A brief theological reflection on Batman

What comes to mind when I tell you to think of Batman? This is actually a pretty important question, because we can't talk about Batman until we've got some agreement on who Batman actually is.

The 1966-1968 Batman TV series, starring Adam West as Batman, is not a good version of Batman. I know there's folks out there who like it, but I just hope that they understand that it's not really the best version of Batman out there. Really, folks, let's be honest - the Batusi is not going to be a recognized action of a man who dresses up as a giant bat in order to more effectively avenge the murders of his parents (which he witnessed at age 7).

But on the other hand, the 1992-1995 Batman: The Animated Series is a very good version of Batman, largely because it is much more in line with the central idea of "Bruce Wayne saw his parents murdered in front of him and now fights a one-man war on crime as the dark-clad spirit of vengeance."

Of course, those aren't the only two televised adaptations of Batman to ever exist. Batman was also portrayed on SuperFriends and all of its spinoffs, as well as spinoffs of the 1992 animated series. And then there are theatrical adaptations of Batman to be considered, as well. The Adam West series had its own movie, Tim Burton directed Batman in 1989 with Michael Keaton, and then Burton and Keaton reunited for Batman Returns in 1992. After Burton and Keaton left, director Joel Schumacher took the reigns for 1995's Batman Forever starring Val Kilmer, and 1997's Batman & Robin with George Clooney. None of those are very good, but I'll allow that some are worse than others.

Then we come to the most recent film adaptations of Batman: Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, both directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale as Batman. Both of these have been excellent, and I'm personally looking forward to the third film in the series, The Dark Knight Rises, due summer 2012.

Now, I realize that I'm not the supreme arbiter of taste when it comes to interpretations of Batman - my opinion is just that - my opinion. If someone else thinks Adam West was the best Batman ever, who am I to say he or she is wrong?

Well, for starters, I'm the guy who's read a whole lot of Batman comics.

I won't claim that I've read every Batman story ever, but I've read enough that I have a pretty solid idea of who Batman is, what defines him as a character, what kinds of stories work best for that character, and also what kinds of stories don't work as well for the character.

And sometimes when people get to talking about Batman, it's very important to make sure that everybody comes to the table with a common understanding of what makes a "good" Batman, because it's only after everybody agrees on what's good that you can actually determine what's bad.

Tim Burton's depiction of Batman is no good for a lot of reasons, but there are two huge ones that stick out as flagrant errors in Batmannery. First - the Joker did not kill Batman's parents. That's a pretty cheap storytelling move, trying to tie unrelated elements of the story together in order to create more emotional tension. Second - Batman doesn't kill people, not even the Joker. But hey, Tim Burton has said before that he never read Batman comics, and really, that explains a lot of things.

I'm not saying that you can't enjoy Batman without reading the comics... But that does make it really hard to get a fully accurate picture of the true nature of the Batman.

Movies and TV shows are operating within time-sensitive frameworks where there's not really enough room to put in ALL of the wealth of information and characterization that can be borne out of more than 70 years of work on Batman. In pursuits of a deeper understanding of Batman, however, it becomes necessary at some point to at least read a few of the comics. (I would suggest starting with anything written by Frank Miller.)

Sometimes people have ideas of what they think Batman is like - based on their exposure to various TV shows and movies over the years - that either line up perfectly or don't fit at all with what the real Batman is like. These misconceptions of Batman have a lot to do with how people react to Batman, and it's important to know if somebody's idea of Batman is right or not in order to know what they actually think of Batman.

And now replace "Batman" in that last paragraph with "God" and you'll see what I see in a lot of Christians today.

A lot of Christians today are operating under a set of mistaken assumptions about who God is. The corruptions of the idea of God come from all sorts of places, not excluding movies and TV. And even worse, once we get to the root of the misconceptions about God, we find that they come from someone who hasn't ever actually read the Bible to see what God Himself says about God.

Batman as portrayed by Adam West in the 1966 TV series isn't such a terrible Batman that it's something else entirely. It's just a somewhat goofy Batman with painted on eyebrows and a charming smile, surrounded by caricatures of his villains, all reduced to brightly colored practical jokes instead of genuinely threatening psychotics with seriously altered understandings of reality.

