Robin Hood Religion

Jesus was tough on rich people. Really tough. Remember when he told the one rich guy to sell everything and give it to the poor? What about his treatment of the Pharisees? They were rich, and it’s fairly safe to say that with the exception of a few (like one or two) He wasn’t a fan of them.

It’s not that rich people are bad- Joseph of Arimathea was rich- and he provided a tomb for Jesus to borrow for a couple of nights. It’s just that rich people- okay I’m generalizing here- most rich people want to stay rich. It’s a common desire- and not inherently bad. I just wonder if it’s inherently biblical.

Let me clarify. I am not saying that God doesn’t want people to be rich. I don’t know if He does or not – the word “blessing” can mean a lot of things.

I am saying that God will judge the rich on how they treat the poor.

It’s odd to me that one of the most popular characters in Hollywood movies is Robin Hood- considering that if Robin Hood did in fact exist today, he would spend a good amount of his time riding up and down Pacific Coast Highway stealing Bentleys and Mercedes from overpaid actors. But ever since Errol Flynn donned the infamous green tights, filmmakers have been cranking out Robin Hood movies nearly every decade.

And I’m not complaining. I love Robin Hood. In fact, my favorite Disney movie is the animated Robin Hood, and I have watched Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves at least 100 times- both because I enjoy it and because for years it was the only VHS that I had as a kid. And I am equally as excited about the new Robin Hood movie coming out this spring, starring none other than Maximus himself, Russell Crowe in his first reteaming with Gladiator Director Ridley Scott. (Truth be told, I even love the current BBC TV show Robin Hood- even if I don’t get to watch it very often).

But I am somewhat shocked at how much audiences love Robin Hood movies. It’s as if Americans love watching Robin Hood steal from the rich and give to the poor, because- let’s face it, most Americans think he would be robbing from others and giving to them. But would he?

What about the church? Are we faring any better?

Christianity is a religion based on helping the poor. One of my favorite (and most challenging) passages in scripture is the parable of the sheep and the goats in Mathew 25.

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

I apologize for posting the entire passage, but it bears reading- repeatedly. Sounds very Robin Hood doesn’t it? Jesus says that we will be judged on how we treat the “least” of His people? Well church, how are we doing?

Oh, I know what you’ll say. Our church has a mission program- we give money every year to food banks- last year we even held a church wide clothing drive for a woman’s shelter. Good- but is it enough? Money is easy. Stuff is easy. But what’s so amazing about Robin Hood, why he interests me and thousands others, is not that he gave money to the poor. What amazes me about Robin Hood is that he gave his time to the poor. He gave his safety to the poor- he lived among the poor; he embraced the poor and made them his own.

What bothers me the most about Christianity, and one of the things I am the most embarrassed of (yes- there are times I am embarrassed to call myself a Christian- but never because of Christ) is that the world’s largest humanitarian organization isn’t Christian. In fact, in a web list of the top 25 NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organizations) in the world, only 4 are faith based? Is that taking care of the “least” of these?

But we have pastors in million dollar houses, a cottage Christian music industry full of wealthy artists (and producers), and an American church that refuses to face the fact that the cost of the Bible they are carrying and the clothes they are wearing is more money than most of the world has in their bank accounts.

We have to ask- if there was a real life “Robin Hood” would he give to us (as most of us think) or rob from us?

The problem is, we all know someone who is richer than us- and we think they’re the ones that Robin Hood would steal from. We’re wrong. The Robin Hood of the movies stole from all the rich- not just the “really rich.”

I understand that we don’t think ourselves rich. In fact, there have been plenty of times I have actually thought I was poor. And maybe at one point in my life- I was poor- by American standards. But I’ve seen poor. I’ve walked through towns in Cambodia so war torn that 3 and 4 year old children run barefoot and naked because they have nothing. I’ve seen villages that walk two miles to get fresh drinking water. I’ve seen poor, and I don’t know anyone in my life that is anywhere close to that.

Are there organizations that help? Sure- there are amazing Christian organizations that reach out to the world- organizations that will undoubtedly hear God proclaim His happiness at their work. (Living Water International is a personal favorite). And they deserve our financial support. We shouldn’t just focus on the world either. America has homeless- feed them. We have abandoned, shelter them. We have immigrants- help them.

Again, let me qualify my opinion. I have things. I am blessed. I want to make money. But I hope that when I die, my ambition does not outweigh my service. I hope that God looks at me and says, “Thanks for feeding the poor” and not just throwing a dollar in the plate and pretending like that’s enough. I hope God looks at me at says “Thanks for helping the nations” and not just by joining a Facebook group, but by getting my hands dirty digging a well in Uganda. I hope that God looks at me and says- “Thanks for being a Robin Hood,” for robbing myself – the rich one – and giving my time, energy, and passion to the poor.

