There is a lot of hype out there over the new Batman Dark Knight movie. It is an epic summer blockbuster, and is being hailed as one of the greatest superhero movies of all time. I don’t usually go to movies, but I had seen batman begins and got caught up in the frenzy surrounding this sequel, and went to see it over the weekend. I wish I hadn’t! I should have checked the reviews from pluggedinonline BEFORE going to see it and I could have saved myself the time and money.

You have to make your own choices, but the content of this movie does not exactly line up with what the Bible says we are to think about in Philippians 4:8. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” The whole movie is built on lies and deception, spread by an unmistakably malignant force of evil that overshadows almost every aspect of this film. I can only think of one redeeming virtuous action in the entire movie, and it hardly suffices for a remedying factor for the amoral, more often immoral, vigilante, retributive justice exercised throughout.

I would advise not watching it, but if you choose to ignore my warning, do NOT take your children. Though the movie is rated PG-13, it feels like an R -rated movie (not that I have any experience to know what constitutes the various movie ratings). They must have done just enough editing to squeak by with a PG-13 rating. It is really sad, because this has been marketed toward kids with batman toys in happy meals, and advertisements on candy bars and cereal boxes. That this is comic book, superhero movie, is a huge misconception. It is not a superhero movie, or even an action/adventure flick, at it’s core, Dark Night is a horror movie.

These two posters for the movie are the most accurate portrayal of them all:

The Joker is one of the most frightening characters I have seen on screen since Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (which I saw years and years ago and would never watch now, but I haven’t always held the convictions I do now). He is a manifestation of pure evil, leaving a trail of death, destruction and mayhem in his wake. In one scene, he performs a “magic trick,” where He sticks a pencil into a table and says he will make it disappear. When an annoyed mobster (who might as well be wearing a “Disposable Henchman” placard) tries to get rid of him, the joker grabs the gangster’s head and rams him, face down, on the pencil. In the blink of an eye, both man and writing implement bounce out of frame. The movie does not delve in those sort of gory details and nothing is really seen. It’s an embodiment of the true magician’s phrase: “now you see it, now you don’t.”

The jokers weapon of choice is the knife. Why? Because “guns are too fast; knifes allow you to savor all the little emotions.” While you never see him use the knife, there are several culprits who get a blade shoved in their mouth while the joker gives a psychotic monologue about his own facial scars before presumably knifing the person. One man is burned alive on top a pile cash, though by the time joker sets the blaze, you may have easily forgotten he was up there. The Joker has no qualms about killing even his own henchman, let alone, police officers or innocent civilians, and one guy gets a bomb implanted in his stomach. There are, of course, shootings and bombings galore, racking up a catastrophic death toll. Most of this is done off screen, but that doesn’t stop the imagination from seeing every cut and slash. The blood and gore may have been edited to get a PG-13 rating, but the psychological effects make it feel almost more real than if you had actually seen it.

I only heard one explicative (which is one too many for any movie), but after reading Paul Asay’s review (which, had I read first, I wouldn’t have gone), I guess there were at least dozen. And of course, what’s a movie without sexual content. Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne, is very much the epitome of billionaire life. He can be found with a new woman, or often multiple women, in almost every scene he (dis)graces; all of whom are threatening to fall out of what little clothing they might happen to be wearing.

Immodest dress is a huge problem in movies from almost every genre and it seems to often get overlooked. Much of the time, it doesn’t even fit the context or the era of the film. It was simply put there to give added enticement in luring in the average male viewer. This poses serious issues for us as Christians, and in itself ought to be enough to make us look elsewhere for wholesome, clean, God honoring entertainment. Yes, it’s something we have to deal with on a daily basis in our culture, but that doesn’t give you the right to purposely expose yourself to it. Sin has slowly but surely become acceptable to us because we see it all the time so it’s no longer shocking to us. Maybe you have become desensitized and “don’t have a problem with it.” Well, guess what. God Does!

The films structure lent itself nicely to the pathos of its characters, and asked some interesting questions about the nature of humanity in regards to good and evil. But The Dark Knights overall attitude to its moral dilemmas didn’t sit well with me. In fact, the whole film seemed to lack a direct moral center, even though great lengths are taken to force us to make questionable moral decisions. There are multiple scenarios where the joker preys on human ethical dilemmas by forcing people to choose between to groups of people. They have to kill one in order to save the other (otherwise he will kill both groups). “Can people be decent in an indecent world?” the joker asks with a sinister sneer. The implied answer is no.

