Meta, more on SPN vs. Christianity.

[fannishliss]

For some reason, I intend to fic, and then sit down and spew forth Meta. Hope this is interesting to someone other than my tolerant pagan Husband. :P Please don't hesitate to comment whether you agree or disagree.

Supernatural’s Christless Christianity and Pagan People-Eaters

 

missyjack  has done a great job of elucidating how Supernatural critiques a general image of Christianity that permeates the American mythos.  In this meta, I’m going to talk not from a humanist perspective, as she does, but from a theological one – just for the sake of diversity.  (Although my personal religion is Christianity, of the Episcopalian denomination, I do not intend my theology to come across as narrowly Christian.  If it does, mea culpa.)  This is not at all intended as a rebuttal, but merely as a parallel viewpoint with a different starting place.

 

My favorite starting place is my “Christo?” hat.  At Wincon ’08, I traded a “bitch/jerk” t shirt that I won in the charity raffle for a white painter’s cap that says, a la milk ads, “CHRISTO?”  (all caps, but in my mind, it’s all lower case :)  You’ll remember way back in “Phantom Traveller” when Sam tells Dean to test for demons by saying “the name of God” and Dean says “I know” and Sam  says “In Latin’s it’s Christo” and Dean says “Dude I know!”     In my house, many eyebrows were raised.

 

Now, even the most hardcore Christians among us will not claim that Christo is the name of God. Actually, the Hebrew word Messiah, meaning anointed one, is translated into Greek as khristos, and then into Latin as Chrīstus.  So Christ is not the name of God, it’s a title.  The Hebrew and Christian God has only a combination of letters, YHWH, as a name, or refer to God’s cryptic statement from the burning bush, I AM THAT I AM. God is also referred to as Adonai, or the Lord, another title.  Christians follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth – Jesus, whose given name would have been Yeshua, meaning, salvation.

 

Linguistics aside, Demons flinch if you say Christo.  Also, they respond to the Latin exorcism developed by the Roman Catholic church and they burn at the touch of holy water, also from Roman Catholicism.    (See wikipedia: “The Rituale Romanum is probably most famous for its rite of Exorcism  made famous by the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. ...The Rituale Romanum used to be the only text the Church would allow for a valid Exorcism....”) They can be trapped in a “devil’s trap” (what we used to call a pentagram in the days before Show)  -- like those from “the Key of Solomon,” a text of Renaissance kabbalistic magic (not explicitly Christian). 

 

Having met angels and demons, archangels, archdemons like Azazel and Lilith, and finally Lucifer himself, there has still been absolutely no mention of Jesus.  When Sam and Dean reached the central Garden of Heaven, they met an Angel named Joshua who still talks to God.  (By coincidence, this episode aired very near Easter, when Christians read the Scripture in which Mary Magdalene mistakes her risen rabbi, Jesus, for a Gardener.  Intriguing!!)

 

So, if there is no Jesus, then why Christo?

 

In my opinion, the Christlessness of Supernatural’s so-called “Christianity” supports Missyjack’s argument – that Supernatural is trying to work, not with the actual religion of Christianity, but with the cultural by-products and the “Christian” mythology that have permeated American culture.  To put it simply, every American who celebrates Christmas (or even Easter!) isn’t a Christian – just that Christianity permeates American culture – and as such, this religiously tinged folklore is fair game for a horror show with a sharp satirical edge.

 

(Unfortunately, because Christianity has been a state religion and a tool of Empire in the recent millennium, many people conflate the crimes perpetrated in the name of the religion with the religion itself.  Few thinking folks would condemn Islam wholesale because of the bad ideas of some acting in its name – but because of Christianity’s dominance, thinking folks will often decry Christianity (or sometimes religious faith in general) with a clear conscience.)

 

I think it’s perfectly fair for Show to work within the Christian mythos, because the Christian mythos is a ripe ground for horror shows  -- as Dante Alighieri well demonstrated all the way back in the 1300s.   Whether or not individual Christians believe in Hell, demons, or Angels, these cultural ideas are powerful and interesting.

 

For Supernatural, a show predicated on the idea of traveling America hunting for monsters, to base a mytharc on the Christian Apocalypse seems perfectly reasonable.  Demonic possession, the Antichrist and the Apocalypse are all big ideas in the American mythos – as is demonstrated by the fact that the Rituale Romanum is mostly known for its rite of exorcism, used in The Exorcist – long held to be the touchstone of horror cinema.

 

Finally, we come around to the idea of the Pagan People Eaters.  Just like many critical viewers, I wonder why it is that whenever Pagan Gods appear on the show, they want to eat people?

