MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU
July 2005
article for the Episcopal Voice, publication for Episcopal Diocese of
Olympia
There’s a story in my family that dates from the year “The Empire Strikes Back” was released. My 5-year-old brother was angry about something trivial, and my mother was getting annoyed. To her surprise, I intervened, telling my little brother, “Hate and anger lead to the Dark Side.” Apparently, my gentle reminder instantly improved his mood, and he talked about getting back “on the good side of the Force.” I was only seven at the time, but “Star Wars” was already deeply entrenched in my theology.
As a whole, the “Star Wars” saga is the story of the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. Even the prequel trilogy, while suffering from bad scripts and sub-par acting, is necessary to the whole; the story goes much deeper than the actual films. The current installment, “Revenge of the Sith,” is the darkest episode in the “Star Wars” opus. There was no way to avoid a PG-13 rating on this one; too many people had to be slaughtered for the story to hold together. And the climactic scene in which Darth Vader is born from the remnants of Anakin Skywalker is truly chilling. How could this happen? Anakin Skywalker was the chosen one, born of a virgin, destined to bring balance to the Force!
But Skywalker had free will, just like the rest of us do. And he used his free will out of fear. Yoda warns him, “Fear of loss is a path to the Dark Side.” Anakin fears he will lose his wife, Padme, and in the process of trying to rescue her he destroys everything they have worked to build. Diligent fans will remember Yoda giving Luke the same warning in “The Empire Strikes Back” as Luke quits his Jedi training to rescue his friends: “If you leave now, help them you could, but you would destroy everything for which they have fought and suffered.”
Can you imagine the mood of Jesus’ disciples between Good Friday and Easter? That’s where “Revenge of the Sith” leaves us, and we have to go back to the original trilogy to work our way toward redemption and resurrection.
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” also is a much deeper story than the new movie version lets on, but it has the benefit of being adapted from a book. Douglas Adams’ fans quote “Hitchhiker’s Guide” with as much fervor as Monty Python fans quote “The Holy Grail.” And this story, too, contains a slaughter: it opens with the destruction of planet Earth.
A death toll of several billion doesn’t seem like a great way to begin a comedy, does it? At first, we are led to suppose that humanity was disposable, just another race of creatures on a planet that needed to be bulldozed to make room for an interstellar bypass. But as the story goes on, we learn that this was a tragic mistake and that humanity has a great destiny.
“Star Wars” is obviously loaded with theology from a number of different world religions, including Christianity. To read such ideas into “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” is not fair. This is a product of a world that lives and dies only by science. God is mentioned a few times but in a dismissive way. Nevertheless, there is a theology here. While it is not a specifically Christian theology, it does have elements that ring true.
For instance, I love that “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy”—the book within the story, that is—has the words “DON’T PANIC” printed on it in large friendly letters. “Don’t panic” was Jesus’ first message to us—not the only message, but certainly the one we needed to hear first. The message that came from the angels to Mary and to the shepherds at the time of Jesus’ conception and birth was, “Fear not!” Fear is the natural state for confused life forms and banishing fear is the first step toward living in love.
A main theme of the movie is interdependence. Everything we do affects everybody else in the universe. Even a casual offhand comment might get sucked into a freak wormhole and dumped into the middle of warring nations’ peace talks many light-years away. It is just as likely that those warring nations, offended by a mistranslation of that comment and bent on revenge, might band together and bring all their military might to Earth, only to find that they’ve made an error in scale and are swallowed by a small dog. We laugh, but we also stand in awe and wonder at a universe in which everything we do affects so many other people. We know this to be true—and largely underestimated—in our world as well.
I also find it significant that “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” obscures humanity’s role at first, then gradually shows it to be crucial. In the past several centuries, one of the strongest reactions to science has been fear. We don’t want to believe that we’re insignificant, but the reality of infinite space and the discovery that humankind is new on the scene have made us feel very small. At first glance, it might be easy to believe that we’re actually worthless. But we learn in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” that the entire history of planet Earth, culminating in humankind, was actually a complex computer program written to figure out the ultimate question to explain the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything!
Yes, it’s just a story. But it’s a good story. It’s a cosmic story. I love the Bible for the same reason: it’s our sacred, cosmic story of people trying to figure out who God is and why God cares so much about us. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” gives us the gift of joy and wonder in all God’s works. “Star Wars” reminds us that, no matter how far one of us falls, there is always a chance for redemption.