Hitler marched on Europe and committed his atrocities against mankind.  Superman and Batman were both born then and both had religious value overtones embedded by their Jewish creators.  What’s even more interesting is the latest Man of Steel movie, which clearly uses the birth of Christ as the model for the scenes of the birth of Superman.  The parallels continue throughout the movie.  How sad is that?  To find that we have to make up a fake “Jesus” to satisfy the longing for the real thing.

He’s already here!

The other sad feature of society here in American, and in Europe as well, is the rise of nearly one third of the population claiming to be “spiritual but not religious.”  In some parts of Europe it is as high as 47%, and in all European countries except England they outnumber the number that believes God exists.    Even the new Pope’s niece claims this as her “affiliation.”  This is what I call the “take it or leave it God” that doesn’t hold you accountable for anything, call you to service or transform your life in any way.  C.S. Lewis described it well:

“When you are feeling fit and the sun is shining and you do not want to believe that the whole universe is a mere mechanical dance of atoms, it is nice to be able to think of this great mysterious Force rolling on through the centuries and carrying you on its crest.  If, on the other hand, you want to do something rather shabby, the Life Force, being only a blind force, with no morals and no mind, will never interfere with you like that troublesome God we learned about when we were children.  The Life Force is a sort of tame God.  You can switch it on when you want, but it will not bother you.  All the thrills of religion and none of the cost.  Is the Life Force the greatest achievement of wishful thinking the world has yet seen?” 

As a related side issue, about 30% of the world’s population would call themselves Christians, and yet 80% of the discrimination against religious groups is aimed at Christians.  Do you see a pattern here?  I do.  It is a growing institutionalized problem as well, and even in America we are seeing more rulings that force churches to take active homosexuals as members and leaders, to provide abortion coverage, to censor public expression of faith, and to outlaw voluntary homosexual conversion therapy (while on the other hand making sex change therapy a mandated provision.)   Whether you believe these things are really Biblically wrong or not isn’t the issue to me.  The issue is the State is choosing what you can believe or not.  And frankly, no matter how sad I might think it to be, if you want to believe in the Grandfather God or the Life Force God, or the Eternal Radish God, that is your right to pursue unfettered as long as you leave me to pursue my God freely.  Independent of that we all need to follow the Civil Laws of the land outside of our religious participation.

So, to sum it all up, when I hear that over 90% of Americans believe in God, it doesn’t mean a whole lot or comfort me.  What comforts me is that Jesus Christ already came.  My superhero is here.  He died to forgive me and transform me to love God and to Love my neighbor, and that is the issue that matters.