In one of these scenarios we find the single bright spot in this dark film. Joker’s madness forces everyone to try and flee the city unless they want to be a part of his cruel games. Two ferries, one with average citizens, and one with convicted felons, are rigged by the joker with explosives. The captains are given the detonator to the other ships bomb. The joker hacks into the ships' intercoms, and appraises everyone on board of the situation. If they don’t blow up the other ship within fifteen minutes, he will blow them both up. Finding some remnant of faith in the human race, the film doesn’t have anyone from either ship trying desperately to seize the detonator and blow the other up. The citizens take a vote on their ferry as to whether or not to blow up the felons. They vote in favor of doing so, but no one will actually step up and do it. On the convicts ship, the captain acts as if he wants to hit the detonator but can’t bring himself to do it. Eventually, in an act of almost reverse racism, a large, muscular, scary-looking black man steps up to make the tough moral choice that a wimpy-looking white captain is unable to handle. He doesn’t force away the detonator but convinces the captain to give it to him and let him set it off. The captain, committing an immoral action, relinquishes it to him. But, the best part of the whole movie is when the Black guy takes it and says, “I’ll do what you should have done ten minutes ago,” and throws the detonator out the window. The other ship refuses to blow up the convicts as well, giving the evil joker his only real defeat in the whole movie. For once, nobody dies, as batman stops the joker before he can detonate both. A nice ploy, but the real victory was the triumph of humanity and true morality by not caving to the dictates of terror.

The moral paradoxes effectively position batman as a moral force who is above good-and-evil, and who gives himself the right to judge and frequently condemn others to death on the basis of his superior position as an above-it-all outsider. But this is not effective because batman is an enigma. It is true that real justice and morality can only come form the objective standards of divine command, but behind the mask of batman, there is still Bruce Wayne, a regular human being. Thus, The Dark Knight positions morality as a matter of opinion left up to the natural law retribution of a vigilante.

Another complicated subplot in the movie involves a character who is often seen flipping a coin to determine events. He is often scolded “you can’t leave something like that up to chance.” He replies “I don’t.” Later, we find that it is a two headed coin, and understand why he says “I create my own luck.” After witnessing another triumph of the joker in transforming this character form a laudable public servant, to anther villain, his coin is defaced on one side and he truly does relegate morality to chance saying “The only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced.”

The Dark Knight never truly deals with the moral crisis’ it presents, and thus suggests that we shouldn’t deal with them either. In the final scene, Batman attempts to salvage the aforementioned public servants reputation. By doing so, Batman is proved to have been right and his methods justified, and any ethical dilemmas within the film seem to have been abandoned. It, in essence, says that we shouldn’t question those who operate outside of what we consider acceptable codes of morality, but rather just shut up and trust the hero. No matter what he does, he’s looking out for us, whether we realize it or not. In this, and other ways, batman regresses to some interesting political propaganda; but that’s a whole other post. (I would mention that I have no problems with batman's "sonar" wiretapping of 30 million people at once).

I left feeling ambivalent and un-reassured about the superhero of batman. He is a fairly pathetic, and essentially weakened, figure by the end of the movie; the temporary defeat of “evil” feels like a pyrrhic victory. There are no real moments of selfless heroism, but lots of dilemmas in which people only do the “right thing” by doing something wrong. It’s not so much a battle of good and evil as it is the triumph of evil in forcing good people to compromise their values. The only absolute presented in the movie is evil. Good is almost always presented as a compromise.

Of course Batman doesn’t claim to be a superhero. He is an ideal. One of the character muses that “you either die a hero, or live long enough to become the villain.” This isn’t an option for batman who seems to be an embodiment of a superpower more than a superhero. One madman (Batman) is posited as the only effective way of combating another (Joker). Batman’s dubious morality, and unethical methods of force, are often justified as the only alternative, while the moral dilemmas are seldom dealt with leaving you with questions more than answers.

The few answers it does provide are far from lining up with Christian ideals, and the other negative elements turn this summer blockbuster into a Christian values buster which ought to be shunned by the Christian community. “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,” a drop of arsenic poisons the whole glass, and any immorality demoralizes the soul. Sure, there are worse movies out there, but since when do we compare one bad thing to another in order to justify the lesser of the two evils? How much is too much? The are enough questionable things to call this movie into question. More than enough.

