Redeeming the Week in Pop Culture–4/24/15

Each week I hope to send out the latest version of “Redeeming the Week in Pop Culture,” with the intention of touching on a variety of the latest topics from the world of pop culture. But one man can only watch/read/listen to so much on his own, especially a husband and father who wants to spend time with his family, so please feel free to forward anything my way that you think may be worthy of attention. Because chances are, I may have missed it.

Two shows last Monday had some interesting themes throughout all their different plots and subplots that are definitely worth pointing out. Several months ago, I wrote about my love/hate relationship with Gotham, and the latest episode, “Under the Knife,” is another example of why I hate that I love (some of) this show. With Ed Nygma, Selina Kyle, Oswald Cobblepot, and others, the resounding theme of this latest episode dealt with going “under the knife” and seeing who someone truly is on the inside.

As wretched as these people and their secrets may be, they are merely acting out of their sinful nature, which the apostle Paul tells us is in all of us: “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me” (Romans 7:18–21).

But the heart of Gotham is about Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon going to battle in their city in order to bring redemption to it, including the crimes these characters are hiding from, just like the war Jesus is battling for us that Paul described a few verses later: “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (vv. 24–25). Yes, if we were to also go “under the knife,” the world probably wouldn’t like what they saw. But Jesus came to save even that!

I’m still unsure what’s going on in The Returned. Why are the returned always eating? Does its meaning have anything to do with the multiple stories in the Gospels of the resurrected Jesus eating, even immediately asking for food upon seeing his disciples in the Upper Room? Are there any parallels to make concerning the dead rising from the grave upon Jesus’ crucifixion or during his still-to-come second coming? How about the baptism metaphors from this past week? Finally someone dug up the grave of one of the returned, and the only thing found in the coffin…was water. As in, their dead bodies were lowered into water, baptism style, and now they’re alive. And there were multiple instances this week where the returned were telling their loved ones that they’re not the same person they used to be, reminding us of 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” I don’t know where this show is going, but I’m loving wearing my God goggles while watching it.

Last week I mentioned the new CW show The Messengers that was teasing having to do with the end of the world, Satan . . . yada, yada, yada—all the same kind of Hollywood apocalypse stuff. After the first episode, I didn’t cancel the season pass . . . yet. Don’t get me wrong—it’s way off from any kind of accurate end-times representation. It begins with someone shouting, “And his name was death, and hell followed with him,” before shooting someone in a parking lot. Okay . . . This random quoting of Revelation 6:8 pretty much represents everything else in the show too, just picking and choosing things from Revelation that might make a cool show. After the murder, the show fast-forwards seven years (See what I mean? Seven years. Oh, aren’t they clever?) when basically the devil falls down from the sky and at the same time several strangers across the globe seem to have been turned into angels who all want to go to Houston for some reason. I know it seems a little crazy, but two reasons why I will at least watch one more episode: 1) the preacher who died and came back to life claiming to preach a new message, something different from the all-smiles-and-hugs health-and-wealth gospel that his father preached; and 2) this first episode was actually extremely clean as far as content and language goes. So we’ll see how it goes from here. And if all it does is produce clean entertainment and point people to Revelation, that’s still a great thing.

It is almost Avengers week!!! I for one will be rewatching the first one this weekend to help pass the time until next Friday. Have you ever noticed that the Avengers sure do fight amongst themselves a lot? Everyone’s got an ego problem. Everyone thinks their way is the best way. No one likes to admit when they may be wrong. I don’t know about you, but that sounds a lot like many churches and people within the church that I’ve crossed paths with during my lifetime. We all think our way is the best way. Our egos can get as inflated as anyone’s. Certainly my church is not wrong on that issue, right? Just like the Avengers can’t ever get around to saving the world until they learn to work together, the church today, too, fails to be the light of the world it’s called to be when all it does is bicker amongst itself. In the first Avengers, they ended up rallying around the dead body of Agent Coulson. The church needs to spend less time bickering about buildings, music, and Calvinism, and just rally around the risen body of Jesus.

And don’t forget episode 4 of A.D.: The Bible Continues, airing Sunday at 9:00 EST. Once again I’ll be live-tweeting during the episode and would love to hear from you during it. You can find me (@GodFamilyNoles) using hashtags #ADtheSeries and #BibleInPopCulture. Finally we are into the events found in the book of Acts. I know longer have to keep going back and forth between four different Gospels to see what is what. And look for my write-up on the new episode on Monday. See you then.

Kevin Harvey is the author of two books, his latest entitled All You Want to Know about the Bible in Pop Culture, which is now available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Walmart, and Sam’s Club.

