The Anti-Hero

Link to Flickr Photo

Literature has changed. Gone are the days when the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats. This is a new day--the day of the anti-hero.

"What's an anti-hero?" you may ask. It's a morally complex character who wants to be heroic, but who struggles with his or her own inner demons. The anti-hero can be a rascal, a would-be good guy but for all his flaws. Or he can be a villain who has some redeeming characteristics.

In the postmodern era, traditionally defined heroic qualities, akin to the classic "knight in shining armor" type, have given way to the "gritty truth" of life, and authority in general is being questioned. The brooding vigilante or "noble criminal" archetype seen in characters like Batman is slowly becoming part of the popular conception of heroic valor rather than being characteristics that are deemed un-heroic. (Lawall G, (1966). "Apollonius' Argonautica. Jason as anti-hero". Yale Classical Studies 19: 119–169.)

The anti-hero gives all of us hope. While we long for the days when you could tell the good guys from the bad by the color of Stetson they wore, we are increasingly aware that life isn't always that clear-cut. Moral ambiguity haunts us all. Of course, there are definite rights and wrongs, but they're not always easy to see. The anti-hero gives us hope by reminding us that even though we fail, even though we make mistakes, we can still turn out okay in the end.


The Bible is full of anti-heroes. From the trickster Jacob to Samson with all of his flaws, we see that God isn't done with us just because we've made mistakes. David the adulterer/murderer, who wasn't allowed to build God's Temple because his hands were stained with blood, is still a "man after God's own heart."

Death Angel, the book I'm writing, is about an anti-hero. Karath is a death angel who doesn't like his assignment. Of course, none of the Guardian Angels either like or respect Death Angels, because their two missions are very opposed to one another. Karath questions his own identity and purpose in God's plan, sinking deeper and deeper into depression and rebellion. Will he find a way of redemption, before his inner demon claims him?

Link to Flickr photo

This is actually the question that is asked of us all. Each of us struggles to defeat our inner evil. The apostle Paul said in Romans 7:21-24a (NIV), "So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

That last phrase, "Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord" is important. It's only through Jesus that we can know peace. We can't defeat our inner demons--only Jesus can. Personally, I'm not all that interested in stories of anti-heroes who never find redemption. Redemption is what it's all about. And it only comes through Jesus.

Are Bad Guys, Bad Guys?

Today is the first day in our 45th week, reading the Bible through in a year.  Our scriptures this week are:

•  Ezekiel 31-33; John 11
•  Ezek 34-36; John 12; Psalm 86
•  Ezek 37-39; John 13; Psalm 87
•  Ezek 40-42; John 14
•  Ezek 43-45; John 15; Psalm 135

This past Friday night, my wife and I went to see Thor: The Dark World in the movie theater.  While I do enjoy a good comic book movie, I confess that they can be overly simplistic.  On the whole, comic book women fawn over the male superheroes while the latter defeat not only their evil enemies but battle with their own inner issues.  And the bad guys in comic book movies, what's their motivation?  Well, they're just--bad.  In Thor, Malekith the Accursed tries to take over all nine realms of the universe, beginning with Asgard.  Why?  Because he's just evil.  Don't get me wrong--evil characters who are just evil because they're evil make for some quick story writing.  And certainly a purely evil nemesis makes the hero look all the more good.  But in reality it's just not that way.  People have motivations that they, at least, perceive as good.  Generally, even bad guys think that they're the good guys, and have some good in them, as well.  That might not be true in comic book movies, but it is true in real life.

Malekith Awakens

John 11:45-53 (ESV) gives us a glimpse into the motivations of the "bad guys" in the Jesus story.  Through this passage, we learn that those who sought to kill Jesus, though they intended evil, had good motivations.  This story clip comes after the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

Now that's good story writing!  John doesn't take the easy way out, to make the "bad guys" completely bad.  He understands that these folks had real fears that the Romans would completely wipe out their entire nation, if they didn't sacrifice one man in order to save the country.  

