"pROduCE ANoTheR cHrISt..."

Welcome back! Good to see you! Today we take a crack at the people who so desperately want Christian stories to be what they're not.

Do you know how to tell if someone is a post-Enlightenment shill or not? It is really, really, really easy. Tell them that heroes are those who cannot back down from their convictions, and that morality has nothing to do with it. Just watch  them squirm! It hurts! I am about to tell you why, so you can enjoy this as much as I do. And recently, when I did this, the person responded with the most honest thing I have heard yet in response: 

"Produce a character as good as Christ"

I mean, the naivete is so incredible, I almost respect it. Almost. Here's why that very good-intentioned statement is actually Satanic.

First of all, none are Christ. Factually. Nevermind that on the surface "make someone as good as Jesus of Nazareth" is a blatant absurdity. The entirety of the Bible is an argument that no one has done what Christ did. He did what the rest of us couldn't. A lot of the New Testament is about explaining why we're not Christ, and why He is. If you can't absorb this one point, then nothing else is going to make sense. Everyone. Else. Failed. In fact, Paul says this. He calls himself a failure after being taken up to the third Heaven. Peter definitely says this. John does, as well. It is the essence of a follower of Christ to acknowledge oneself as a failure in comparison to what Christ did. Not necessarily as an act of despair, but as a matter of fact. In fact, you shouldn't be despairing as you say it! Christ came to help you do what you cannot do! Hooray! He succeeded! And He wants to make sure we do too!

So, to be a Christian is to know that you have the friend, who will help you accomplish what you could not normally. Boast of your weakness, for God is your strength!

Here's the thing, though: nobody allows this to happen perfectly. We all screw it up. And God has mercy on us anyway, by taking our screw ups and making good out of them. We  get to watch as our failures and horrifying deeds are turned into blessings, and we get to know that all things are useful to God, even if He didn't want it that way.

Now, the thing is that aesthetics flow from ethics. What you believe determines what you enjoy. So, if you actually believe that, you'll enjoy stories of people who try to do what is right, fail, grieve, try again, fail, grieve, and then have to accept that the failures somehow lead to things they never thought possible. Good things. And even if it all falls apart, you hope that someday it will be put right, because that's what God does.

Starting with Scripture, let's look at Peter and Paul, arguably the closest thing to "protagonists". Peter and Paul start in darkness, find Christ, and exposure to Him gradually changes them. But they never fully pull it off. Peter is still a loudmouth and a coward, Paul checks him for it later! Paul and Mark have disagreements. But both say the same thing: "I am not perfect, I am weak, I am not enough, but Christ is." They don't point to some ideal, because they cannot. They are failures who Christ has worked with to produce results they can barely understand. Peter and Paul are not examples: they're company on your own journey. They're only examples insofar as they're consolations that God really can make use of anybody.

Going further, into our modern day, characters like Boromir, Frodo and even Anakin Skywalker exemplify the ideal I am talking about. These characters are flawed, their decisions are hardly perfect, and the ramifications of their decisions are not clearcut; Frodo's destruction of the Ring ends an age of wonder, for instance, removing enchantment and magic. Don't pretend what he did was an entirely good thing, because he didn't either.  There was a cost. And it was tragic and ended much that was good. None of these characters wholly succeed, but Mercy meets them anyway. There are no win-wins in this world. Period. Mercy turns that into something that can give life.

A Christian story features a protagonist who needs (not wants, needs) Mercy, the most treasured name of God. It's a fundamental part of the work.

"God knows well that as soon as you eat this fruit your eyes will be opened, and you yourselves will be like gods, knowing good and evil."

Genesis 3:5

That's what Satan says. The promise of Satan is self-sufficiency of knowledge, the ability to thread needles all on your own. Satan's first promise is one of epistemological sufficiency. And because they have full epistemological sufficiency, they don't need mercy.

A Satanistic story is one where total self-sufficiency, where God is not needed to enact mercy, where the world is a totally enclosed globe and nothing is outside it, waiting to come in and rectify the mistakes, is beautiful. 

Where the hero has clarity and is able to make the perfect decisions, or if they don't there's no fallout in the end. Ones where there's no lingering issues. Ones where the self-sufficiency is beautiful and perfect and-

Oh.

I just summed up why Tolkien doesn't like Disney, all over again, didn't I?

Nothing new under the sun, kiddos!

I don't want another Christ character. I can't be Him. I have His story, and it challenges me to my core, but I don't want someone trying to recreate an experience they have no interior connection to. I want more of Peter: someone whose wreckage is salvaged, whose vicious stupidity is embraced and redeemed. I want more of John, whose temper and violence were turned, who was converted into fiercely saying "God is love". I want more of Paul: a violent zealot whose drive to destroy all those around him in service of the truth was turned into realizing that may mean him too... and that God would save him from that. Even him.

Give me more Christians.

Not bronze demigods who have a clarity I can never achieve.

It is here I pause. If you do not follow me, I cannot blame you. It is no easy road.