The Lone Ranger Part II

Here's Part I of The Lone Ranger.



***Spoilers Alert*** In the last post on The Lone Ranger, it was pointed out that the The Lone Ranger was really the natural man as written about in Locke's Two Treatises of Government instead of the scholarly man John Reid.

In this post, I would like to examine the Christians in the movie (without excusing them).

Most of the Christians in The Lone Ranger were hypocrites. The greatest bad guy in the movie, who portrayed himself as a Christian, says of Tonto's village years after he and his brother slaughter them for a fortune in silver, "Nothing is accomplished without sacrifice." (His brother was a cannibal.) The head cavalry man (Was is Custer?) prayed before he mowed down the Native Americans.

Could it be true that we're all hypocrites?

It's the saints who know they're hypocrites, pray to God for forgiveness, and ask for absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Most of the Christians in The Lone Ranger didn't know their hypocrisy. It is in knowledge of ourselves and especially our God that we have hope to escape from our sins. The truth will set us free.

May God forgive us, we know not what we do (Luke 23:34). That's why Jesus is The Way (Acts 9:2) out of hypocrisy.

The Lone Ranger Part I

In a meetup group that I attend, one of the members mentioned that The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp wasn't that bad. ***Spoilers Alert*** He also mentioned the fact that the man who becomes The Lone Ranger is reading a copy of Locke's Two Treatises of Government in the beginning of the movie.



***Spoilers Alert*** Most reviewers of the movie point to bad images of Christians in the film and how the Native Americans and Chinese were exploited. There was no review that closely examined the man who was The Lone Ranger, John Reid.

Let's give it a go.

Mr. Reid was found among Presbyterians (baptized Christians) on a train heading out west. He was discovered by one of the group carrying John Locke's Two Treatises of Government that he considered "his bible". As a lawyer, he believed that bringing men to justice within the court system was the way to handle every criminal. He would defend this belief for most of the movie with his life.

However, when the rubber hit the road, he had to reevaluate his position. In the end, he believed that he had to personally take the lead to exact justice.

This transformation reminded me of Ambassador and Dr. Mary Ann Glendon's book The Forum and the Tower: How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt. In it, she describes how many scholars end up not being effective politicians and vice versa. It takes a special person to pull off both. "Perhaps Plato put it best when he chastised both the man of action who never looks beyond immediate concerns and the scholar who keeps his head in the clouds."

John Reid was an example of the scholar. It took experience to know that most times, people need to take up the mantel of justice themselves or in associations of people, just not leave it to government agency.

This is the irony of the movie: it takes the emergence of The Lone Ranger to actualize Locke's natural man who was John Reid. It took experience in action to understand the Two Treatises.

The parallel for Christians is that Love in action is what actualizes faith in Jesus of the Bible.

And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Corr. 13:2)

The Lone Ranger Part II
The Lone Ranger Part III

Stephanie Gray's Amazing Pro-life Talk

Stephanie Gray at the 2014 Students for Life of America National Conference



Some videos just have to be shown.

Stephanie Gray is the co-founding of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform. If you ever think you may talk to a pro-abortion choice advocate or anyone with that view, I suggest watching this video if no other (over and over again). It's long (1h 4m) and worth the time.

The Wolverine Part II

Here is the last part, Wolverine Part I.



In the last post, I gave one reason why living forever in heaven could be a good thing.

In this post, I would like to give the other. The second reason is that the other possible outcome of death is that we could end up in the other place, hell.

So, whether we like it or not, when we die, we either have everlasting life or, essentially, everlasting death.

This is not meant to scare or tick-off people. If that was the case, I might as well say that we are given the gift of life. Life just is, we didn't create it. Well, life after death just is too. The difference is, we get a say about what happens after life in this fallen universe since we have free will.

That's why Jesus came to redeem all of humanity on the cross. That's why he rose from the dead. That's why He commissioned the Church to go and make disciples of all nations through baptism.

Thank you God, since we can't do it all on our own, that is, get to heaven. We just have to respond to His call to discipleship in His body, the Church.

The Wolverine Part I

Last week, I watched The Wolverine with Hugh Jackman. Logan, Wolverine's real name, constantly regenerates his body, so he essentially can live forever.



