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Admitting You’re a Sinner
Probably the thing I hate the most about mainstream Christianity, as preached on tv’s across the land, is their reliance on the quick fix. The quick fix goes something like: (1) Admit you’re a sinner, (2) Let Jesus into your heart. Everything else after that is supposed to be one great big piece of cake. I could never really make sense of this idea… that is, until I saw Batman Begins this afternoon.
Now, I’ve been a Batman fan as long as I can remember. In some weird way, Batman might have had a bigger impact on the course of my life than Jesus. If you don’t believe me, just ask yourself how many other occult investigators you know. I mean, this isn’t even a real job. I just stole it out of the world of comic books and then decided to make it real. Anyway, Batman Begins ruled. The thing this movie really drove home for me in a new way - even after being a life-long fan - is the purpose of symbols. Bruce Wayne wrestles in this movie with the ideal of justice and with the much more tangible experience of fear. And he sort of manages to weld the two together in the figure of Batman.
There’s a big sequence in the movie where Bruce is forced not only to confront his fear, but to actually become it. And it’s only once he manages to do this that he is able to transcend it, and turn it into that which he’s always longed for: justice.
Wait, wait, wait… we’re supposed to be talking about Jesus here, aren’t we? Right, I was getting to that. Stay with me. See, the thing is: I think we’re all like Bruce Wayne. We’re all under the spell of our fear. Fear is completely natural and completely human. From a religious/moralistic perspective, so is sin. Really, everybody fucks up constantly. Sometimes in small ways, sometimes in really big ways. I personally don’t think that means we should be eternally punished in a lake of burning fire, of course. Cause that’s just bullshit and goes way past the transgressions that most of us really commit.
But what if what these religious goons are trying to get us to do is the same thing Bruce had to do to become Batman? I like the idea of fear here better than sin. Partly because fear makes us screw up, and partly because fear doesn’t imply a lot of moralizing. Anyway, maybe what people are saying when they try to get you to “Admit you’re a sinner” is to embrace it so that you can move past it.
It strikes me that this is essentially no different from the so-called “Left Hand Path” or what some would call Black Magic. Violating the taboos is not just an exercise in self-gratification. It’s basically the ultimate in “becoming” your fears and admitting you’re a sinner. Of course, most Christians would flip out on hearing this comparison made: that they are elementary black magicians. It’s quite hilarious actually.
Of course, with Christianity, you don’t just embrace your shadow, and then that’s that. The second step is supposed to be inviting Christ into your heart. For Bruce Wayne, once he merged together with his fear he was forced to make a choice. Absolute justice or compassion. People who conquer fear seem to have many other choices available to them as well. As Jeff Wells so vividly illustrates on his site, many men who reach this juncture choose some other darker ideal, and move down a path of power and abuse and high crimes against humanity. Bruce Wayne though, chooses compassion. Though Jesus doesn’t kick people’s asses or fly through dark alleys, the choice is the same.
When Bruce makes the critical choice and devotes himself to an ideal, he transcends his own humanity, and begins to fuse with a symbol, with a legend. And the legend and the symbol goes way beyond what he could ever do himself as a man, even as a billionaire - as he says. If I could dip into theology again for a moment, it strikes me here how important an early distinction made by the Catholic Church’s canonical councils really is. I’d have to look up when it became law, but they argued for a time whether Jesus was really a man, or really a god. Eventually they decreed that he was both fully man and fully god (and then of course persecuted people who believed differently). But I think what they were trying to say - in their own “primitive” way - was that Jesus was the first Batman. He was a man who confronted his fear and transcended it, and rendered service to the absolute, the ideal, the divine.
That much of the story makes sense to me. Much more than that though, for me I have to turn to gnosticism to really make sense of the rest. While mainstream Christians say Jesus committed this impossible act so we don’t have, gnosticism basically says: no, each of us still has to. Jesus, like Batman, just acts as a beacon, an example, an ideal. The examples of these savior-heros may infect each of us, and then we become as they are. They don’t do it for us. In the Batman Begins movie, I wonder if this is actually the covert goal of the League of Shadows. They sought to infect the entire city with the same fear-inducing drug which transformed Bruce into Batman. Maybe what they really sought was the mass transformation of consciousness - almost like factions of the hippies wanted to do with putting LSD into the water supply back in the day. But Batman stands for a different approach. You can’t force people to transform. You can only stand as an example and invite them to become Batman themselves. I think we see this portrayed in the movie characters such as the little boy, Rachel, Gordon, and even the bum who he trades coats with. When Batman says to Gordon in his office: “No, now we are two,” and then at the end tells Gordon he never will need to thank him.