Well, I just had a really great weekend, full of many lessons.

Friday, after work, I met up with Pastor Philip to give out food to the homeless at Tompkins Square Park. I arrived about 20 minutes before he did and just wandered around observing people. That park is scary! It was bad enough at 8:00, I certainly would not want to be there at 2 in the morning. The drunken stupor, the drug use, and other illegal substance abuse, is astounding. And all in the middle of the day. (Or in this case, mid-evening). It looked like a really rough crowd and I was almost afraid of getting mugged even though it was still light out. But then God brought to mind that old famous saying of John Bradford: “There, but by the grace of God, go I.”

Those homeless drug addicts are not yet beyond the reach of God’s profligate grace. We are so biased in our perceptions of people and prejudge every situation and person, instantly, instinctively, and non-reflectively. What a terrible mindset to think that someone is beyond God’s reach, or that God can’t possibly love them because of their profuse sinfulness! We think “sure, God is love, but only toward His children.” Do you really think God is that demonic? There will come a day when the unrighteous will be judged for their actions, but until then, God is constantly trying to turn their misfortune and evil behavior into good. He looks upon that crowd of punk rockers with genuine love. He sent His son to die for them too. He died for everyone while “we were yet in our sins.” God loves all His children, even before they become, and even if they never become, His Children. It is not because we deserve it - we will never deserve it; but simply because that is what love does. He certainly does not need us. But He created us and sustains us, and everything else, out of an expression of His love. God is not loving; He is Love. Love is the very essence of His nature. In the face of life’s challenges, do we trust Him enough to work good out of it? He will if we let Him. He is the master designer, lovingly weaving together a tremendous masterpiece out of the trials and tribulations of life.

I really like Pastor Phillips ministries. He has such a heart for service and is so engaging. (check out his testimony here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FpGcJARO7k&feature=related) I wish I were more like that. Which brings me to another thing I have come to realize this past week. I am not a very “relational” person. I often find it difficult to get to know people really well. The few that I do, I usually stay in contact with, and we remain friends, hopefully for life. But there are so many people that I have known for years, but I don’t really know them at all. This is because I don’t invest much effort in developing relationships, and  am starting to get to the point that I don’t really even know how. What a selfish way to live! Life is all about relationship. The Godhead has always existed in communication with the other members of the Trinity. Being in the image of God we are meant for relationships. Specifically, we are meant to be renewed to a relationship with God. Indirectly we are meant to be in relationships with others, taking time to be with them and giving preference to their needs and desires. Love is selfless, it finds joy in setting aside our own preferences and being happy simply because the other person is happy. At the moment I am way to selfish to be the loving, relational person that I am meant to be.

After the park ministry, Pastor Philip took me over to the docks on the east river, near 23^rd street, and we went fishing. He used to be an avid angler, and even has a documentary out about his fishing adventures. It was such a relaxing time and I almost forgot that I was still in the middle of NYC. First we went fishing for men, and then we went fishing for fish! We didn’t catch anything that evening, but there were a few bites at both locations.

On Saturday, a group of us from church went for a bike ride in central park. The park is so beautiful, and such a marvelous display of God’s creative handiwork.

I had to work in the afternoon, and then it was back to the church in the evening for bible study. We had a guest speaker, Pastor Bickle, from Good Shepherd Fellowship in Brooklyn. It was a really great lesson from 1 Cor. 2:6 - 3:3. He brought up some really great points that I had never thought about before. I am going to try and organize my random and chaotic notes for you here.

Spiritual Standard of Living

There are just three standards, and one is yours!

1. Sub-standard “Natural” Living (2:14)

Marked by blindness (2:14). These are unsaved people, trying to live a Christian life but are not Christians.

Recognized by a lack of understanding (2:11). These are people who do not read their Bible, who may say prayers but never actually pray, they may even be baptized members of the church but are not saved.

How poor and perilous life becomes apart from Christ. Living on human intellect will not suffice. Have you ever sincerely accepted Christ to come and illuminate your life? Perhaps the reason you are unsuccessful in your Christian walk is because you are not actually a Christian.

2. Low Standard “Carnal” Living (3:3).

These are Christians who are not living as they should be and their Christian walk is marked by weakness (3:1-3).

Their Christian development has been arrested (3:2). Though they may have been Christians for years, like a mentally handicapped child, they are still in diapers, making baby noises and sucking on a bottle.

