I chuckled (discretely, to myself) when I heard that Warner Brothers has been marketing its new Man of Steel movie to Christian churches. The film plays up the similarities between Clark Kent/Superman, and that other super guy we like to call...Jesus. Both were sent by their fathers in heaven to save the world. Both "came out" at age 33. Both had super powers and had adoptive parents. And (one not picked up by most news sources) both have names that include the name of God. "Yeshua" (Jesus's real name) mean "Yah(weh) saves." Kal-El (Superman's birth name) shares a consonant with various Judaic terms for God, including the El-Shaddai (God Almighty) and Elyon (God Most High). It's the same El, by the way, that shows up in Micha-el ("who is like God?"), Garbri-el ("God is my strength") and Ariel ("lion of God").
To hear some of the reviews of Man of Steel, Clark and Jesus share another trait: they both have had really terrible movies made about their lives.
I wonder how many pastors will fall for the promotions and drag their congregations to the new film. They might wonder about the parallels with the Bible when they see Superman fight Zod, wiping out parts of Metropolis in the process. But that's creative license, I guess. Read Revelations if you want to see some real destruction!
Speaking of terrible movies about Jesus, the last time pastors were tagged to bring their flocks to the flicks was for Mel Gibson's execrable The Passion of Christ. All you needed was some heavy promo that the film was super authentic, and a fake plug from the Pope that "it is as it was" (like he would know) and you had the faithful queueing up by the busloads for 3 hours of gruesomeness that not was nasty, but not terribly biblical to boot. Flipping Jesus's cross over, with him on it? Really?
Anyway, at least Man of Steel is unlikely to permanently burn the theory of sacrificial atonement into the back of your eyeballs. And for that, we give thanks.
Pass the kryptonite, will ya?
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