I ran across this article in a christian webzine, it is pretty interesting:
Hes everywhere this Christmas season: Hes an action figure, hes on lunchboxes, T-shirts, tree ornaments, cups and mugs and plates and hats and shoes and sunglasses. He has one of the most popular DVDs on the market, he had one of the most popular movies of the past summer, and his old cartoon shows from the 80s and 90s have been re-released on videos you can rent at your local video store.
Hes the Amazing Spider-Man, the creation of comic book guru Stan Lee and the team at Marvel back in the 1960s. Though hes now over 40 years old, has been slinging webs for decades and has chased down a zoo of crazy criminal villains, he has never been more popular.
For me, seeing Spider-Man reach such amazing popularity is a vindication of sorts. Of all the mythical superheroes of comic book lore, Spider-Mans story has always been the most intriguing. I've always been drawn to it. Ever since I was old enough to understand super heroes and able to read comics and all that, Spider-Man has been my favorite. I had a black cape and played Batman for a while, and Superman was, well, Superman. But Superman lacked depth; he was almost too super to be very interesting. Batman was either too campy or too dark, and the whole Robin thing was always a little weird. Spider-man, on the other hand, seemed real.
I guess the thing that drew me to Spidey and his alter ego Peter Parker was the sad undercurrent to the story. In Spider-Man, you always had a good guy who tried to just be nice and do the right thing, most often at his own expense. He would turn down relationships with people he loved because he knew his presence in their lives endangered them. He would get fired because saving people made him chronically late for work. He would leap into harrowing situations to save people, knowing most of them were scared of him and that if he wasn't careful, the cops would try to nab him. The press always vilified him, lumped him in with the criminals he tried to stop, and even though he succeeded time and time again at getting the bad guys and saving the good ones, he never outlived his bad rep. As a young man who sometimes misunderstood the bigger picture, Peter Parker always internalized the city's fear of Spider-Man into some kind of personal rejection. I can relate, to a degree.
As a conservative Christian (and this isn't a pity party, just an exploration), I tend to see the same kind of treatment directed our way. No, we're not web-slinging super heroes. Far from itwe're as ordinary and as flawed as anyone else. We doubt ourselves, doubt God, doubt that it's all worth it sometimes. We fail, we screw up, we hurt others in the course of trying to help them. But we actually do have our hearts in the right place most of the time. Our mouths may be another story, and our minds may not be able to see the havoc that today's good deed will create tomorrow, but our intentions are seldom selfish. We support the right to life because we believe life is sacred and because we believe in acting on clear principle whenever possible. Those of us who home school do it because we actually want our children educated as opposed to brainwashed. We support a conservative interpretation of the nations laws because it most often results in less judicial activism and more individual freedom. We support lower taxes because it leaves individuals and families in more control of their own lives, and lessens the power of government to coerce and manipulate us. We support the war because we understand all too well the dangers of inaction and moral indifference, and because the nature of our enemy makes this war a just one. We tend to vote Republican because that party is more receptive to our point of view. For the vast majority of us, none of our political stands are about amassing and maintaining power. They're about trying to maintain some semblance of an orderly society that respects its own traditions and the value of life and generally leaves us free to worship as we choose, where we choose and when we choose. We're not mouth-breathing, scheming, freedom-destroying troglodytes, nor are we perfect ambassadors of our faith. We're hard workers, politicians, artists, writers, filmmakers, police officers, waiters, scholars and soldiersjust people trying to get by and do the right thing. For this, we're often portrayed in the press and even by our own fellow political travelers as mean-spirited, intolerant Bible-thumpers. And sometimes we even turn our wrath on each other.
But that's life, I guess. Being misrepresented irritates me, but I don't guess there's much I can do about it. Well, other than to try and present the true picture of what most Christians and I are all about in the hopes that the picture I present is at odds with the usual stereotypical treatment. Sometimes it will be, but sometimes unfortunately I'll probably come off every bit as boneheaded as the worst public face of my faith.
If I were Spider-Man, I guess I'd just sling a web and snare my enemies and then run off and hide. But I'm not, so all I can do is sling up a prayer and hope it breaks through.