The Gospel According to Bruce Lee

I grew up loving martial arts movies. Blame it on my father- I vividly remember being 6 years old and watching Jean Claude Van Damme’s Bloodsport with him. Don’t worry, he covered my eyes through all the bad stuff. But either way, a passion for bad dialogue, canned story lines, one dimensional villians and slow motion action sequences was born.

To say that I got my passion for action movies from my father is an understatement. There was no genre my father watched more than action movies- and his star of choice- Chuck Norris. My dad loved Chuck Norris movies before the whole “Chuck Norris can defeat Godzilla” Saturday Night Live craze. He raised me on Lone Wolf McQuaid and Delta Force; I can still vividly remember Chuck Norris driving through a shopping mall in a jacked up truck shooting bad guys with an Uzi in Invasion USA. To me, no one was bigger than Chuck Norris- not Rocky, not Rambo, not Van Damme or Segal, not even the guy from American Ninja.

There was no one who could defeat Chuck Norris. Except for the one guy who did.

In my quest to consume as much Chuck Norris as possible, I discovered a little film called The Way of the Dragon. In it, a shorter, smaller Chinese guy destroyed my 7 time international Karate champ – in the Roman Coliseum no less. And I’ve been hooked on Bruce Lee ever since.

Bruce Lee started the martial arts film craze in America. Enter the Dragon, Lee’s last complete film, is one of the most important movies of the 20^th century. I remember going to a friend’s house and watching it on VHS, and from the opening credits, I was hooked. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe I could pull off all of Bruce Lee’s stunts, but I was stupid enough to try. I grew up in the age of Power Rangers and Steven Segal films, so to see a movie so raw and pure, and believable was amazing.

Enter the Dragon is a piece of motion picture magic. The first martial arts film financed by a major Hollywood Studio, it introduced the west to an entirely new way of thinking. In some ways, you could argue that Lee’s movie created the Western world’s fascination of Eastern thought. It was the first major vehicle that anyone had ever heard words like Shaolin or Buddhism- two words that Hollywood has been in love with ever since.

But what does Bruce Lee and Enter the Dragon have to do with Christianity? What does my fascination for martial arts and action movies have to do with my faith?

One of the most troubling commands of Christ for me has always been the “turn the other cheek” statement in Mathew. For a traditional American male this is nearly sacrilege. The entire Cold War was built around the idea that if your opponent strikes you, hit him with the biggest bomb your have. If they should bomb you back, build a bigger bomb. So for me to accept the idea of turning the other cheek to anyone was un-American.

That’s where my love of action movies came in. Van Damme never turned the other cheek. And Chuck Norris? If you managed to hit him in his cheek, he would rip off your hand, put a grenade in it, and shove it down your throat. For years, I had a hard time looking up to Jesus because I thought him a coward. Compared to my heroes of the films, Jesus was kind of a wimp.

And that’s the problem with the American church. As John Eldridge points out in his wonderful book, Wild at Heart, we (the church) have sissified Jesus. Which is why so many men have such a hard time accepting the term “godly” man. In everything we’re taught about masculinity in our culture, Jesus is not manly.

But what if we had a different view of Jesus? What if we could view Jesus as someone who didn’t advocate fighting but did advocate standing up for yourself? Does the Bible not command us to always be ready to “give a defense” for our faith (1 Peter 3:15)? Does Jesus himself not command us to be as meek as doves but as wise as serpents (Matthew 10:16)?

What if we were to really look at the verse in question? But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Matthew 5:39. The bible doesn’t say, if an enemy strikes you, turn around and run away. The bible only tells us to “turn the other cheek.” That implies that you willingly get up from the blow and stand face to face with your assailant. To me, that’s pretty manly.

Which is why I love Enter the Dragon so much. In it, the main character Lee is a holy man, who trains his body, not because he wants to fight, but for the sake of staying physically and mentally fit. He does not seek out conflict, but instead only agrees to fight in order to avenge the death of his sister (family) and to restore honor to his temple (religion).

In some ways, as a child, I connected more with Lee (the character in the movie) than with Jesus. No child ever imitates Christ in their backyard. But every 10-year-old boy who watches any clip from any good martial arts film will begin jumping around making noises as their punches fly the air at imaginary targets. So what is the church to do?

For starters, they could portray Jesus in the proper light. They could stop emasculating Christ and start showing Him for who He is- a warrior for what is right. Jesus may not have physically assulated anyone- unless of course you count his rage filled attack at the temple priests and salesmen- but He did not back down from His persecutors either. He answered them with strength and courage, without arrogance and pride.