This movie was about the idea that living forever is a curse since those whom Wolverine loved would eventually die, while he would continue living. This seemed to be the main reason that perpetual living is a depressing thing.

This got me to thinking about the fact that the main purpose of Christianity is to enable people to get to heaven, to live forever.

In light of this movie, wouldn't living forever be a bad thing? Why would we want to even think about considering the life of the Church if the ultimate outcome will hopefully be heaven?

There are two main reasons that I can see. First, living forever in heaven is not like living forever in this world.

There are two examples that I've heard about that can shed some light on this. One is the lost boys from Uganda. 60 Minutes (CBS News) did a twelve year story on some boys who were displaced (to say the least) by their homes due to war who ended up in Uganda. There was a program during U.S. President W. Bush's time that allowed many of these refugees to come and be naturalized in the U.S.

This is the thing: even though they were taught by an American citizen about the U.S. in a classroom, when the lost boys came to the U.S., they didn't understand what they were seeing at first. Most couldn't determine what was fake, especially on TV.

Another example is the Aztecs in South America when they first encountered the European men. The ships that approached the shore were so novel to the natives, that they actually didn't see them. It took a long time for the new sights to sink in for them to recognize the ships.

Heaven for all people is like American TV and technology is for the lost boys and like the European ships for the Aztecs. No matter how much we might consider the life or reality of heaven, on this side of the veil, we can only speak of everlasting life as a mystery.

Thank God there is Jesus who was there to tell us about it.

The second reason will be in the next post.

Arthur Chu on Jeopardy

So, Arthur Chu has been causing a ruckus on Jeopardy with Alex Trebek. He's been choosing answers pretty much at random which is causing confusion for Alex Trebek and the other challengers. The people on Jeopardy usually go in order in each category for (a) some order and (b) to help Alex Trebek keep things straight.

However, with this powerful strategy, Mr. Chu has upset the status quo on Jeopardy and won over $100,000. Due to his success, he may even change the overall climate on Jeopardy by giving a winning formula to future competitors.

The Church has also disturbed the status quo of society by changing things up.

Someone who messed with the status quo, Dr. King (MLK), said that,

There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators."' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.

May the Church and other ecclesial communities continue to disturb the status quo where it will bring glory to God through justice. Where the Church and other ecclesial communities are an "archdefender of the status quo" or "a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion", may it restart with renewed "God-intoxication".

Phantom Part IV

Here's a link to the post Phantom Part I
Here's a link to the post Phantom Part II
Here's a link to the post Phantom Part III



There's one last thing that I thought was worth noting about the Phantom movie (2013). ***Spoilers Alert!!!*** David Duchovny's character thought his plan to start a war between China and the US would be successful and result in the USSR being the lone super-power of the world. He said that, even though his tactics (means) may be evil, in the end, he would be on the right side of history.

The Christian view is two fold on the "right side of history".

First, God has already won the war against sin and death through the cross and resurrection of Jesus, through Love. The Church is to bring this reality into fruition. All of the Church is commissioned by Christ Himself to gather each member of humanity unto God, through baptism, to save it from sin and death.

Secondly (see this audio at 3:29), there is no right side of history like there's some impersonal force (impersonal judge) involved in shaping creation, sort of like evolution. Instead, since there is personal will and deliberation, people choose to do right or wrong. There is only the right side of the Truth (personal, Divine Judge).

The Truth will be revealed, and it will set us all free.

The Truth set Russia free from Communism. Just ask Pope John Paul II.

Phantom Part III

Here's a link to the post Phantom Part I
Here's a link to the post Phantom Part II

In the last two posts (links above), I wrote about sacraments and sacramentals, but in this post I would like to address the last scene in the movie. ****Spoilers Alert!!!*** It was darn strange. The ghosts of the men who died in the sub, both David Duchovny and Ed Harris' characters together with the rest of the dead crew, showed up on deck.

Many people, including some Christians, get the idea (I think mostly from movies and TV) that ghosts of the dead roam around the Earth for this or that reason.

Well, at least as revealed by the Bible, that is not true. In St. Paul's letter to the Hebrews (9:27-28), it is revealed that we "die once" and then face judgment (particular and final judgment). No roaming, no ghosting, no poltergeisting. Amen.