And to the bad guys, Batman is an example to them in the only mode they respect. As a warrior. As this excellent quote from Enemies.com says:
What does it mean to be a warrior in a monistic universe, where your enemy is a reflection or extension of yourself, where we are all truly part of one being, and the individual can perceive and understand that?
In that situation the purpose of fighting, of conflict, is to help your opponent find his own excellence - to bring out the best in yourself and in him as you both strive to carve away the imperfections that separate you from God.
He forces the men who use fear to control others to confront fear themselves, and see how it controls them in turn. God comes to you in the form that you come to him. If you come as a friend to others, he comes as a friend to you. If you act as an enemy, he becomes your enemy. He speaks your language, no matter what it is.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
No wonder the message of the Gospels is to go out and “spread the Word.” He is the Logos, he is the Word. The ideal is perfect and may be transmitted even by men who are imperfect, laying in wait until the day the man overcomes his fear and takes the next step beyond that.
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June 19th, 2005 at 7:47 pm
I noticed the same thing during my viewing of the film.
I checked out your bookmarks to notice that you got my link to the Joker Syndrome… pretty cool huh. I wish Chris Nolan can take a cue from that article to get the character as realistic as possible.
My favorite quote was “puns and awful jokes in inopportune moments, going on tirades”…
Could it fit the discription any better than that?
June 19th, 2005 at 8:35 pm
i haven`t seen the film yet but i think you are giving the catholics too much credit.they knew,right from the kickoff,that they were in the business of peoples souls,not thier redemption here on earth.it`s about creating chaos in peoples`s lives,so they go running for the pews.an audience captive in thier fear,not set free by transcending it.nietzche said that which doesn`t kill you makes you stronger.that`s closer to what i feel is the truth than being made to feel guilty for the death of some guy`s only kid.
i didn`t do it.i wasn`t there.i have nothing to repent for.i didn`t ever own slaves either.or make a hole in the ozone layer.or pour oil into the ocean.or make acres of the amazon jungle disappear every day.or make people homeless.
repenting and letting jesus into your life.it is more lazy theology.consumer-grade spirituality.it`s a powerful tool for immediately feeling superior to others.feeds the ego like mother`s milk.
it pays billy graham`s bills.
June 19th, 2005 at 9:04 pm
alistair: no, you didn’t do those things directly. But maybe you own a refrigerator? Or drive a car? Or eat beef from South America? Maybe you participate in an economy that marginalizes people to the point of homelessness?
I don’t mean to pick on you personally. I’m just saying that all of us are indirectly guilty of the sins you’ve listed. We all participate in a seriously fucked up system, and that makes us all guilty. In my view, the purpose of a conscious spiritual path is to transcend fear to achieve that rare courage that allows you to speak Truth to Power, to confront the forces that keep us down in injustice and fear. But to do this is to accept death, to accept all the possible ways that we may be destroyed in order to be silenced. I’m not there yet, but I know at least where I’m trying to go.
June 19th, 2005 at 10:13 pm
I loved Batman when I was young. Thought I’d left it behind. This analysis and comparison with Christ’s heroism is intriguing. Think I might go see the movie for myself.
I agree that the gnostic interpretation of the imitatio Christi is pretty tough. How much easier would it be to imitate literally! How much harder to discover what God wants from each of us!
I recently watched Scorsese’s Last Temptation of Christ and I was moved by how hard Judas’ role was - and Jesus acknowledges this. It’s a bit like being chosen for a part in the school play. Everyone wants to be the hero but someone’s got to play the bad guy.
You seem to be exploring here a latent heroism - or at least necessity - in the shadow or anti-hero. Maybe even the TV evangelists play a role here. I daresay those that are sucked in don’t find the going as easy as they initially thought and the consequent battles with cynics and with life’s woes might be, oddly enough, bringing out their unique talents. Who knows?