Am I suggesting that Jesus should have jump kicked Pilate if He had been given the chance? No. But I am saying that we have to understand that the same appeal that Lee’s character in Enter the Dragon has for countless of teenage boys (and grown men) is the same appeal that the proper image of Christ could create. In Lee’s case, he’s defending his family and his faith. In Christ’s case, His entry into our world is His fight for his family (us) and His faith (His Father). In Lee’s case, he must fight against a former protégé of his temple master. In Christ’s case, He fights against His master’s former protégé as well. In Lee’s case, he endures physical pain but wins in the end. In Christ’s case…well, we all know how that one ends.

The Na'Vi and the Celts

You can’t turn on the TV or go online today and not see the computer generated faces of the Na’Vi. Avatar is everywhere – it is a cultural phenomenon. Everyone is talking about it- good, bad, or indifferent, people who had never previously heard the computer game term “avatar” one month ago are now well versed with the story of Marine Jake Sully and his adventures on the intentionally symbolic land of Pandora.

For starters, let me say that I loved the film. It has its flaws as a movie, and is merely a 3-D retelling of the Disney film Pocahantas, but it is a beautiful movie with a clear message.

But what should we do about that message?

If you do an Internet search on “Avatar and Christianity” (later, not while you’re reading this blog), you’ll notice uproar in the Christian community of the idea of pantheism (the worship of nature) present in this film. There appears to be such disgust at the ideas promoted in the movie that even the Vatican has spoken out in condemnation of the film.

Make no mistake about it; Avatar is promoting a religion - a false religion. So what?

Are we really afraid that after watching this film, that thousands of Christians are going to jump ship with Jesus and begin worshiping Ewya, the “all-mother” god of the fictional Na’Vi people? Likewise are we surprised that an ungodly world (I am speaking about our world now) would promote such an idea?

False religion should be discussed in our churches, and all believers should know the truth. But why are we so quick to seclude ourselves in an “us versus the world” camp in regards to theology?

My problem isn’t with Christians choosing to boycott the film, although I do think it a bit foolish. My problem is with Christians ignoring the unique opportunity to share their faith that this movie presents.

Here’s what I mean to say- why is that we condemn practitioners of nature worship, the basic tenant of the New Age mysticism so common in our world, rather than acknowledge their need and show them the real God of creation?

Here’s what I saw when I watched Avatar: a disheartened American soldier who gets fed up with the dream of “more” and turns to a god he meets in nature.

I can work with that.

But how? Is there a way to meet the pagans, like the Na’vi and James Cameron (the film’s director), and show them our God using their tools and their beliefs?

Perhaps the answer can be found in a three-leaf clover.

Like the Na’Vi, the ancient Celts were Mother Earth worshippers. They believed in a pagan god and worshipped their god through various rituals and practices. By all accounts, they were the sorts of people that Hollywood would love to make a movie about.

But unlike the church today, the Ancient Church (coincidentally the same Catholic church that is speaking out against Avatar) responded differently. They did not condemn or ignore, they responded with Saint Patrick.

Patrick’s story is particularly insightful in how we (as Christians) should approach the views presented in Avatar. His story is helpful if we are to understand how best to relate and minister to a world that believes in a false religion.

So what did Patrick do? He organized the biggest and most successful missionary campaign outside of the New Testament. He so effectively planted Christ in a pagan culture that he is now celebrated in an international holiday. Not even the Apostle Paul has a holiday.

But the key to understanding Patrick is not in the results of his missionary journey, but in his techniques. Unlike modern evangelicals, that lambast and criticize the popular religion of our time, Patrick used the native religion to point to Christ. He chose religious symbols of the Celts and adapted them to Christianity. The shamrock became a symbol, not of the earth god, but of the Trinity. Unlike other ancient missionaries, Patrick did not ride into a colony with a legion of soldiers and build a church on native soil. He met in tents, travelled with tribes, and found a connection between what they believed and the God he served.

And Patrick was not the first to do this. In Acts 17, upon his visit to Athens, Paul used Athenian pagan statues to advocate Christ. He studied the native religion, and when pressed, responded to their questions about his faith by using what he had learned about their beliefs. "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.” (Acts 17:22-23)

Paul and Patrick provide a model for us on how we should deal with the religion and philosophy in Avatar. They recognized that in most every false god exists the ability, either through comparison or contrast, to show the true God.

If we (Christians) are to make any difference in our world, we must stop condemning non-believers for their earth worship or New Age philosophy and start recognizing that what they see in nature is our God. Yes, they worship the creation and not the Creator, but how can we criticize them if we refuse to show them the Artist behind the art?

The Na’Vi aliens in Avatar are on the right path. Yes their worship is misguided, but they see what we see- the thumbprint of a beautiful and loving God on all of his creation. Is Avatar just a movie? Yes, but it reflects the longings and feelings of so many in our world. It reflects a longing for beauty and truth, a beauty and truth they see in the creation around them.

