Comic-Con International is the largest gathering of pop culture in the world. It is held in San Diego and has a more than 40-year history of providing information and insight into the world of comics, movies, television, video gaming and other aspects of what is hot in pop culture.
I attended Comic-Con this year, held July 17-21. What in the world would make a Baptist preacher want to go?
Michael Parnell
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Those that attended with me were over 130,000 strong. It was a massive gathering of fans of all types who make up pop culture. It dawned on me when I arrived that this gathering was larger than all the towns I lived in combined.
I went because I believe there is a need for the church to find a connection with popular culture. Without it the church is going to lose out on many that find in comics, movies and the like a way to express their inner feelings and longings. My desire was to find the points of intersection between the mission of the church and the proclamation of the gospel and with those who inhabit pop culture.
One of the first things I learned about this intersection came at a panel held to honor Tony Isabella, a long-time writer/editor for two major comic book companies.
Mr. Isabella made a statement that rang true for me: “If you were one of the maybe three kids in your high school that read comic books, look around you. We won! This city has people in retail shops wearing comic book T-shirts. Hollywood makes a beeline to here in order to promote their products. All of this is because of comic books. Look around you. We won!”
It is true. All of this gathering came about because of comic books. Those four-color books found on spinner racks in drug stores spawned this behemoth of humanity. It is all because of people like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Bill Finger, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
So what did I learn?
One of the first panels I attended gave me great lesson. It was a panel on writing led by Maxwell Anderson Drake, a writer of fantasy novels, called, “Don’t Tell Your Story, Show It!”
The panel focused on the idea that in writing, it is better to illustrate your story than to tell the story. The focus was on getting the reader to find your story so compelling that she will keep turning the pages in order to see what happens next.
The lesson of the panel did not occur to me until later.
Comic-Con draws tens of thousands to San Diego every year.
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One of the things that I saw at the convention center was a group of Christian believers who gathered each day. They held up signs that read things like, “God destroys all who forsake Him” and “Trust Christ and be saved.” They handed out tracts that contained the way of salvation.
Every day, from the time the convention opened until late in the evening, this group was there. You did not have to walk too far away from where they were to see the ground littered with their tracts.
People countered their demonstration with ones of their own making, with signs like “Thor died for your sins.”
It struck me that the people witnessing for Christ were going about it in the wrong way. They were telling people something when what they needed to do was to show them. The love of Christ needed to be demonstrated, not declared.
The church needs to show the love of Christ to the world and use that as the platform of telling. If we do not show the world that love, the chances are that those we tell are not going to listen.
Another lesson I learned was this: I watch lots of movies. One which made me think in ways that few have was, of all things, a horror movie — The Cabin in the Woods. The plot involves a visit to a cabin by teenagers who fit the archetype of roles in most horror movies. In the basement they discover different symbols and artifacts which represent ways in which they can die and the creatures which will come to kill them. When each teens chooses a symbol, it calls forth a monster or group of monsters to kill them.
All this is done to appease what are called the “dark gods” and their demand for a sacrifice. One of the subtext sets of the movie is a factory where these teens are monitored. Each death causes the people monitoring to act in a religious fashion to appease these gods, but those actions are more gallows humor than a sacred act.
The cast of The Vampire Diaries appeared at Comic-Con in 2012.
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Joss Whedon, the director of The Avengers, wrote the script. I have wanted to ask him about it because my feeling is that the movie is about the theological concept of substitutionary atonement.
Whedon led two panels at Comic-Con. At one he introduced a new television show to premiere this fall. At another he took questions from the audience for an hour. I was up and in line before he was even introduced.
I was the sixth person in line. Questions required prior approval. When I got to the screener I said, “I am a pastor. I love The Cabin in the Woods. I want to ask if that movie is a commentary on the concept of substitutionary atonement?” I was allowed to move toward the microphone.