Hes everywhere this Christmas season: Hes an action figure, hes on lunchboxes, T-shirts, tree ornaments, cups and mugs and plates and hats and shoes and sunglasses. He has one of the most popular DVDs on the market, he had one of the most popular movies of the past summer, and his old cartoon shows from the 80s and 90s have been re-released on videos you can rent at your local video store.
Hes the Amazing Spider-Man, the creation of comic book guru Stan Lee and the team at Marvel back in the 1960s. Though hes now over 40 years old, has been slinging webs for decades and has chased down a zoo of crazy criminal villains, he has never been more popular.
For me, seeing Spider-Man reach such amazing popularity is a vindication of sorts. Of all the mythical superheroes of comic book lore, Spider-Mans story has always been the most intriguing. I've always been drawn to it. Ever since I was old enough to understand super heroes and able to read comics and all that, Spider-Man has been my favorite. I had a black cape and played Batman for a while, and Superman was, well, Superman. But Superman lacked depth; he was almost too super to be very interesting. Batman was either too campy or too dark, and the whole Robin thing was always a little weird. Spider-man, on the other hand, seemed real.
I guess the thing that drew me to Spidey and his alter ego Peter Parker was the sad undercurrent to the story. In Spider-Man, you always had a good guy who tried to just be nice and do the right thing, most often at his own expense. He would turn down relationships with people he loved because he knew his presence in their lives endangered them. He would get fired because saving people made him chronically late for work. He would leap into harrowing situations to save people, knowing most of them were scared of him and that if he wasn't careful, the cops would try to nab him. The press always vilified him, lumped him in with the criminals he tried to stop, and even though he succeeded time and time again at getting the bad guys and saving the good ones, he never outlived his bad rep. As a young man who sometimes misunderstood the bigger picture, Peter Parker always internalized the city's fear of Spider-Man into some kind of personal rejection. I can relate, to a degree.
As a conservative Christian (and this isn't a pity party, just an exploration), I tend to see the same kind of treatment directed our way. No, we're not web-slinging super heroes. Far from itwe're as ordinary and as flawed as anyone else. We doubt ourselves, doubt God, doubt that it's all worth it sometimes. We fail, we screw up, we hurt others in the course of trying to help them. But we actually do have our hearts in the right place most of the time. Our mouths may be another story, and our minds may not be able to see the havoc that today's good deed will create tomorrow, but our intentions are seldom selfish. We support the right to life because we believe life is sacred and because we believe in acting on clear principle whenever possible. Those of us who home school do it because we actually want our children educated as opposed to brainwashed. We support a conservative interpretation of the nations laws because it most often results in less judicial activism and more individual freedom. We support lower taxes because it leaves individuals and families in more control of their own lives, and lessens the power of government to coerce and manipulate us. We support the war because we understand all too well the dangers of inaction and moral indifference, and because the nature of our enemy makes this war a just one. We tend to vote Republican because that party is more receptive to our point of view. For the vast majority of us, none of our political stands are about amassing and maintaining power. They're about trying to maintain some semblance of an orderly society that respects its own traditions and the value of life and generally leaves us free to worship as we choose, where we choose and when we choose. We're not mouth-breathing, scheming, freedom-destroying troglodytes, nor are we perfect ambassadors of our faith. We're hard workers, politicians, artists, writers, filmmakers, police officers, waiters, scholars and soldiersjust people trying to get by and do the right thing. For this, we're often portrayed in the press and even by our own fellow political travelers as mean-spirited, intolerant Bible-thumpers. And sometimes we even turn our wrath on each other.
But that's life, I guess. Being misrepresented irritates me, but I don't guess there's much I can do about it. Well, other than to try and present the true picture of what most Christians and I are all about in the hopes that the picture I present is at odds with the usual stereotypical treatment. Sometimes it will be, but sometimes unfortunately I'll probably come off every bit as boneheaded as the worst public face of my faith.
If I were Spider-Man, I guess I'd just sling a web and snare my enemies and then run off and hide. But I'm not, so all I can do is sling up a prayer and hope it breaks through.
