It’s not a bad movie. It has a phenomenal cast and some truly heart-wrenching moments that celebrate humanity. Yet it never seems to live up to the promise of those opportunities. Instead of just hating on the movie, make we can learn a few lessons.

1. Be true to yourself (and your source material)

Sure, Superman is a hard story to tell. He seems antiquated and is so powerful that he can be boring. But it can be done. It has been done, again and again.

In an attempt to “modernize” Superman, the story, and the character became darker. Literally, his suit, and even the color palate of the whole movie is dark. The cost of “modernizing” Superman was his core characteristics. No longer is he the charming, indefatiguable farm boy, who learned how to serve from his caring father. Now he is a brooding, misunderstood outcast whose family teaches him to hide.

Superman is a flying farm boy. He doesn’t need to be realistic. Likewise, we should be concerned about naming whom we are, what we are good at and, and looking for the opportunity to share that with the world.

2. Pick something, and get good at it.

I cannot tell you what the theme of Man of Steel was. Immigrants should hide from the government? We’re not alone in the universe? Choose to help, even when it’s dangerous? Evolution and natural selection are more powerful than caring and sacrifice?

Not only was it themeless, it was style-less. The best response to Man of Steel I heard was “I thought I was going to see a Terrance Mallick film, only to find it was actually the latest from Michael Bay”.

Malcolm Gladwell famously said that it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert at something. Most of us never make it to that point, because we fill our lives with distractions. If Man of Steel had picked one theme and one style, it could have been truly great. If we could just focus, maybe we could be great, too.

3. Know when to stop

If Zac Snyder had done one thing differently I probably wouldn’t be writing this post: cut out the last 30 minutes of meaningless violence and destruction. For a little while it was cool. After the shortcomings of Christopher Reeves era special effects and the utter disappointment of 2008’s Superman Returns, it was cool to see two super powered aliens slug it out.

But it

just

kept

going.

Why Snyder and studio execs thought this was necessary, especially in light of 9/11 and the Boston Marathon attack, is a mystery.

We often feel that we have a point to make or something to accomplish. Making that point means not just being right, or being memorable, but timing it well. All is lost when we wait too long to walk away.

I’m not going to give up on superhero movies (although, I’m in no hurry to see Justice League on screen.) But I want to learn from missed opportunities. I hope DC does, too.

The post Learning From the Missed Opportunities in Man of Steel appeared first on Chris Morton.

Gatsby is a story about the lengths we will go to because of shame. Gatsby’s great secret is that there is no Gatsby. An impoverished teenage boy, ashamed of his upbringing and family, invented the character of Jay Gatsby. He then spent his life lying, cheating and stealing to create Gatsby.

Churches often force people to do the same.

“Church” in America is often categorized as a cultural institution. The job of a cultural institution is to propagate cultural values. Here are some (probably unfair) stereotypes to illustrate:

• Bible Belt Churches: Individuals are expected to wear formal dress, embrace sports, avoid dancing and drinking. There is often a focus on sexual morays and proper forms of speech.
• Mainline Churches: Intellectualism is triumphed. Education is a cardinal virtue. Involvement in progressive politics is expected. Proper systems must be maintained.
• Charismatic churches: Expression is king. Energetic responses are expected. Emotional persuasion is the norm.
• Boomer MegaChurches: Quality production is essential. Excellence is the high value. Bigger is always better.
• Hipster Churches: Dressing up is disdained. Recycling and eating organic are holy acts. Faith is silly. Doubt is a virtue. Terms like “Justice”, “Community” or “Africa” are often heard.

When Churches exist to propagate their cultural values, they create “Gatsbys.” To avoid being ostracized, people often invent Sunday personas, false versions of themselves that live up to their church’s cultural expectations.

Church Gatsby’s might be the thoughtful intellectual, afraid to bring up their doubts with their church. A Gatsby might be a teenager who is discovering sexuality, but has no one to discuss it with or an individual with a divergent political opinion who feels forced to smile and nod when issues of abortion or gun control are brought up.

There are (at least) two huge problems with churches that become institutions.

1. Neither Jesus nor the early missionaries created or promoted a specific culture. Jesus was constantly crossing cultural boundaries. In a culture that treated women as property, Jesus spoke to them as friends. He elevated the Samaritans, a maligned ethnic minority. He had dinner parties with people who were traitors. Peter and Paul, two of the first missionaries, carried Jesus’s message to other cultures. Paul specialized in this, making it his policy to become “all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”
2. We are saved by grace, not culture. The beautiful and multifaceted complexity that is the gospel can be expressed in one phrase: by grace you have been saved. This means that the value of a human being is independent of their host culture.

That doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with culture, or cultural institutions. When two or more are gathered culture happens. But a Jesus-inspired culture should find ways to embrace people who are different. If your church’s culture is creating Gatsbys, then you know something is wrong.

The post How Churches Became Full of Gatsbys appeared first on Chris Morton.

