This is not a movie review: Dredd

I have written about movies before and I am thinking that I'll start a little blog sub-feature on it, This Is Not A Movie Review.  No reason, and it certainly doesn't mean I won't offer my completely unqualified opinion of whatever I've seen, but that won't be the point.  As is my wont here, the point is to reflect theologically on what I've seen.  Today I'm in a mood to reflect a little bit on the high-powered action movie Dredd, which came out near the end of September.

The movie is based off of the British comic book character Judge Dredd, who was previously the subject of a 1995 film of the same name starring Sylvester Stallone.  Unlike most Americans I actually have read a lot of the comics and was very intrigued to see the new spin this movie would offer.  The Stallone film fell short in a lot of ways, but the primary ones were a lack of understanding of the character and his world, and the fact that they tried to shoehorn the concept into a standard Hollywood action blockbuster format.  The two problems really play off each other: Judge Dredd is not a superhero, by far.  If he is remotely close to any hero Americans are familiar with it would probably be Batman, but more because in the DC realm some of the Elseworlds comics that see Batman's style carried to extremes (like the graphic novel Kingdom Come) show some serious fascist undertones, but even then Batman operates under strict rules against killing opponents and saving innocents when he can.  Judge Dredd, on the other hand, is an iron-fisted enforcer of the law, with no qualms about executing the guilty.  "Anti-hero" is probably the best descriptor of what he is. Furthermore, unlike many American action heroes, he anything but the "everyman."  He is purposefully the opposite of that: a clone of the founder of Justice Department, trained physically and programmed psychologically to be an unyielding enforcer of the law.  Dredd is a lot of things, but "sympathetic" is not one of them.  He is not "one man against the system"--he is the system, or as his catchphrase puts it, "I AM the law."

Before I start analyzing this movie, a couple qualifications: yes, this movie is extremely violent.  If that means you give me the stinkeye because "How can you be a Christian and watch that?!" well, I'm sorry.  That's not really my point of getting into this, and I don't have an intention of getting into arguments over at what point violence becomes gratuitous.  I would definitely argue that in this movie, the level of violence is crucial to imparting the hopelessness of the world this is set in.  So let's set aside the hand-wringing over the children and talk about what this movie is saying like adults.

The concept of Judge Dredd was developed in the 70s, not exactly the most optimistic of time periods.  In the future America, a nuclear war has left the middle of the continent an all but uninhabitable desert, with American civilization surviving only in three megacities, one on each coast and the third in Texas.  They are overcrowded, with most citizens living in high-rise apartment buildings called "city blocks" that are often named after random celebrities or fictional characters from the past (though the one this film is set in is just given the generic name "Peach Trees").  Due to virtually all industry and jobs becoming automated or performed by robots, unemployment is rampant; I believe in the movie they say 97% of the occupants of Peach Trees are unemployed and on welfare.  Of course, how such an economy could possibly persist long-term is never addressed, but it's not terribly relevant to the larger story.

In this world people exist to basically fill their minds with entertainment, commit crimes to relieve boredom, and in general just try to get by day by day.  Crime is beyond out of control, and the Judges were established to streamline the justice system.  Due process is out, instant sentencing is in, including executions on the spot.  Two kids make the mistake of pulling a gun on the judges, and Dredd just glares at them and says "Juve cubes or body bags, makes no difference to me" before showing the one tiny amount of mercy displayed in this film and hitting them with stun shots from his gun. (I suppose that even the producers of a film as gritty as this one balked at showing teenage kids shot down without so much as a second thought)

In this world there is very little evidence of hope, of mercy or compassion; certainly no faith.  It is the ultimate world of consumerism: people live, get their checks, and spend what little they're given on feeding their hunger--for food, for entertainment, for a trip away from their mind and the drudgery of the world outside.  The massively selfish nature that has consumed humanity combined with the utter boredom of such a routine and the lack of any good reason to care about anyone else, results in a world where crime is almost literally everywhere.  And what happens in such a world?  People beg for security from the government, and it gives it to them the only way any government can: with an iron fist.

Lots of potential reactions to it all, but I am always struck in watching films portraying a dystopian future that people have utterly abandoned any semblance of faith in God or anything else beyond themselves.  What strikes me about it mostly is that it's probably the one element of these films that has the least relation to how the world actually works itself out.

I think in general, when someone living in free Western civilization sits down to write about a future that's been affected by either cataclysm or encroaching fascism (and this film's world is the result of both), they imagine that such hardships will drive men to utter levels of despair and abandonment of any semblance of faith in a God or anything good beyond them.  Man's ability to take joy in his world is rooted utterly in his circumstances, according to this philosophy, and therefore a decline in those circumstances will destroy the ability to take any level of joy in one's life.

But the problem here is twofold: from a strictly humanist perspective, man has always demonstrated far more resiliency than those who first wrote and drew the world of Mega-City One attribute to them.  People live in conditions ranging from "delightful" to "deplorable" and still manage to find reasons to celebrate and love their communities and families.

From a Christian perspective, the argument is that God has historically done His best work in the midst of hardship.  Mark 10 displays the reality that wealth, in fact, is a hindrance to joy in many cases.  Iron sharpens iron, and likewise a piece of steel that spends its existence wrapped in silk cloth will take much longer to become a sword than one that is heated in fire, tempered and hammered.  This is not to say that wealth or relative ease precludes knowing God, but having met many people who lived in nations which oppress their people I can say without much fear of contradiction that strife, pain and even official oppression in the form of discrimination, arrests and even executions has done little to stifle Christianity in those nations.  On the flipside, Western countries are certainly struggling much more with regards to general apathy and drawing people into the church.  "Attractional" ministries have sprung up and while I will not question the hearts of people brought into a saving faith in Jesus in these ministries, I have to question their methods and how deep one can really be led in the walk when entertainment is one of the big draws.