Batman as portrayed by Michael Keaton in the Tim Burton films still isn't so horrible at being Batman that we have to call him Superman, but it's still not a 100% accurate Batman, either. This version of Batman goes too far and crosses lines that the real Batman doesn't, violating one of the central codes of the actual character's definition, leading to a corrupted vision of who Batman is.

Again - that's how some people are with God. Some people - Christian and non-Christian alike - operate with understandings of God that deviate the Biblical picture of God to create something that, although not entirely worthless, definitely isn't completely correct.

God is not the eternal sunshine and rainbows machine, wanting to shower you with nothing but happiness and Lisa Frank stickers; nor is He the universal drill sergeant, barking orders and keeping His troops in line through harsh routines. Both of these ideas of God come from corruptions of aspects of God - both ideas are based on the Truth of God, but still fall so very short.

I'm hoping that the Batman analogy helps you see why it's important that we all have a fully functional understanding of who God really is. While I'll grant that it doesn't matter too much (while still mattering a good bit) what you think about Batman, it definitely matters, more than anything else does, what you think about God.

As I've become more known in social circles as "the preacher," I've found myself having more and more discussions about God and faith in Him. One of the inescapable commonalities among people who hold objections to Christianity is a theologically incorrect picture of God. If God Himself is misunderstood, how can anything else make sense? When I'm talking to non-Christians who object to the idea of a God who tells His followers to bring hateful acts of violence down on - for instance - homosexuals, I try to show them that they're operating with a mistaken understanding of who God is. Once they understand that what God actually asks of us is to love all people as much as we love ourselves, then we are one step closer to sharing in an experience of the Truth of God.

But at the same time, I often have conversations with Christians who are themselves coming from dangerously awry understandings of the true nature of God. When I meet a Christian who is struggling in his faith because God hasn't blessed him with material wealth, it's there that we've got to make sure to look for and find the Truth of God, the Truth that transcends worldly desires and focuses on living by the Spirit. It is only when we come to understand the Truth of God that the Truth can set us free - truly free.

It's no mere coincidence that Jesus refers to Himself as the Truth - there's a very powerful idea contained in that. One person's understanding of God might seem to work for them, but if it's not actually based on the correct understanding, then things fall apart pretty quickly when the questions are asked.

I'd like to encourage you to read the book of Job. I know it's long, and I know not everybody's got just tons of free time, but trust me - if you take the time to read the Bible, God will bless you deeply for it, and you'll be blown away how much you can get out of just reading for a few minutes each day. But specifically and especially in reading Job, I want you to look at the version of God presented in the closing chapters and compare it to your own concept of God. Does Job's God look like your God?

There's only so much any preacher can do. Eventually everything comes down to whether or not the listener is willing to seriously question his or her own beliefs and make adjustments based on the reality of Truth when compared to the illusion of personal preference.

When faced with the choice between a difficult belief that challenges you to take the hard step of living a better life or an easy belief that allows you to stay the same and placate your conscience, it's not hard to see why most people through the history of the world have taken the easy way out. It's easy. Duh.

But following God isn't supposed to be easy. Good Batman isn't easy. But finding - and adhering to - the genuine Truth is what makes all the difference.

When The Dark Knight came out in theaters, the girl I was dating at the time was extremely reluctant to see the movie, citing a huge hatred for Batman. This simply wasn't gonna sit with me, so I had to find out where this hatred was coming from. As I dug and poked and prodded, I found out that she'd never actually experienced any good Batman. Once she saw The Dark Knight, however, she admitted that she enjoyed it - and why wouldn't she? It's awesome! It gets Batman right! I firmly believe that it's next to impossible for anyone to see Batman done well and not enjoy it at least a little bit.

But Batman done wrong? Yeah, that's terrible.

Same thing goes for God. When people are operating with a poor understanding of who God actually is and what He actually does, it's easy to see why they'd reject the idea.

Once the Truth is understood, however, and people have a correct understanding of the Nature and Will and Love of God, then I don't see how anybody can pass it up.

Make sure you know the Truth of who God is. Don't be content with your understanding of God as it stands now - dedicate yourself to a constant search for knowledge of God on the most intimate of levels. Know Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and you will find yourself sharing what you know with everyone around you. Just like Batman, once people see God in the right way, it becomes a lot harder to reject the idea.