Redeeming the Week in Pop Culture–4/17/15

Each week I hope to send out the latest version of “Redeeming the Week in Pop Culture,” with the intention of touching on a variety of the latest topics from the world of pop culture. But one man can only watch/read/listen to so much on his own, especially a husband and father who wants to spend time with his family, so please feel free to forward anything my way that you think may be worthy of attention. Because chances are, I may have missed it.

It would be inexcusable for me to not begin this week’s list with the new preview for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I was recently asked in a radio interview about any thoughts I had regarding Star Wars and biblical parallels from the saga. Unfortunately I had to say that I hadn’t prepared any thoughts on that recently but was definitely planning on doing so before the new movie came out in December. But how about this? At the root of the original trilogy is a young man who was basically wandering through life aimlessly, not knowing his purpose for being on earth—uh, I mean, Tatooine—until he learns who his father is. And this sudden sense of identity sends him on a path that changes his life and the world around him. Chapter 3 of my book All You Want to Know about the Bible in Pop Culture deals with this very issue of learning who we are as children of God and what that means for our individual lives. No, it doesn’t mean we can call upon the Force to blow up the Death Star without any computer guidance, but we will have access to a God who created the universe out of nothing and can bring the dead back to life. I think I’ll go with the latter.

The first season of the new Marvel show Daredevil dropped on Netflix last week, and after two episodes it’s quickly making me like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter just a little bit less. While those two shows are definitely more family friendly, Daredevil shows us a grittier, more troubling, side to the Avengers’ universe, and so far that’s a great thing. With an inspiring father-son storyline plus lines like: “But you can’t see.” “There are other ways to see” (a reminder of 2 Corinthians 5:7—“Walk by faith, not by sight”), I see great reason so far that my “God goggles” will be working overtime while watching this show. But in the end, the blind attorney who puts on a mask and fights crime at night (with absolutely no strings lifting him up or computer animation helping him leap around) is an advocate for those who cannot defend themselves, just as the Bible asks us all to be. As a lawyer, Matt Murdoch looks to defend only innocent people whom no one else believes and may not even have the money to pay him. But he is acting out King Lemuel’s plea in Proverbs 31:8–9 to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” And as the masked vigilante, at least in the first two episodes, Matt has taken up the cause of stopping the human trafficking ring that the rest of his community has chosen to ignore. I applaud Netflix, Marvel, and the creators of Daredevil for helping to bring to light the unfortunately increasing practice of slavery and human trafficking still going on under our noses today, with not nearly enough attention being brought to it by media, politicians, law enforcement, and the church. Perhaps Matt’s example of being an advocate can affect us in a way similar to the way it influenced Rosario Dawson’s character in episode 2, who said, “I found a man who needed help, so I helped him.” If only we could all think as simply as she.

What’s wrong with the world today when the first Batman v. Superman trailer we get is filmed on a cell phone in a theater in a foreign country? I’m sorry, are these not America’s superheroes? Can we not get these released on the Internet in HD quality? And between the time I first wrote this and then went back to upload the trailer, it had been taken down. So let me just quote these three lines from it: “Is it really surprising that the most powerful man in the world should be a figure of controversy?” “We as a population on this planet have been looking for a savior.” “We’re talking about a being whose existence challenges our very own sense of priority in the universe.” Wow. As though Zach Snyder’s Man of Steel wasn’t blatant enough in its Savior parallels (of which I wrote on in the opening chapter of All You Want to Know about the Bible in Pop Culture), the sequel looks to top even that. There’s so much to dig into there, but unfortunately, I think it’ll best have to wait until everything is put into context when the film is released next March 25. But keep preaching, Zach Synder. Keep preaching.

Have you heard of this new show on the CW called The Messengers? The preview made me at least want to record the first one and give it a try. Whether there is any bit of gospel truth to be redeemed from this show dealing with the end times or not is up in the air. Most likely it is yet another show (Dig, anyone?) that has no idea what the Apocalypse and Armageddon and Antichrist really mean, but there could be some good opportunities for conversation for anyone who has day-to-day interaction with the young audience that seems to keep the CW afloat.

And don’t forget episode 3 of A.D.: The Bible Continues, airing Sunday at 9:00 EST. Once again I’ll be live-tweeting during the episode and would love to hear from you during it. You can find me (@GodFamilyNoles) using hashtags #ADtheSeries and #BibleInPopCulture. Finally we are into the events found in the book of Acts. I know longer have to keep going back and forth between four different Gospels to see what is what. And look for my write-up on the new episode on Monday. See you then.

Kevin Harvey is the author of two books, his latest entitled All You Want to Know about the Bible in Pop Culture, which is now available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Walmart, and Sam’s Club.