Some people suggest that John was anti-Semitic, depicting all Jews as the children of the devil.  In his blog, Good Reads, Rick Herrick refutes this claim of Johannine anti-Semitism.  His article "Anti-Semitism and the Gospel of John," says:

The link between the gospel of John and anti-Semitism is well known. James Carroll, in a fascinating book entitled Constantine’s Sword, points out the profound consequences of the anti-Semitism which originates in the gospel of John. He demonstrates how Christian thinkers from Marcion in the second century, to Ambrose, Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Luther develop theologies that were anti-Semitic and inspired by the gospel of John. These theologies created a climate of opinion which explains the First Crusade of 1096 directed against Jews, the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century which led to the massacre of thousands of Jews, and the holocaust. The point Carroll makes about the holocaust is that Hitler killed the Jews, but the anti-Semitism originating in John created a climate of opinion making the holocaust possible.

I have recently come to reconsider the gospel of John on this issue. The evangelist refers many times to “the Jews” in his gospel. There are several places in the gospel where Jesus and “the Jews” engage in bitter verbal conflict. In chapter 18 when Pilate tries to negotiate Jesus’s release from the cross, “the Jews” insist on his being crucified.

However, as Paul Anderson points out in The Riddles of the Fourth Gospel, the Greek word Ioudaioi can be translated as the Jews or Judeans. If you take the second rendering, the conflict is redefined as between a Jewish prophet from the north and the upper class Jewish leadership (Judeans) in Jerusalem. History clearly supports such a conflict.

I recently reread the gospel of John with this in mind. It is clear that the author of John is a Jew. He writes using Jewish images, and he documents that Jesus had many Jewish followers. As a result, the anti-Semitism in John is most probably the result of a mistranslation rather than the intention of the author.

"Manga Messiah" - Comic book version of Jesus and Jewish Leaders

Though I've read other of Herrick's writings with which I disagree, I do agree with Herrick's position on this.  As many times as I've read the Gospel of John, I've never treated with any validity the idea that John depicts "The Jews" as "bad guys."  And when there are "bad guys" in John's narrative, it's the Jewish leaders (specific individuals) and not the Jewish people as a whole.  Rather than being anti-Semitic, John explains their motivations so that we can see that though they were misguided, they were actually trying to save their country.  

John shows that these guys weren't all bad.  Though they do some dastardly deeds, let's not forget that the high priest Caiphas, the same dude who we see condemning Jesus, also heard from God through a word of prophecy.  Granted, he misunderstood the prophecy that he himself delivered, but that doesn't negate the fact that the man was hearing from God.  Somebody who was ultimately evil wouldn't be able to hear from God in such a powerful way, would he?

We need to remember that the Bible isn't a comic book (though some have tried to convert it into one).  The "bad guys" in the Bible aren't any worse than you or I are, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23 ESV)."  They have good motivations too, just as "good guys" in the Bible often have fatal flaws.  Neither John nor the other Biblical writers were trying to depict evil characters who are evil just because they're evil. Certainly they were wrong to seek to kill Jesus, though we must remember that they were trying to do what they thought was right for the nation as a whole. Really, the bad guys aren't bad guys.  At least, not any worse than other sinners who need a Savior.  You know--like you and me.

Good Guys and Bad Guys

 I grew up watching those old black and white Westerns—the kind where the bad guys wore the black hats and the good guys wore white hats, and you always knew which one was which.  Those were the days of heroes.  The good guys were good and the bad guys were bad.

But movies changed with the advent of color.  What you thought was a black hat turns out to actually be royal blue.  What you thought was a white hat is actually bright yellow.  And the gray dress that the leading wore—it's a red dress after all.  Does that distort the way you see her?  It may, if you understand color symbolism at all.  The fact is that color changes everything.  Red dresses mean something, don't they?  And if the hero turns yellow, what does that say about him?  And what about a royal color worn by the "bad guys?"  Now we're all confused, aren't we?