Like helpless babies, they must be fed by others. Are you capable of taking the Bible alone and feeding yourself, or must you be spoon fed by the pastor, Sunday school teachers, and devotional books?

Like speechless babies, they do not talk to (pray) or for (witness) Christ. Most Christians seem to be able to talk about anything and everything under the sun except the Lord.

Like babies, they are senseless. They have a warped sense of values, void of moral distinctions, and are easily offended. This often leads them to quit coming to church or fellowshipping with others.

There is an almost unrecognizable difference as their life looks like and is characterized by “Natural Living.” They have conditional standards and will hold to Christian ethic around Christians, but revert to societal standards around the unsaved.

3. True Standard “Spiritual” Living.

Marked by maturity (2:6). Are you constantly maturing and becoming complete?

There is an acceptance of a new responsibility as you carry one another’s burdens in prayer.

There is an acquisition of a new philosophy (2:16), as we form our values and morals from the convictions brought by Christ and His word.

There is an achievement of new intimacy (2:6-10) as God reveals the purposes He has for our lives.

This is maintained by a ministry. (2:10-11). The ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives is vital. It is must be more than intellectual understanding. Does the Holy Spirit’s function mean anything in your life? Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

God is Spirit and as such does not need a body. Jesus Christ has a body, and He is seated in it at the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit was sent to indwell a body. Have you ever surrendered you body to the control of the Holy Spirit?

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That last part really hit home to me. I could tell you all about the Holy Spirit in a doctrinal sense. As the third member of the Trinity I could perhaps layout an outline of all of His specific functions. But I don’t know that I had ever surrendered to His control and sought to sense His presence and leading. While none of us would probably seek to deny His existence, I know many would offer excuses that He doesn’t work to the same extent that He did in the early formulative days of the church. Maybe the reason we don’t see many supernatural things occurring is because we don’t have enough faith. We look with dubious skepticism upon activities such as casting out demons, or supernatural healings. Just because something does not fit into your perception of reality does not mean it is not real. There are “supernatural” things in this world that are much more natural than our day to day existence. Our reality becomes an illusion when we fail to see the "supernatural" as a natural extension of the Christian life. We have access to an infinite God; if we believe He can do something, we ought to believe that He can do anything. He can, and will, most certainly take care of us.

(Check out a couple of good posts about what God can do through us here:

http://www.xanga.com/PollyH/665671146/moving-on-i-hope.html

and here:

http://www..xanga.com/thetentguy/665382142/heavenly-realities.html

We often find ourselves trapped inside of economic and societal constructs, causing us to fear the future and inhibiting us from truly living in the present. We are to busy planning for retirement to wonder what the Bible might mean when it says “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” Now, certainly we may have some responsibility to wisely use the resources at our disposal. But we so often get carried away and our minds imagine these fantastic scenarios, and we try to plan for each one. Now if this happens I’ll do this, but what if that happens; then what? Ahhh!! We want to have all these contingency plans to cover every conceivable situation that may possibly arise. This can be a great detriment to our faith and inhibits us from living for Christ. We can only live in the present. We can look back in the past and should learn from history; but we have no control over the future. Why spend so much of your life worrying about something you have no power to control? The future is not fixed, and as such, can not be planned for. It becomes what you make it by living from one moment to the next in the present. As Priscilla Maurice states: “Your business is in the present; leave the future in His hands who will be sure to do the very best for you.”

The art of life consists in taking each event that befalls us with a contented mind, confident of good.

Dear Holy Spirit, won’t you please come and take control of my life. I surrender it completely and wholly to you, to do and to will at His good pleasure. Take control of my eyes. May I never set anything before them that would bring you shame and dishonor and quickly divert their gaze from any unwholesome thing that may force itself into their view. Let me see people in the way that God sees them - in a nonjudgmental, loving fashion. Take my hands, to do your service, meeting the needs of those who are seen to be hurting and in need of basic necessities. Take my feet and have me go where you want me to go dear Lord. Take my mouth and may I speak only to edify others and to speak of your love and share your Word - especially with those who may have never heard. Take my mind, and let it be quick to cast aside any wayward thoughts. May it become quickened and able to understand the Divine mysteries you wish to reveal. Take my heart and teach me to love unconditionally as you have first so loved me. Amen.

