It seems we just aren’t as religious as we used to be. Just drop by any church on Sunday and check out all the empty pews. Although most people say they attend church regularly, the truth is that only about 30 percent of us show up on Sunday.
Our religious beliefs aren’t what they used to be either. A Gallop poll recently showed that our belief in heaven and hell has changed as well. Heaven is viewed with sentimental images of clouds, harps and cherubs more common in cartoons than the Bible. And some people actually believe in a heaven without God, more of an eternal personal retirement village where we get to all the fun stuff we couldn’t do on earth.
And of course, that pretty much rules out hell. University of California theologian James Russell, who has written a book on the subject, said he couldn’t remember the last time he heard the subject of eternal punishment brought up in church or even in religious literature.
David Wells also wrote a book on the subject and he blames the loss of belief on consumerism. Consumerism is about giving people whatever they want, he said, but that sort of attitude runs counter to traditional religious beliefs in absolute truth. And nowhere is that more evident than faith in “ultimate right and wrong” that undergirds heaven and hell.
Well, just when all this religious indifference in our culture was about to overwhelm me with despair and I was getting ready to move to some desert cave to live out the rest of my days in misery, I got some good news from a most unlikely source - Hollywood. It seems that we Americans really do believe in God. In fact, the most popular movie right now is about a Savior who comes to Earth from another dimension to rescue humanity. No, I’m not talking about Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” but “Superman Returns.”
Sure, it’s a comic book story, but you can learn a lot about what people really believe in comic books, especially one that has been at the top of the charts since 1931.
Consider the story line. The father Kal-El sends his son Jor-El to Earth (and for the record El in Hebrew means God) on a heavenly mission. But unlike other comic book heroes, saving Earth takes more than muscles. It requires sacrifice, even his own life.
Think about it. Superman comes to Earth as baby - the manger. He is raised by good, simple working farmers Ma and Pa Kent - Mary and Joseph. When the time comes for him to save his people, he leaves the farm and moves to the most important city in the country Metropolis -Jerusalem.
But the people he has come to rescue think they are doing quite fine on their own. Lois Lane, whom Superman loves the most, rejects him saying, “The world doesn’t need a savior. And neither do I.” Yet when Lois is killed in an earthquake and a grieving Superman finds her, he miraculously raises her from the dead - Lazarus.
And finally, when Superman himself was killed by the monster Doomsday in the best-selling 1992 comic book edition, he is miraculously resurrected several months - and six million new readers - later.
If you think I’m reading too much into a comic book, then listen to what Jor-El said to his son. “Even though you’ve been raised as a human being, you’re not one of them. For this reason, their capacity for good, I have sent them you, my only son.”
And if you still have any doubts about Superman’s religious theme, Jor-El, now sounding more like the Gospel of John than Hollywood, says, “You will carry me inside you all the days of your life; see my life through your eyes, as yours will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father and the father the son.”
So should we skip church on Sunday and head to the movie theater? Not at all. “Superman Returns” doesn’t offer any deep spiritual answers that will suddenly bring meaning and purpose into our lives. But it does show us that we all really want to believe in God. And that fact alone makes “Superman Returns” worth watching.
John Graham is an Advocate Columnist. His column appears each Sunday in the Advocate. He can be reached at jgraham19@woh.rr.com.
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