Modern writing recognizes that real human beings are more complicated than the flat characters of black-and-white Westerns.  Modern movies are more apt to reveal both a hero’s flaws and a bad guy’s conflicted emotions.  Good guys aren’t all good, and nobody is completely bad.  The anti-hero has emerged in literature and in movies, realistically revealing the internal struggles experienced by all good guys and bad guys.

But that’s not the way we see it—at least not in our own lives.  We tend to group people into categories of “good” and “bad.”  And, of course, we’re the ones wearing the white hats.  It’s impossible that we might be the bad guys, isn’t it?  And, since we’re the good guys, then the ones who oppose us—let’s call them “enemies”—they must surely be all bad.

Of course, we have good reason for perceiving people as bad when they appear to us as threats.  Some of our enemies threaten our physical safety.  Terrorist organizations like ISIS and nations like North Korea appear at the top of our lists, while certain individuals may come to your own mind.  Then other enemies threaten relationships.  While they are no physical danger, they mistreat or mislead the ones you love.  You may feel your place has been usurped in a friendship or marriage.  Perhaps your younger teenager is hanging out with a new bunch of friends, and you’re having a difficult time dealing with the fact that as a parent you are no longer the primary influence in his life.  All these can qualify as enemies if they make you feel defensive.

Your enemy might not be a physical or relationship threat, yet they challenge your ideologies in a way that makes you angry.  Maybe they have a different morality from you, and you’re concerned about the influence they will have on your grandchildren, or on society as a whole.  Ideological enemies might have different politics than you, or a different biblical interpretation from you.  They make you feel uneasy because, if you’re honest with yourself, you just don’t know how you might handle the shift if you were to find out that they were right and you were wrong.  (And, of course, you’re positive that you’re right.)

Financial enemies might be the people who moved in next door to you, who have those loud parties at night, and who throw trash around their yard.  Because they let their house get run down, it brings down the property value of the whole neighborhood.  Maybe they’re even willing to work the same job for less money than you, or maybe they don’t work at all, so you see them as a threat to your financial security.   This makes you feel selfish in your dealings with them. 

Defensive, angry, selfish—the list goes on and on.  An enemy is someone who brings out the negative in you.  When you cry out for justice, what you really mean is revenge.  They make you rage.  They make you want to launch a preemptive strike against them.  Get them before they get you. 

But is this God’s way?

In Luke chapter 6, Jesus gives a different strategy for dealing with enemies.  He tells us to love them and pray for them.  Bless them, do good to them, and even yield to them.  Give to them.  Lend to them, expecting nothing back in return.  In short he said, “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you (6:31 NASB[i]).”  We call this the “Golden Rule.”  You see, Christians are supposed to be different.  We’re not supposed to act like the rest of the world, which cries out for an eye for an eye.  Instead of a preemptive strike of violence or hatred or manipulation, why not try a preemptive strike of love?

You might say, “You just don’t understand who I have to deal with.  This person is just plain evil!”  Yet Jesus says that the Father is “kind to ungrateful and evil men (6:35b).”  Christians are supposed to be like Christ—it’s just that simple.  Jesus says that in response to people like this you should “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (6:36).”  You may insist that these people are horribly sinful, and deserve judgment or punishment.  But the Bible says, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).”  This includes you, too.  The more you insist on judgment and punishment for them, the more you insist on it for yourself, because you’re no less a sinner than they are.  It’s so much better to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors (Matthew 6:12).”  In Luke 6:37-38, Jesus says:

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

This means that God will use the same measure to judge you that you have used to judge others.  God will use the same measure to punish you that you have used to punish others.  So, even if you’re thinking selfishly then you should know that treating your enemies with love is just spiritual self-preservation. 