A few posts ago, I wrote about specific issue in relation to modesty and how focal points can make an outfit unfit. The other day, a Xanga acquaintance, P_Obrien,  had a great post about modesty in general and how guidelines are a good starting point, but since we don’t always know exact “lines,” we should seek to go beyond general points of reference and embody a modesty of Spirit. If you dress in a fashion that glorifies God, you won’t have to worry about guidelines because you would never be inclined to dress in an immodest fashion.

He makes some excellent points and you should go read it right now. Did you read it yet? Hurry up. Click over there. Do it now! Why are you still reading this?

See, wasn’t that good? I wasn’t planning on addressing the topic again, but I was thinking about this yesterday and felt there might be a few more things to say. I was going to post it last night, but I ran out of time as I had a much welcomed interruption in the form of a phone call from my sister.

Anyway, as I was pondering the topic in a more general sense, I began to think that perhaps guidelines and honoring God through a modesty of Spirit, are actually two sides of the same coin. You can’t really have one without the other. Without Christ, you have no basis for any rules or regulations. Who would decide what is appropriate and what isn’t? What makes them an authority? Ultimately, you end up making the human conscience the final arbitrater of right and wrong, thus relegating the appropriateness of fashion to fallen nature. You can see the results of this by taking a walk down town, or going to the beach (a place Christians should not be going). Accepeted societal modes of fashion, though still following some general rules, obviously fall far short of being honoring to God.

On the flip side of the coin though, how do we know what things honor Christ and what actions don’t? In order to glorify God, we need guidelines to tell us what sort of behavior is acceptable and what things are inappropriate. We glorify God by doing the things He has told us to do, and abstaining from those things which He has forbidden. There are some clear cut guidelines that we can not cross. This is why I said in my previous post that sincerity doesn’t really matter. No matter how pure ones intentions, if you are breaking specified rules of conduct it will not bring honor to God. Remember Uzzah? He had a pretty sincere heart when he tried to protect the ark, but God struck him dead. We can not worship God in ways that please us. It is only pleasing to God if it is according to the methods (rules and guidelines) that He has prescribed. In our discussion of modesty, your torso probably needs to be covered, not all your appendages necessarily have to be.

But do we necessarily need rules for everything? Remember the Pharisees? They had regulations and rules for about every situation imaginable and they followed them to the letter. But Jesus said that, unless our righteousness exceeds theirs, we will not get to heaven. Rules aren’t always enough.

So what about these alleged “grey areas” where we don’t know for sure what to do? What is modest? When does it become immodest and so on and so forth? One thing we Do NOT do is experiment around to find boundaries. You can only find them by crossing them, and then it’s too late. As I commented earlier, the purpose of drawing guidelines is not so we can see how close we can get without crossing them. Christians are not called to dabble in the murky waters of the unclear in order to test the boundaries. When it comes to matters of the flesh we are told to flee from them.

There are some guidelines given us. 1 Peter 3:3-4 for example:

The gospel is a law of liberty, which declines to be bound to a rigid line of application in all circumstances. But there is a modesty of Spirit that has visible manifestations. With it, one could be dressed in a long sleeved, completely buttoned, faded flannel shirt, and a pair of dirty, baggy jeans and still be breathtaking . It’s a beauty of spirit that at once shrinks from the trouble associated with the assertion of ones “right” to wear form fitting clothes. An outfit that is designed to draw attention to your body, comes from a sinful and vain heart, and here comes under direct condemnation.

Rules without a Godly spirit will get you nowhere. One could be dressed the exact same way as described above and still be sensual and immodest even though they are completely covered in loose clothing. There has to be a purity of heart to go with it. But pure intent that doesn’t follow the rules doesn’t suffice either. It has to be a combination of the two. Sometimes things are not clear cut, but if we seek to glorify God (sincerity of heart) and make sure clothing choices do not any way, shape, or form, draw attention to the body (guidelines), we wouldn’t have to worry so much about where to draw the line.

***EDIT***

"An outfit that is designed to draw attention to your body comes from a sinful and vain heart, and here comes under direct condemnation."

It may also stem from a lack of awareness. One must be very careful to make sure there are no aspects of your outfit which call undue to attention to your body, whether it be color, cut, fit, or whatever else.  But just because you don't realize something is immodest does not excuse wearing it. Here, again, is why it is good to have some general guidelines. It might also be a good idea to check with respected, godly members of the opposite sex on their opinion. We should always, in loving humility, seek to abstain from anything that would put occasion to fall in another believer’s path; as well as anything that draws attention to ourselves instead of reflecting the beauty of Jehovah.