 

I think there are a couple of possibilities.  Primarily, eating people will put you on the Winchesters’ Enemies List – while not eating people will tentatively remove you from that list.  Perhaps there are plenty of gods currently residing in America who aren’t eating people – no harm, no foul, no long list of cyclic disappearances to bring the Winchesters down on your godly doorstep with a handy evergreen stake.

 

Interestingly enough, Kali is one goddess who actually carries the name Devourer – and like many goddesses of birth, life, and death – she represents both womb and tomb, and would happily eat you.  What I mean to say is, she represents the Holy Mystery whereby our bodies are devoured by the earth; metaphorically, she eats us.   Most of the other gods depicted on the recent episode aren’t even remotely associated with eating people, much less with killing them in order to eat them.   

 

Another argument is the idea that in America, these gods have fewer followers and are correspondingly weak, necessitating their eating folks instead of living off of worship like in the old days --the Paris Hilton god says something to this effect in Fallen Idols, declaring that American “idol” worship is merely a pale reflection of the devotion she received in her native forest, before it was destroyed (not, incidentally, by Christianity, but by commerce). Madge Carrigan and her partner who dressed up as the Anti-Claus tell a similar story. 

 

Regardless, I found it distressing that Ganesh, a living Divinity for millions of devout Hindus, was painted as a Devourer for no good reason, and easily killed by Lucifer.

 

Vertigo Comics – home to John Constantine, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, and Mike Carey’s Lucifer – was born out of the storyline of Alan Moore’s Saga of the Swamp Thing. Moore told a fascinating tale of a “shambling, moss-encrusted mockery of a man” who thought he was a scientist named Alec Holland, only to find out that he was an incarnation of the Earth elemental. Alec goes on a pilgrimage throughout Gothic America, defeats some really disgusting witches, and even travels to Hell in his peregrinations, only to discover that his love for his wife, Abigail Arcane, is the key to true transcendence.   The various Vertigo titles and their creators have long been acknowledged as primary influences on Supernatural – and it has always been the contention of John Constantine that Angels are no better than Demons, only more sanctimonious. It was a Vertigo comic that posited Gabriel as Mary’s rapist. How’s that for blasphemy!  :)

 

Vertigo is simply one very influential reflection of an American suspicion of Gods. One of my earliest memories of tv is from watching another forerunner of Supernatural, Kolchak the Night Stalker, going up against a terrifying Native American god in one episode.  The USA was actually founded by men with a well-founded suspicion of religion and of God – most of the founding fathers were “Deists” who believed in a God who set the world running and then absconded. There is a reflection of that God in the God described by Joshua, who will not stop the Apocalypse.

 

As I stated at first, I myself am a practicing Christian.  My belief in redemption tells me that even Lucifer could be redeemed by repentance and faith in a loving God.  I would like nothing more than to see Michael and Lucifer (inspired by our lovely Winchesters) forgive and embrace each other, cleansed of hatred, for the Angels to realize how wrong they’ve been and for all the demons to be purged of their sins and rise to eternal peace.  I certainly don’t believe in a Memorex Heaven, with a bunch of asshole Angels running things in the absence of God – but then my redemptionist narrative isn’t very tense storytelling. :)

 

In all, I’m fine with a humanist story arc for Supernatural: Kripke’s horror show finds redemption in the faith and love two brothers place in each other, and to Hell with God.  Fair enough – but if this is the case, it must be acknowledged that Show is not Christian. And other gods are still going to be portrayed as monsters, especially if Show wants to horrify you with how gorily they eat people.  It’s no less warped storytelling than a “christo?” with no Christ to be invoked.

Comments

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm a bad theologian, but stuff like this really interests me. :)

Severus is reading up on the Manichean heresy. :P

[andreth47.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...is that the one that puts Good/God and Evil/Satan on equal terms?

SEVERUS!!!!

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the one! I also like Gnostic heresy, where the world was created by the Demiurge and all matter is Inherently Evil. :P *raspberry*

I love your icon! I wanna form some kind of society, like the Hufflepuffs And Ravenclaws Defend the Awesomeness of Severus Snape (HARDASS). (I'm a Ravenclaw, but since Dean is a Hufflepuff I wanted to let him join too.)

[andreth47.livejournal.com]

I could never understand why the Gnostics didn't just off themselves. Why live? ;D

Ha! ICWYDT! I love that fic; Dean is totes a Hufflepuff. (I suppose I'm a Slytherclaw, myself, lol, but I'd join HARDASS in a minute.)

I also wanted to say that I absolutely LOVED Kolchak. What a great show! And this post inspired me to buy a run of Hellblazer comics, too. I've never actually read those, just absorbed a lot of fannish info about them, so it's time I go to the source text.