My Death in Life

I'm not sure if you've been able to pick this up from previous posts but I am a proud nerd. My areas of interest are comic books and the universe that they create by the ever-growing web of stories and relationships. First I must admit that I don't know as much as some and that compared to a lot of people in the comic community, I'm just a newbie. But I hate to break it to you, I am what you are thinking right now. You saw the title of the blog post. You've now read my confession as a comic nerd. You're probably saying to yourself- this is one of those guys that gets on and rage blogs about everything the movies got wrong. While this is true, this is not the aim of this blog post (If you would like a detailed conversation about the x-men universe, try contacting me). The aim of this blog post is to reveal somethings about culture through a contemporary piece of its media.

There were two prevailing themes that I will hit on. The first topic surrounds the developing character of Erik Lehnsherr (aka Magneto). For any of those who haven't seen the movie yet, there will be some mild spoilers within so I can explain the situation a little more.
Early in the movie you see a young Erik in a German concentration camp where Sebastian Shaw (the villain of the movie) is trying to push this young mutant to use his power. Shaw ends up murdering Erik's mother trying to get him to use his power and gets what he asks for, giving Erik the "key" to using his power- rage. As the movie progresses you see and hear Shaw's goals of everything he's trying to do and the more Shaw talks the more it sounds familiar. Even though throughout the entire movie Erik is seeking revenge on Shaw, Erik ends up ultimately adopting Shaw's view of the world. (This is where I'll leave you hanging so you see all of the X-men movies).

Instantly my mind went to the quote from from Friederich Nietzsche;

Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster...and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you

I've been slowly coming to a realization from my time at Moody. Erik has a definite worldview that is affected by Shaw, which leads to all of Erik's later actions in life (even Erik says in the movie, "you've turned me into what I am"). Erik, at this pivotal time in his life, is so focused on Shaw that he ends up turning into the thing that he hated. This idea I think is roughly talked about in scripture, but on the other end.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. -Colossians 3:1-4, ESV

The end of chapter 2 in Colossians is Paul discussing that nothing has an effect against the indulgence of the flesh- except when he leads into chapter 3. If Christ is our focus, that is truly the answer. I know this sounds like an impractical philosophy, but it needs to be an actively pursued way of life. If we are focusing on Christ then we are following Him and everything that He said and did. Too many times in Christianity we end up focusing on our struggle or the thing we hate. What this does is not give us more power over it, but makes us more susceptible to succumb to it! Erik showed this as he pursued revenge against Shaw but then, in most ways, becoming Shaw. When men focus on their sexual struggles, they never defeat them. It's only when we look to Christ that the rest takes care of itself. If we are focused on Christ, there are no distractions, there is nothing to get in the way, there is nothing but our relationship with Christ.

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Also a quick little mention. In Integration of Faith and Learning (a Moody Bible Class) we learned about how people integrate information into their worldview. There are several options: accept, reject, alter, or save for further thought at a different time. You can see in the end of the movie how Erik blameshifts, or rejects, his part in making Xavier cirppled to stay consistent with his worldview (consistency is an essential element for a solid, logical, philosophic view of the world). Xavier's words ring powerful as he confronts Erik in this thinking with the words, "No, Erik, You did this".

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The second thing that really stuck out to me was what the movie had to say about women. I know the movie takes place in the sixties, but I believe that this problem still rings true today... for I have seen it, unfortunately. I'm not sure the writer's of the movie intended to show this side of people, specifically women, but it rang clear for me.

Every main female role ended up switching to what would be the evil side. This is not because the women were stupid. It is not because the women did not have a moral compass. It is because they wanted acceptance.

I won't go through and give you all of the character's history and what happened to them to develop such a desire for acceptance for it is evident in the movie itself that all of the girls are just looking to be accepted. Mystique struggles with her natural blue appearance and finds comfort in Magneto who encourages her to be proud of herself and not hide, even telling her that she's more beautiful in her blue form. Angel, who was stripping before Xavier and Eric found her, seeks the smooth words of being promised a great many things in a royal family from Shaw. Emma Frost, who is a mistress of the Hellfire Club (a high roller gambling/strip club type society), is somehow connected in a subservient manner to Shaw, seemingly feeding off of Shaw's need of her.

In every case these powerful and smart women were going back on their convictions because they wanted to be accepted from men- something that they fail to feel (because of the lack of smooth words and actions) from the men that are heroes in the film. I think it showed the power that some women are enslaved to today. They want to find acceptance and security in the relationship of a man, sometimes to a fault.

I think a good picture of the hero side men seeking to fight against this is when Angel is about to go with Shaw but they fight to keep her from going with them, even at the cost of one of their own. The question becomes where is the line where women need to stand on their convictions and not bow to their emotional struggle for acceptance and where men need to help in guarding the women's hearts? I could write for days on the importance and the different ways that we could go about doing this in today's culture (so maybe another time), but the point I want to get across is that the movie portrayed a problem that I see women having.

My Christian, cliche answer is that they need to seek that in Christ before they can find any healthy relationship elsewhere. It's a cliche, but it's true. If Christ isn't the center, who knows where anyone, let alone women, can and will be led.