The church needs to find new three-leaf clover. Perhaps Avatar is a start.

Faith in Film

I love Jesus. I love movies. Unfortunately, there have been many times in my life when these two things have come in conflict- albeit mostly in my teenage years when a combination of fundamentalism and hormones had me flip-flopping on whether or not it was appropriate to watch certain films.

The discussion of what is acceptable or not for Christians to watch is not however, what this blog is about. With few exceptions, I view personal movie tastes much as Paul views eating meat sacrificed to pagan gods. It’s a personal choice, based on prayer, specific personal temptations, and your personal spiritual maturity. The problem of deciding a viewing policy for all Christians is for people much smarter and wiser than me.

Nevertheless, I cannot escape my love of a cinema. I am a movie junkie. And since I have no desire to ever escape my presence in the love of Christ, I am forced to either compartmentalize my life (that is to box off certain areas and not allow my entire life to be ruled by God) or reconcile all of the aspects of my life together. And since it is my desire for every corner of my life to be transparent and hopefully help me understand God more, the question I must ask myself is can my love for films help me love Christ more?

This seems like an odd correlation – using earthly loves to strengthen a supernatural one – but allow me make a parallel. On a much deeper level than my love for movies, I love my wife. In my attempt to become a better husband, I work hard to love her more. I study her likes and dislikes, learn more about her past, talk with her, etc. And in doing so, I am growing in my love of Christ as well - knowing that my marriage is a biblical symbol of Christ’s relationship with me. And the inverse is true as well - the more I learn to love Christ, the more I love her.

Is this same correlation (the idea that an earthly love can strengthen a supernatural one) true in regards to movies? Is it possible in my spiritual growth that I have somehow found a deeper way to connect with film? Is it possible that in learning about movies, that I can learn about my savior, the designer and creator of the world?

Yes, I think it is.

On a superficial level, movies are entertainment. They are a way to pass a boring Saturday night, a way to pass an awkward first date, a way for parents to get two hours of relative silence. But they are also stories- true or false, real or fiction, they are stories- of love, adventure, despair, joy, action, horror, or any other label Amazon wants to create to categorize them. Regardless of their subject matter, they are attempts to tell stories. And storytelling is as old as civilization itself.

In fact, if C.S. Lewis is to be believed (and I think he should) then this storytelling is actually valuable proof of the existence of God. Lewis argues in The Abolition of Man that in every culture’s storytelling, there exists proof of an invisible moral hand. That is, every culture, from the dawn of time to Hollywood, all show in their stories a sort of natural, ingrained proof of a human desire for right.

But is there any biblical support to validate Lewis’ claim? It makes sense logically, but one thing we must be sure of in the faith is to always temper logic with the Bible. Without that measuring stick, we would be (and some would say are) lost.

Romans Chapter 1:20 offers an interesting insight into this philosophy. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Paul argues in the context of chapter 1 that since the dawn of time, all of creation has clearly shown God. We see this elsewhere, when Jesus declares that if men refuse to praise God, even the “stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40).

So it stands to reason, that if all of creation shows God, either visibly or invisibly, that we (humans) as the crown prince of creation would show God as well. Since our actions cannot always (or perhaps rarely) be construed as godly, how then do we show the “eternal power and divine nature” of our Creator?

Through our stories.

Listen to a fisherman weave a tale about his adventures on the lake, and you will hear a story of the one that got away. What does this story say about the fisherman? That he’s quite possibly a liar, but most definitely longing for a world where the good guy always wins, the nice guy always gets the girl, and the award winning catfish stays on the line.

So what does this have to do with film? Simple. To me, movies show, sometimes in beautiful 3-D, our human desire for a world that is not ours. We long to see the world that is buried deep within our hearts- a world we often choose to cover by layers of reality and science. Our logical minds tell us no such world exists; yet our fantastical minds, our storytelling minds, speak of Narnia, of Gotham, of Hogwarts, of Pandora.

If I can train my eyes to analyze the stories of our culture, which are most often told through the medium of film and TV, then I could potentially see the thumbprint of God in the stories we tell. And like any good investigator, perhaps in studying the thumbprint, I can learn more about the Hand to which it belonged.

And I’m confident that if I could even only see the Hand of my maker, it would change me forever.

My intention in this blog is simple. I am going to regularly upload my thoughts on a movie that I’ve seen. It may be a current movie, or a classic, or just a movie I love (caution, I do have weird tastes sometimes). Please note: I am not endorsing watching any of these movies – nor am I reviewing them. I only wish to show my thoughts on how they perhaps point to something greater- something so eternally great that our minds can only hope to catch a glimpse.

I hope to show how our stories point to the Greatest Story of all.