So what's the point of this rambling diatribe?  I'm not going after the movie or calling it on the carpet, because I think the idea that fascism could come even to the shores of America, that people would be willing to surrender their liberty for security, are very real and good points to consider.  But I believe that no matter what the future holds, the three qualities from 1 Corinthians 13 of faith, hope and love will not evaporate, for two reasons: firstly, because they are encoded in our beings as men and manifest themselves in every culture and situation, and secondly, because we do not live in a world that tumbles along on the winds of chaos and chance, but in one where God's purposes continue unabated and unthwarted, and where every bad thing intended by man, every bit of destruction wreaked by nature is ultimately intended by God for our good.  Knowing that, and seeing the way that God has moved in my heart through the work of the Holy Spirit, through godly men and women loving me and living out the Word around me, I have been empowered to walk in a place knowing that there is no government, no law and--indeed, no earthly Judge--who can separate me from the love of Christ.  May such assurances bolster us as we move into an unsure future.

Escape is not an option

It's another post-election day, and I think it's safe to say that, as usual, no one is really happy.  The losing side sees doom on the horizon, and the winning side is frustrated that while it didn't lose, it also didn't gain anything; essentially, the status quo remains.  Not totally, of course, but it seems that the nation is in something of a stalemate. 

So you all know what that means: let's talk about Jesus!

I've written before about the limitations of politics mixing with Christian ideas and where both sides fall short, as it were, of what the Bible actually calls us to be in Christ.  Of course, the most obvious place is that neither party puts its glory in God but rather in men, in leaders elected who achieve success of some kind or another.  They put their faith in personalities, or ideas, or desires, but not in the God who "removes and sets up kings."  On the same token, hope does not lie with men--thankfully.  Hope lies with God, who is the one who establishes governments for His glory and at the same time, provides all things for His children. 

Yesterday was sort of a strange day for me; while I certainly am not pleased by the result of the presidential election, I saw God move to display the next few steps in our path in the form of a company I've been working to get a job with extending me an offer, which I accepted.  I will be leaving Brook Mays at the end of the month and moving to a company called Uline, to work in inside sales.  It's a great opportunity for my wife and I, and we're both very excited about what lies in store for us from here.  But the attitude of many of the people of a similar political vein to me that I read or that I'm friends with has been pessimistic as of late.  Probably the most stark writing was this post on Instapundit from late last night, an email from a reader which is essentially a call for those who work hard to produce to throw in the towel and "go Galt," borrowing the concept from Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged, wherein the members of society who have been responsible for its economic growth and prosperity grow tired of a government that demonizes them and takes and takes to buy the votes of those who have less, that enslaves their efforts for its own purposes.  While I sympathize with the feeling, the frustration of knowing the direction that a growing welfare state will send this country and yet seeing so many people either not believing that we will end up there or actually desiring it, this is where Christianity and conservatism part ways.  "Going Galt" is not an option for someone who has been transformed by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Firstly, I will remind what I said the last time I spoke on matters political: the person who stands on the other side of a political issue from me is not my enemy.  I will absolutely speak my mind on what I think is good policy, I will participate in the process, but this election should be a lesson to all that political victory is both fleeting and ultimately out of our control.  There is a call on us as Christians to stand against immorality in our culture, to speak the truth of the Gospel no matter how angry it makes those on whom it shines light, but more importantly there is a call on us to use what God gifts us with to love those around us.  If God is setting me up on a path to more earthly success, it is not my role to hoard in in fear of losing it, because it belongs to God and He'll give and take it as He pleases.  I will continue to speak out in favor of liberty and policies that promote greater prosperity, and against the wickedness of abortion and a culture that is so willing to dispose of anyone who is too great an expense or inconvenience, but all of it falls within the umbrella of the ministry of reconciliation.  My goal is not to hammer home a victory over my political opponents; I'd rather see a relationship grow with him that lets me share the Gospel and, God willing, watch the seed of God's word planted grow into a renewed life. 

Easier said then done, of course.  My inclination, as those who knew me in my youth can no doubt attest, is to go into battle swinging away.  But that too is part of Jesus' ministry of reconciliation, transforming me from someone who seeks to use the gifts of logic and language given to me for my own glory, to be "the guy who is right," and to instead seek a humbler end through them. 

This has been long and somewhat rambling, and I don't know if I've been effective in really making a point here that someone on either side will take a liking to.  I will wrap it up with two brief statements: 1) my hope does not lie in men, in elections or laws or matters of policy, but with the truth of the Gospel and the transformation God continues to effect in my heart and in the lives of my wife and myself, and 2) whether the country enters a new era of prosperity or declines in the same way Europe has, I will continue to celebrate that hope. 

Let brotherly love continue.  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.  Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.  Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.  Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  So we can confidently say,

“The Lord is my helper;
    I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”

 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.  We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.  For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.  So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.  Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.  For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.  Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.  Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.--Hebrews 13:1-16

We do not seek after escape from the troubles of life, but instead let us stand firm on the rock of Jesus Christ and know that no storm coming will shake us loose.