Superman Is Like Jesus? You Don’t Say
‘Superman’ Jesus… reads a current headline at the American news website Drudge Report.
Drudge links to this amusing (and colorful language-laden) Metro.Co.UK article1 about the familiar theme.2
According to director Zack Snyder, this isn’t the first time the above comparison has been made.
‘I think the relationship between Jesus and Superman is not a thing we invented in this film, it is a thing that has been talked about since the creation of Superman,’ he said, speaking to us from Warner Bros studios in LA.
‘And in a weird way, probably was talked about more when Superman was created than it is now. It’s one of those things mythologically you take for granted, a little bit.
Christians don’t take it for granted. But we don’t go nuts over it either, or else, we shouldn’t, leading to lines like this:
- Yay, Man of Steel is a #Christianmovie!
- Hurrah, we’re actually winning the Culture War; Hollywood loves us.
- Fantastic, now I have the perfect topic for my 14-part megachurch Savior of Steel “sermon” series.
- Wonderful; now I can take all my pagan friends to see the movie, and because it’s cool, they’ll think Jesus is also cool and might even Pray the Prayer with me.
With Man of Steel, as with any other pop-culture franchise that reflects Biblical truth, rise above such follies.
Instead, be like Paul in Acts 17: Breezily making the connection for the audience, coolly claiming that idea as God’s all along, and then subtly subverting the nonsense and sin for which people have co-opted the idea.
If you’re not there yet, Christian, that’s fine. Just don’t be like certain news sites and treat as news something that fans have long known.
- ‘Ware slight spoilers near the article’s end. I’ll pretend I didn’t see any of those — and that the publication actually did disclaim even slight spoilers. ↩
- For instance, see ‘Man of Steel’ Borrows from the Bible. ↩
This isn’t new. Supes has been compared to both Moses and Christ at various points his entire history.
Word to the wise: do not read the comments under the Drudge article.
The comments devolved into another Christians-vs.-atheists bashfest? You don’t say.
Along with that, of course, comes well-meant comments like the following:
Yes and no. We can love the Superman story because it reflects the True Myth.
Just the apostle Paul recognized common-grace truths in Greek literature (but did not go overboard as if said pagan literature was just as inspired or truthful as God’s Word).
“Savior of Steel sermon series”… Great, you now you owe me a keyboard. 😉
Well, feel free to “steel” that line.