June 19th, 2005 at 10:28 pm
i`m marginalised because i`m a white male.i`m out of the meeting of black police officers that is being held in toronto in august.i`m marginalised out of the chinese businessmans association.
i know you don`t mean it personally.
yes,it`s seriously fucked up.but that`s the thing.it`s also a wealth of abundance.those who are marginalised in some ways make that choice.i have seen people meet the challenges in thier lives and in spite of it all just get on with it anyway.
life is tough.it`s no reason to give up.
i`m not guilty….directly or otherwise.if i believed that for a moment i would be rolling my sleeves up to change what i believed happened.
keeping us down in injustice and fear.hmm,i`m quite sure you`ll stand up for yourself when the time comes.
i don`t believe,personally,that i`m trying to go anywhere.i don`t have that sense of needing to get anywhere.i`m actually getting used to noticing myself alive and in the moment.i an grateful for that peace.i find that i also now recognise that in others too.
from an economic standpoint,i don`t think that economies marginalise people.i believe that economies,especially ones that are democratic are the best way to do things.not a perfect way,mind you,but a way that offers the best hope against the entropy that operates in the universe.
this isn`t a discussion about politics and economics but here`s a quick list of people who`s ideas failed.
stalin.
marx.
clinton.
mao.
the common element here is the idea of shared ownership.a re-distribution.not just of money but capital.resourses.it`s a dangerous game.spending capital like it was money is a con job.it is socialism.or slavery.once the capital is spent out of the marketplace people don`t have any bargaining power.no ownership of the means of production.
at least in a democracy we have some protections in place to allow us ownership in the means of production.without it we are slaves.
we still can`t stop all the pain in the world.
but we can choose to not get drawn into feeling guilty about it.
did you know that when mother teresa died she had bank accounts,in her own name, totalling over sixty million dollars?
now who`s guilty of what?
not you or me.
and about the death thing,what the hell is that?nobody here knows but we are told to be afraid of it.why?
June 20th, 2005 at 1:43 am
“They sought to infect the entire city with the same fear-inducing drug which transformed Bruce into Batman.”
I haven’t seen the movie, but that sounds just like the 9/11 operation! It made most Americans slaves of fear, but some of us were immune, and I suggest it ’s because we were aware of, and at peace with, the part of ourselves that thinks it’s cool when buildings blow up. The people who couldn’t stand this awareness had to get super-angry and vengeful to cover it up. Maybe seeing Fight Club was an immunization against seeing 9/11 (which, for most of us, was just another movie).
June 20th, 2005 at 2:39 am
It is “cool” I suppose when buildings blow up. As scary as that day was, it was also the most titillating day I can ever remember. It’s like when an earthquake hits, nobody can deny it. Imagine how shitty some people felt being on the first plane that landed at SeaTac after the earthquake hit. They missed, by a hair, what managed to scare millions of other people! Imagine how jealous some must have felt because of it.
So people fill in their own stories. “I was on the plane that was on final approach when the earthquake hit.” And then they dramatize what it was like to come off the plane and see all these shaken people and so on.
But what shook them? Surely, most aircraft approaches are more violent than the deep, therefore mild, 6.7 we had here a few years ago. But it was the buildings that swayed, that seemed they just had to snap. But they didn’t. I learned more about engineering by that earthquake alone than any highschool or college class I’ve ever taken. Of course, a lot of what I base my impression of the experience on was being on the fifth floor of a wooden apartment building and not an airplane. It moved the top of the building as though it were a whip. But that’s my dramatization.
In some ways I think that the collective experience of the Nisqually quake helped to manage the terrified jingoistic blur that would come some months later to everybody else on that fateful day of 9/11. Something sensible arose here — arose everywhere. Many of us, searching for answers gathered together at Westlake Park that following weekend, ignored the “kill all muslims” signholders and greived peacefully together. Was it a protest? Was it a wake? A teach in? No idea. But a couple thousand seekers came together and told each other we were also here.
As in an earthquake, the media trumpets that “people from all walks of life contributed to the rescure effort”, we also understood that day, that all humans must remain protected from and empowered to defeat, evil.
I’ve realized that evil can only work in the banality of its own self-projected ideal of the system. The key is to discredit the system and offer something more in return. And that is, freedom from “it”. Freedom to be you. Freedom not to be snapped at. Freedom to be and to let. God, how fucking glorious is that?
If we’re all going to die, why not help each other survive?
June 20th, 2005 at 6:50 am
For great tales of Batman confronting his inner demons see ‘Batman: Dark Legends’:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1563892669/
June 21st, 2005 at 1:35 am
The whole “forgiveness” deal is the main thing in which I part ways with (mainstream) Christianity. The idea that a child molester, rapist, mass murderer, etc. can “accept Jesus” and spend eternity in paradise. I would rather go to hell. At least the child molesters *there* are being punished.
Great article, by the way.
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:17 pm
[…] , ordinary billionaire, that is) and became a sort of transcendent symbol (more about that here). This year, we see the same message being driven home once again cou […]