So be good to your enemies—and not so that you can transform them, but so that you can change your own heart towards them.  One mistaken way that Christians often “love” “sinners” is that we forgive and accept them as long as they change their ways and become “like us.”  We tell them that God will love them if only they will stop being—well, them.  We make public statements about how bad they are just so that no one will mistakenly believe that we actually approve of them.  We want them to know just how bad they are so that they will want to be like us.  But why would they want to be like us if we’re going to be like that?  Which is worse, their sin—or your judgment and treatment of them because of their sin?  How are you any less of a sinner than they?  Maybe it’s your heart that needs to change, before they’re ready to change theirs in response to you.  In Luke 6:39b, 41-42, Jesus says:

“A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?...Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

Jesus says there are a lot of Christians who are locked in a blinding sin of judgment of our neighbors, labeling them as “bad guys” when they’re really just “guys” who are struggling the same way that we are.  Who is worse—the one who is honest about the speck that she has in her eye, or the Christian who denies the log that he has in his own, all the while trying to make the speck-eyed person more like himself?  Why would she want to be like him?

When it comes to our enemies, our goal is not to destroy them by violence or hatred, or even by making them “fix themselves” and become like us.  Abraham Lincoln had it right when he said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”  In other words, don’t change them—change yourself  by praying for them and doing good things for them until your attitude toward them has become like Christ’s.  God wants to help you stop seeing people as if they’re characters in an old black-and-white Western.  He wants to open your eyes and help you see in vibrant color, to understand that your friends and your enemies are deeper human beings than you once imagined.  Instead of pointing your finger in judgment, open your arms in acceptance and friendship.  “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (6:36).”  And the Father of mercy will have mercy on you as well.

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[i] All scriptures taken from the NASB.

"What is Truth?"

            Earlier this week, many people enjoyed the day off in remembrance of Columbus Day.  The famous Looney Toons cartoon depicts Columbus trying to convince King Ferdinand of Spain that the earth is “round, like the apple.”  The king responds, “She’s flat, like the panake.”  Columbus retorts, “She’s a’round, like my head!”  In response, the king hits Columbus on the head with a mallet and says, “She’s flat like your head!”  The Looney Toons version of the story (which many of us learned as historical fact), depicts Columbus claiming the earth to be round, unlike most in Christendom, making him a hero for proving a new theory about physics and geography.  Actually, most people in the late fifteenth century already knew the earth was round—it was the circumference of the earth that was in question.  In fact, it was fiction author Washington Irving (Rip Van Winkle, Legend of Sleepy Hollow), who depicted church leaders warning Columbus that he might sail off the end of the earth.  This comes from literary myth, not history.[i]

           

            Even today, many want to paint Christians as being ignorant, anti-education, and anti-science.  The term “flat-earther” has been used to describe creationists and others with a conservative standpoint.  Yet, the Bible doesn’t teach that the earth is flat.  In fact, Isaiah 40:22 (Douay-Rheims Bible) says of God, “It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth.”  “Also, Luke 17:34-36 depicts Christ's Second Coming as happening while some are asleep at night and others are working at day-time activities in the field—an indication of a rotating Earth with day and night at the same time.”[ii]  The fact is that there are many places where the Bible and science agree.  This should bolster our faith and give us confidence.  Yet many people try to make the Bible speak as if it’s a scientific textbook when its purpose isn’t to teach science at all.  Attempts to try to make the Bible say what it’s not trying to say simply discredit the source of our faith. 

            Science is the search for fact, and religion is the quest for truth.  Science uses the scientific method, which works repeated experiments until a theory is proven or disproven and fact established.  Religion uses a different method—that of finding God within the Bible, creation, and the inner self—to discover ultimate Truth (with a capital T).  Faith and reason are not mutually exclusive, as many believe.  Too many religious people discount science, and too many scientific people abandon faith.  In reality, it’s when we use our brains in church and our faith in the classroom that we become the most well-rounded people, able to understand fact and truth.

            In John 18:19-24, 28-40, fact and fiction are figured, and truth is put on trial.  When Jesus stands before the High Priest, He knows he’s condemned even before the trial.  He knows that false witnesses have trumped up charges, so He says in verse 23 (NLT), “If I said anything wrong, you must prove it. But if I’m speaking the truth, why are you beating me?” Jesus stands for Truth, but His accusers want nothing to do with the Truth.  They want only to prove about Jesus the things that they erroneously believe.

