Ant Man and Ethics

Our church just had a group get together and go see the new Marvel super hero movie Ant-Man and the Wasp  I am a big fan of superhero movies - especially Marvel Comics movies - and have been largely impressed over the years at the writing and production of these movies.

With Ant-Man and the Wasp, I was surprised at...
Wait.  Let me just say that there might be a few spoilers ahead.  Just so you know.

Ok.  So I was surprised at the fact that the movie had no real villain.  Certainly not like Avengers: Infinity War or even Dr. Strange or Black Panther.  But there were some amazing portrayals of characters with conflicting moral and ethical points of view.  For that, it should be required viewing for an ethics class somewhere.

What I mean is that all the characters are electing to act on behaviors predicated on their own idea of what is right and what is important.  For a quick run down, Hank Pym and his daughter Hope want to find Janet, Pym's wife and Hope's mother.  For them, nothing else matters, even the house arrest of Scott Lang.  If he gets in trouble for their whisking him off on a mission, that hardly concerns them.

The Ghost simply wishes to find a cure for what seems, at first, to be an awesome power.  Again, nothing else matters to her but finding the cure.  She will do whatever it takes to be made whole again.  Against that, is the character of the man trying to facilitate that healing, Bill Foster (who was the character Black Goliath in the comics - hint!).  There comes a point where Bill and the Ghost come into conflict when the Ghost wishes to utilize Lang's daughter as a means to get Lang to do what the Ghost wants.  Foster steps up to the plate and says that hurting a child is out of the question.  Clearly the man has a strong moral compass in that regard!  In fact, it is Foster who keeps trying to direct the actions of the Ghost in ways that are not harmful to others.  In that respect, he is the ethical ground for the Ghost and does his best to be the voice of reason.

Pym, however, does not care what becomes of Lang, at least not in the immediate sense.  He only wishes to accomplish his goals.  Lang and his concerns are a distant second to his own agenda - a point that Foster makes in explaining why he and Pym had a falling out years earlier.

In the middle of this is Scott Lang, Ant-Man.  His concern is largely to stay out of trouble.  He wants to do right by his daughter, his ex-wife, and certainly by the FBI who have him under house arrest at the beginning of the movie - which are the consequences from his actions in the Captain America movie Civil War.  He is drug into the action unwillingly, and keeps asking for the other characters to take his concerns and needs seriously - which they often do not.

I found that the movie was a good one, but I also found that it fit right in with the series I am currently doing on ethics.  As such, if you are so inclined to do a little more study on the ramifications and ethics of our actions, you might want to give Ant-Man and the Wasp a try. 

Oh, and you might want to see Avengers: Infinity War first.  Just to prevent you from some confusion with a scene...
Well, I don't want to give any more away than I have to.

Christian Ethics - a series

During the month of July, I will be focusing on the idea of Christian Ethics and the challenges of facing the world around us.  Ethics, defined as the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity, are also defined by our Christian faith.  Yet we don’t often consider the ethical principles of Christianity or how they might effect our theology or vice versa.  It is a challenging topic, and one that isn’t entered into lightly.

When it comes to talking about ethics, we tend to get a bit tense, especially given how loaded and even politically charged the word can become.  I cannot say that my words will reduce your anxiety about the topic, should you have any concerns.  Nor can I say that my words won’t be heard as political, though my intention is not to favor or advance any partisan political agenda.  I will be approaching the issue from that of a Wesleyan ideology as well as that of the United Methodist Church, however. 

Why I say that is because when we, as Christians, speak of ethics, we tend to speak in terms of morality.  The two are almost inseparable and both words hold influence over our actions.  Christian ethics, though, do not exist apart from the community of faith and the reading and interpretation of Scripture.  Ethics are the principles that govern the behavior of a person or the conducting of an activity.  Ethics, as a discipline, is what deals with the question of what is good or bad as well as the ideas of moral duty and obligation.

As Christians, we equate morality, ethics, and good and bad with Scripture, the “sacred canon for Christian people.” (United Methodist Book of Discipline ¶ 104)  It is through our study of Scripture, based within the believing community, as well as in the historical context of that scripture that we, as United Methodists, believe “we may come to know the truth of the biblical message in its bearing on our lives and the life of the world.  Thus, the Bible serves as a source of our faith and as the basic criterion by which the truth and fidelity of any interpretation of faith is measured.” (¶ 104)

Even describing the Bible as the source of ethics is difficult, given the fact that we all read and interpret it differently, sometimes remarkably so.  Our task, then, is to consider our source with regard to our present context and setting.  What are our duties as Christians?  How do we define our ethics as Christians? 

In this series I am proposing only to invite you into a deeper consideration of the idea of Christianity and ethics as well as the ramifications of our decisions.  Christian ethics requires both interpretation and application.  Prior to that interpretation or application is consideration.  This task, to consider ethics in light of the Christian tradition, is our goal.

On the School Shooting in Santa Fe

Another school shooting.
Today it happened again in Santa Fe, Texas.  As of this writing, 10 dead, 10 wounded. 

And we go on.

Since Columbine, there have been over 200 shootings at schools.  Some have been big news, some were small news, some were barely reported.  They should all have shaken us to the core.  Now they just make us sad, if that, and only for a few minutes.  Then we go back to blaming the government, the guns, the gun lobby, the anti-gun lobby, or this or that.  Video games, rock music, or the lack of church in the lives of the children.

It goes on and on.  And it seems, especially after the shooting in Florida, that only the children seem to be worked up.  Perhaps it is because they are dying.  Just as African Americans have to point out the injustice and the obviously and statistically skewed numbers that show they are arrested at an amazingly higher rate than whites, the children have had enough. 

Of course, they can't vote.  So their voice only goes so far and only troubles politicians for so long.  The governors and Senators give their speeches, and then they fall back into the rhythm of the status quo.  Nothing changes and soon...another shooting.

And the Christians don't know what to say.  Is this the will of God?  I cannot see how it is.  In the eyes of Jesus, children were precious - despite cultural norms that kept them out of sight and out of mind.  In the days of the early Methodist movement, John Wesley argued against child labor and for education for all.  Children dying cannot be sanctioned by the church.

Of course, there are those more fundamental groups within the Christian faith who, as they argue, are against any program to save the planet.  They feel that the planet is ours to use up.  Why?  Because we will get a new one at the end of time.  So trash it up!  I wonder if that thinking also applies to how they view school shootings:  "Oh, it is bad, but it will all be made right in time."  Tell that to the parents of the most recently murdered child.

Is this Christian philosophy?  We don't want to save the planet because we are going to get a new one - is this their philosophy with human life?

It certainly is in opposition to the idea that God is love, that Jesus loves the little children, and that we are to proclaim the kingdom as a present reality. 

What I do ponder is that the shootings seem to be symptomatic of something larger, perhaps something worse.  Gun control is only one aspect of the issue, but an important one.  Yet, there is more than that.  Why have our children become so violent?  Why has society become so full of animosity?  Why does life not matter if it isn't your own? 

We have seen that civility in politics is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  Name calling is acceptable, lies are truth and truth is obfuscated.  The only way that that kind of attitude can reach the top is if it has grown from the ground up.  It's only acceptable so long as we let it be.

And that might be the point.  School shootings and the culture that apparently fosters them will continue to be the status quo until we the people decide it's time for things to change.  My hope would be that we would foster that change before then next shooting takes place.

We shall see.