But before I got to ask my question, another screener came to me and said, “What is your question?” I repeated it. Then this screener said, “Well, if you talk too long we will cut the mic off while you are talking.”
I responded nicely, “Ma’am, I have a very concise question. I will only ask it.”
It did not hit me until I finished my question that this person saw me as a suspect. I was a potential menace to this gathering. Why?
Because I am a pastor. She thought I was going to get the mic and preach a sermon. Her fear was that my call to be a preacher would kick in and I would declare to all gathered there that they were going to hell and it was time for them to turn before they burn.
There was a time when the pastor was the most respected person in a community. The pastor was a person of knowledge and wisdom. Now the pastor is a person to watch out for, because you do not know what he will say. If he is given an open forum to speak there is no telling what will come out of his mouth.
In light of Westboro Baptist Church and those who have it all figured out and are not afraid to tell others that God is displeased with them, it is not too surprising what happened. When our message is believed to be only about being right while everyone else is wrong, there is a good chance you will not be allowed to speak.
I discovered that being Christian can make you suspect. And being a pastor makes you more so. The idea that now has to be overcome is that if our agenda prevails, we are going to press our message to the exclusion of all others.
But there was more to learn.
A panel introduced a new graphic novel series based on the experiences of Congressman John Lewis, one of the key figures in the civil rights movement.
Congressman Lewis worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and had a hand in the use of nonviolence to achieve equal rights for African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s. I was moved by his words. And I had a chance to speak to him afterward.
I asked, “What would you say to my congregation in light of the Trayvon Martin verdict?” He told me, “We need to have a dialogue. We do not need to sweep this under the rug. We need to discuss it and share.”
One of the things I learned at Comic-Con is there is a need for us to be in dialogue with each other. Yes, we need to dialogue about Trayvon Martin, but there is more that needs to be discussed.
Important sequence
When I was at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Duncan McIntosh gave an interpretation of Ephesians 4:11, where Paul lists the gifts given by God to those who serve the cause of Christ: “The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers ….”
Dr. McIntosh said that this is the process in which the church moves into the world. He said that first there are apostles, the ones who make a “beachhead” in a new area. They learn the culture and the ways of those they meet.
Then the prophets move in, equipped with knowledge of the culture which comes from the apostles. They declare what is not pleasing to God, spoken out of knowledge of the people and not forcing them to hear a message that does not concern them.
Then the evangelists declare the “good news.” The prophets declare the “no” of God, while the evangelists tell the “yes” of God.
Following this the pastor/teachers disciple and teach the way and ways of God.
I see the need for the church to become apostles again, to engage the culture we find ourselves in. It is not the culture most of us grew up a part of.
What I discovered at Comic-Con was a huge group of people longing. One of the things they long for is transformation. That is the reason you see all those photos of people in those costumes. They put them on because they want to be transformed into someone different.
But what does the church do? We get stuck in the prophetic and evangelistic mode. The message we have is, “No, you are wrong. You need salvation. We know how that works. It works this way.” All of this gets lost because we do not know the culture and we speak from our point of view without understanding theirs.
Our message gets communicated but not understood. It probably sounds more like Charlie Brown’s teacher in the Peanuts cartoon — nothing more than gibberish.
Because we will not risk engagement we risk losing out. I do not know how many of the 130,000 that were with me were Christians, but overhearing conversations and walking in the halls, I think there were not too many.
Finding a model in Acts
We need to take a page from the book of Acts.
When Paul arrived at Athens we are told he was distressed over the city. So he began to argue with those he found in the synagogue and in the marketplaces. This got him noticed, but he was not very effective.
What got him where he needed to be was when he revealed his work in learning the people and culture there. Paul speaks to those gathered:
“Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.”
The people listened to Paul because he connected his message with where they were. The future, I believe, is tied to this.
I will be returning to Comic-Con next year. There are still many lessons I have yet to learn.
Michael Parnell ([email protected]) is pastor of Beth Car Baptist Church in Halifax, Va.