Of Jedi
Less than 4 months until Revenge of the Sith comes out... are you as excited as I am?
I'm a Star Wars fanatic, so much so that I even love Episodes I and II. "So you think they are as a good as the classic trilogy?" you might ask. Well no, they don't hold a candle to the original Star Wars or my personal favorite The Empire Strikes Back, but as every true fan knows, neither did Return of the Jedi. In fact I think I would rank the films as follows:
- Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
- Episode IV: A New Hope
- Episode II: Attack of the Clones
- Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
- Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Where Ep III will fall remains to be seen, but I have high hopes that it will at least make the top three.
Anyway, I recently reread the classic list of
50 Reasons Why Jedi Sucks. Now, anyone reasonably familiar with George Lucas knows that he was heavily influenced by
Joseph Campbell's theory of the
monomyth, the idea that there are archetypes common to the myths of all cultures. From there Campbell proceeds down the same road as
Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy to the theory that all the world's religions are different expressions of the same underlying (and ultimately unknowable) mystic truth, an idea with great currency among the New Agers.
Lucas clearly lifted many of his plot elements straight from the monomyth (cf.
Supernatural Aid and
Apotheosis), but he also seems to have derived the overall Jedi philosophy and Yoda's Zen-like sayings largely from Campbell's amorphous pantheism. The Force is certainly not God as orthodox Christians know Him. And yet, it never struck me until I reread
#32 Jedi Afterlife just how strongly the theme of Christian salvation plays into the resolution of the whole series. Consider the dialog as Anakin/Darth Vader lies dying:
LUKE
No. You're coming with me. I can't leave you here.
I've got to save you.
ANAKIN
You already have, Luke.
And indeed the end of the film suggests that Anakin’s soul has survived and reached “Jedi Heaven”. I remember as a child I was confused and even frustrated by the climatic scene where Luke casts aside his lightsaber and declares:
LUKE
Never! I'll never turn to the dark side. You've failed, Your Highness.
I am a Jedi, like my father before me.
The Emperor then proceeds to electrocute Luke and would have killed him were it not for Vader's last minute repentance and intervention. I remember thinking "what an idiot!" Luke had fought Vader reluctantly only because he stood between Luke and the Emperor. Now that Vader lay helpless on the floor, why didn't Luke just bum rush the Emperor and slice him in half?
Instead, he throws down his weapon and refuses to fight, the son prepared to sacrifice his life for love of the father. This act of self-sacrifice not only defeats the ultimate evil power and sets the galaxy free, but it also saves Anakin’s immortal soul. "That isn't how the hero is supposed to win!" I thought. Is it?
Perhaps Jedi is better than I give it credit for. If only it didn't have
so many Ewoks...
Historic Day in Iraq
I’ve been watching CNN and Fox News and reading Iraqi blogs such as Healing Iraq, Kurdo's World, and Baghdad Dweller. I’m very proud of the role our brave soldiers played in making this election possible and moved by the courage of so many of the Iraqi people to risk their lives to stand up for their rights by voting.
Now that the people have spoken, what sort of government will the newly elected leaders of Iraq construct? The two key questions are:
- Will the Shiites and Sunni find a way to peacefully coexist?
- What role will religion play in the new government?
Many commentators oversimplify this latter question as “will the new government be Islamic or secular?” when in fact there is such a wide spectrum of possibilities between, say, Afghanistan under the Taliban and France (though ironically both would be inclined to
prohibit students from wearing crosses to school).
The recent election here in the U.S. and the court cases involving “gay marriage” and the pledge of allegiance remind us that many (perhaps most) American are uncomfortable with a militantly secularist government. If Americans feel this way, it seems safe to assume that most Iraqis would not welcome a French- or Dutch-model secularist government either. On the other hand, an Iranian-model theocracy run by Iraqi Shiite clerics would be equally unacceptable to the Sunni minority and would likely plunge the country into all-out civil war.