Reading Blue Like Jazz for the first time was like getting a big hug and being told “no, you aren’t crazy.”  There were other people in the world struggling with genuine desire to follow Christ in spite of the hypocrisy of their church traditions.  The book helped me to verbalize my desire to help lead urban, post-Christendom churches.  It’s probably a part of why I chose to move to Austin.

I was lucky enough to see a premier of the movie version of Blue Like Jazz during last week’s SXSW. Despite the fact that the movie suffers from the lack of budget and writing expertise that any indie films does, it captures the honesty and hopefulness that made the book a quick classic.

The film features strong performances from familiar faces, and powerfully captures the intellectualism, natural beauty and post-Christendom baggage of cities like Portland.  The fact that plot and characters could be stronger does not take away from a few powerful scenes.  The scene where the main character Don explains to his love interest Penney that her honest passion for justice “makes everyone around her feel like shit,” portrays the awkwardness many feel when they engage with Christians.  Another scene has Don cuddling, cajoling and comforting his broken hearted lesbian best friend.  And of course, there is a confession booth scene, which, despite some unavoidable cheesiness, captures the apologetically apologetic heart of the book.

Blue Like Jazz isn’t destined to win any Oscars.  It’s mainly a nod to the fans an experiment for the writers.  That being said, it should also be  required viewing for American Christians learning to live in a world where they are a minority.

The post Blue Like Jazz Film Gives Hope for the New Christian Minority appeared first on Chris Morton.

Cancer simply serves as the catalyst for the movie’s real focus: adult relationships in the 21st century.  Rogen plays the same foul-mouthed-over-sexed manchild that he plays in all of his movies.  Gordon-Levitt’s character is a likable, nerdy, introverted guy who tries to “fix people.”  The movies is a series of awkward moments focusing on people’s inablity to deal with the elephant in the room: impending death.

The charm of the movie is also it’s fatal flaw, it introduces a number of difficult issues, without really dealing with them.  Gordon-Levitt is cheated on, yet bounces back with a sweeter girlfriend.  His estranged relationship with his parents ends in him learning to pity them, rather than reconciling.

But most of all, the movie somehow fails to address it’s premise, the tragedy of mortality.  Gordon-Levitt never tries to set his house in order, and barely grieves over his lost dreams.  In choosing to make the movie about winning the fight against cancer, it fails to reach the depth intended.  The movie reminds me of those pink “I ♥ Boobs” bracelets, that may be a great fundraiser, but also make light of a heartbreaking reality.

The movie’s shortcoming fits well into a generation that has left nothing sacred.  We convince ourselves that sex is just about fun and commitment is out of fashion, yet we find ourselves alone.  When we choose to run away from roots and families to hip cities (yes, I know I’m blogging this from Austin), yet we struggle to find solace in communities based on hobbies or partying.  And death?  Don’t worry about it.  We’ll beat that eventually.

Philosopher Stanley Hauerwas talks about how, in a secular world, we have replaced spiritual communities with “churches” of sports or television or beer.  These “churches” may provide distraction and relationships, yet they don’t have the ability to deal with the realities of life and death.  And despite being the fact it’s probably the funniest movie ever mad about cancer, neither does 50/50.

The post 50/50 is a Great Movie if You Wear One of Those “I ♥ Boobs” Bracelets appeared first on Chris Morton.

Warning! Spoilers and Theology Ahead! 

The funny thing about the criticism that J.K. Rowling received over the years from right wing Christian groups was the fact that they could ignore the obvious Christian undertones that characterized the books from the beginning.  A chosen child who saves his people from an evil snake?  Come on people, how did you think this book was going to end?

However it would be wrong to consider Harry an outright “Christ figure.” The truly analagous Aslan is both the creator and lord of Narnia, and the one who dies to redeem his people from their evil choices. Harry on the other hand, must kill the evil inside of him, so that he and those he loves will survive.

Harry is like any lover of Jesus: an imperfect replication of Christ.

Christ’s story is the God who died so that all might live.  What Christ accomplished in his death for the cosmos, so we accomplish in our baptism and throughout a life of growing in the way of Jesus.

Jesus put it this way:

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

So we have this image of Harry, having been murdered by Voldemort.  In between worlds, the spirit of Dumbledore points out that a little piece of Voldemort is dying.  Voldemort was inside Harry all along.  There was a part of Harry that made his life miserable.  It disfigured his forehead, gave him migrains and fits of depression, and strange abilities that scared his friends.  That piece of Harry was a piece of Voldemort buried inside of him, and it had to die so that Harry and his friends could live.

Paul, an early follower of Jesus put it this way:

“Our old self was crucified with him
so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with
that we should no longer be slaves to sin

because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”

Harry Potter is not so much a Christ figure as a Christian Figure.  His is not a Passion Play so much as a Sanctification Story.  Christ has already died for the world.  Now we must die ourselves.

What it took Rowling tens of thousands of pages to say, Bonhoeffer put in one sentence:

“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

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