            Later, on trial before Pilate, the Roman governor investigates whether there’s anything behind Jesus’ charge of treason.  Pilate cares nothing for the charges of blasphemy—these are accusations based on the Jewish religion, about which he knows next to nothing and cares even less.  But Pilate’s job is to determine the facts of the case.  Does Jesus, indeed, claim to be the King of the Jews?  Verses 37-40 (NLT) say:

Pilate said, “So you are a king?”

Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”

“What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, “He is not guilty of any crime. But you have a custom of asking me to release one prisoner each year at Passover. Would you like me to release this ‘King of the Jews’?”

But they shouted back, “No! Not this man. We want Barabbas!” (Barabbas was a revolutionary.)

            Pilate’s powerful words, “What is truth?” still ring clearly today.  It is, perhaps, one of the biggest questions of this generation.  It seems like ultimate and objective Truth is hard to find in an age of uncertainty and rhetoric.  In a time when the President talks about “fake news,” we must wonder if there’s a source of “real news” anywhere.  If conservatives only watch Fox, and liberals only watch MSNBC, then it seems like both groups are looking for “news” stories that simply support their preconceived notions.  Like the people who conducted Jesus’ trial, we’re often far less interested in discovering the truth than we are having our opinions reinforced.  But perhaps Fact and the Truth are out there, for those who use both their faith and their brains.  In fact, good Christians must employ both their intellect as well as their belief if we are to understand God and our world.

            While it’s untrue that the Church ever taught that the world was flat, it is true that we believed in a geocentric, rather than heliocentric solar system.  In 1543, Copernicus was made famous by teaching the theory of the Roman Ptolemy, who believed, contrary to popular opinion, that the earth orbited the Sun instead of the other way around.  Later, Galileo adopted both the opinions of Ptolemy and Copernicus.  Adding the evidence that he gathered with his invention, the telescope, Galileo began to teach as fact that the sun is the center of the solar system.  In response, the Roman Catholic Church subjected him to the Inquisition.  Journalist Alan Cowell writes:

Summoned to Rome for trial by the Inquisition one year later, Galileo defended himself by saying that scientific research and the Christian faith were not mutually exclusive and that study of the natural world would promote understanding and interpretation of the scriptures. But his views were judged "false and erroneous." Aging, ailing and threatened with torture by the Inquisition, Galileo recanted on April 30, 1633.

Because of his advanced years, he was permitted house arrest in Siena. Legend has it that as Galileo rose from kneeling before his inquisitors, he murmured, "e pur, si muove" -- "even so, it does move."[iii]

            Interestingly, Galileo remained condemned by the church until Pope John Paul II issued a retraction in 1992.  Even though so much evidence pointed to the fact that Galileo was right, the Church was more interested in their version of the Truth which said that if humanity is the crowning point of creation, then it must be at the physical center, and therefore the sun must revolve around the earth.  That theology, plus Joshua 10:13 which records a day when the sun stood still in the sky, made the Church sure of this “truth,” which was nothing more than a misunderstanding of the scriptures and a denial of objective fact.

            Today, if the Church is going to survive in an era when people are searching for the Truth, we would do well to also be on the side of fact.  We must make sure that we don’t check our brains at the door when we enter the sanctuary.  We must also be certain not to check our faith at the door when we enter the classroom.  Galileo was right—science and faith are not mutually exclusive, and we can learn about God from observing creation.  Whether it’s in the science classroom or in the news room, whether we’re in church or anywhere else, let’s see if we can look for fact instead of fiction.  Instead of washing our hands of the Truth like Pilate did, let’s embrace Truth in all its forms, so God can speak to us, and through us, to a searching generation.

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[i] https://strangenotions.com/did-the-church-teach-the-earth-was-flat/.  September 7, 2017.

[ii] “Who Invented the Idea of a Flat Earth?”  http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c034.html.  October 11, 2017.

[iii] Cowell, Alan.  “After 350 Years, Vatican Says Galileo Was Right: It Moves”  The New York Times.  October 31, 1992. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/31/world/after-350-years-vatican-says-galileo-was-right-it-moves.html?mcubz=1.  September 8, 2017.