So it seems that Iraqis must forge a comprise and find a middle way between the two extremes. For inspiration they might look to American history. The United States has always been a Christian nation, yet to forge a successful federal government our Founding Fathers realized that they could not establish a national church or restrict the free exercise of religion. If they had tried to do so, the Puritans of New England, the Anglicans of Virginia, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, the Catholics of Maryland, and the many other Christian sects throughout the colonies would never have banded together and we would have become the 13 disunited states of America.
On the other hand Christian values have shaped both the national government and culture. On the cultural side we have “In God We Trust” on our coins, frequent references to “Almighty Providence” and “God Bless America” in the public speeches of nearly every President in history, and the celebration of public holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Beyond the symbolic, Christian values have shaped our policy and been prominent in the national political dialog, for instance both sides in the great debates over slavery tried to invoke the Bible to justify their position. The territory of Utah was
denied statehood until its Mormon-dominated government agreed to outlaw polygamy, indicating that only the mainstream Christian definition of marriage would be granted legal standing in our country.
This compromise served us well and held our nation together for over 200 years, though of late some cracks have begun to appear in that foundation. The newly-minted Iraqi government should follow a similar model: keep the symbols of public Islam intact, such as the
Arabic for “God is Great” on the national flag. Observe public holidays on Islam’s holy days. Do not attempt to exclude religious leaders or arguments derived from Islam or the Koran from the public debate. At the same time, the government should not establish Shiite Islam as the state religion, and must guarantee the rights of all Iraqis, whether Sunni, Christian, Jewish, or otherwise, to freely practice their chosen faith. If their government so constituted survives for 200 years, today shall be remembered as a very historic day indeed.
Out of the Loop
I didn't hear about the West Coast Walk for Life until Sunday, i.e. the day after it took place. A shame, I would have liked to participate. I also missed out on the rally to defend marriage last year, again I only heard about it after the fact. I guess I must be out of the proverbial loop.
So how does one get into the loop? Is there a blog that announces upcoming Bay Area pro-life/pro-family marches and demonstrations? Or perhaps an email list? How do the good folks who organize such events get the word out?
Enjoying My New CD
I bought a new CD today: Shine: The Hits by Newsboys. Yes, I still buy CDs, I haven't gone completely over to MP3s just yet. A few months ago a coworker asked me "which media player do you use?" and I hesitantly responded "um... my CD Walkman?" He looked at me as though I were from the Stone Age.
I actually did get into MP3s pretty heavily back during the heyday of Napster, but after my reversion I finally admitted to myself that downloading copyrighted material without paying for it constitutes stealing no matter how hard you try to rationalize otherwise, and there's a pretty clear Commandment on that topic. So I gave it up, albeit reluctantly. Recently I've subscribed to the new (legal) Napster Premium service, which is how I discovered Newsboys. I suppose I could have purchased their music in MP3 form as well, but I still insist that CDs sound better, and I can listen to them in my car. That, and when I shell out $15 I like to get something I can hold in my hand in exchange... perhaps my coworker was right about me after all.
Reading II
Am I the only one who finds it a bit surprising that today's 2nd reading (1 Cor 1:1-3) merits inclusion in the cycle of Sunday readings? It boils down to Paul saying "Hello." Surely out of the whole treasury of our Bible there must be some excerpt more... pertinent? relevant? meaningful? I wonder if some resourceful priest somewhere on the globe found a way to build a stirring homily around this passage today...
The Power of Words
A recent letter to the Catholic Voice reads:
Be careful with language
Janet, of Parents Right to Know, (Voice, Dec. 13) was allowed to refer to physicians as abortionists in her paid political advertisement. If persons who pay to advertise in The Catholic Voice are unable to adhere to standards of common courtesy, their advertisements should be rejected.
Civilized discourse must be the order of the day in a church publication.
Joyce Mitchell
Oakland
The word
abortionist quite simply means "one who performs abortions." It speaks volumes about the mentality of the pro-aborts that they would take great umbrage at such a plain statement of fact.
Perhaps it is because they secretly recognize the horrific, gruesome nature of abortion that they feel compelled to use the euphemisms of "choice" and insist that a word that describes what these physicians actually do falls outside the bounds of "civilized discourse."
