New!
Author resources • Lorehaven Guild
Podcast sponsors • Subscribe for free
Crew manifest Faith statement FAQs
All author resources Lorehaven Guild Subscribe for free

148. Why Do Some Christians Revile ‘The Chosen’? | with Josiah DeGraaf and Jenneth Dyck
Fantastical Truth Podcast, Feb 7, 2023

Into the Darkness
Reviews, Feb 3, 2023

The Chosen Succeeds Where ‘Woke’ Stories Fail
Jenneth Dyck in Articles, Feb 2, 2023

Library

Find fantastical Christian novels

fantasy · sci-fi · and beyond
middle grade · young adult · grown-ups
All novels Search Add a novel
The Wayward, Tabitha Caplinger
Fortified, V. Romas Burton
Canaan Sleeps, Daniel Camomile
Silver Bounty, Victoria McCombs
A Sword for the Immerland King, F. W. Faller
Calor, J. J. Fisher
Once Upon A Ren Faire, A. C. Castillo
The Genesis 6 Project, Michael Ferguson
Exile, Loren G. Warnemuende
Aberration, Cathy McCrumb
The Truth Beyond the Lies, Kathleen Bird
Frost, Winter's Lonely Guardian, E. E. Rawls
Dream of Kings, Sharon Hinck
The Change, Bradley Caffee
Podcast

Get the Fantastical Truth podcast

Podcast sponsors | Subscribe links
Archives Feedback

148. Why Do Some Christians Revile ‘The Chosen’? | with Josiah DeGraaf and Jenneth Dyck
Fantastical Truth, Feb 7, 2023

147. Why Can Christians Celebrate Stories about Merlin and King Arthur? | with Robert Treskillard
Fantastical Truth, Jan 31, 2023

146. How Did Animators Adapt The Wingfeather Saga For Streaming TV? | with Keith Lango
Fantastical Truth, Jan 24, 2023

145. How Did Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’ Shape Christian Fantasy? | with Rebecca K. Reynolds
Fantastical Truth, Jan 17, 2023

144. Which Top Six Fantasy Franchises Gave Fans Grief in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 10, 2023

143. Which Top Ten Lorehaven Stories Proved Most Popular in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 6, 2023

Quests

Join our monthly digital book quests.

Lorehaven Guild Faith statement FAQs

Rose Petals and Snowflakes
Book Quests, February 2023

Prince Caspian
Book Quests, January 2023

Dream of Kings
Book Quests, December 2022

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness
Book Quests, November 2022

Reviews

Find fantastical Christian reviews

All reviews Request review

Into the Darkness
“Charles Hack’s Into the Darkness summons a close-range science fiction story, focusing on the personal challenges of space warfare among alien cultures with a steady pace and serious tone.”
—Lorehaven on Feb 3, 2023

A Crown of Chains
“A Crown of Chains creatively retells a biblical tale to explore themes of providence, racism, faith, and fidelity.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 27, 2023

Lander’s Legacy
“Lander’s Legacy stacks modern thrills and complex characters on a foundation of biblical what-ifs.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 20, 2023

Prince Caspian
“Pacing starts slow but creature lore grows in C. S. Lewis’s sequel, introducing practical tyrants and talking-beast politics into a Narnian resistance.”
—Lorehaven on Jan 13, 2023

Gifts

Find new gifts for Christian fans

Archives

The original SpecFaith: est. 2006

Speculative Faith | archives

Lorehaven issues (2018–2020)

Order back issues online!
New
Library
Podcast
Quests
Reviews
Gifts
Archives
Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
Subscribe free to Lorehaven
/ SpecFaith /

Superman Soups Up Sermons

Should Christians help promote cinematic Christ-callbacks?
E. Stephen Burnett on Jun 20, 2013
No comments

Last week1 I made what I thought was a joke. In a Speculative Faith News piece, I wrote a satirical evangelical reaction to the film Man of Steel:

Fantastic, now I have the perfect topic for my 14-part megachurch Savior of Steel “sermon” series.

Oh, why did I say anything?

Because after I do, articles like this one come out:

Warner Bros. Studios is aggressively marketing “Man of Steel” to Christian pastors, inviting them to early screenings, creating Father’s Day discussion guides and producing special film trailers that focus on the faith-friendly angles of the movie.

The movie studio even asked a theologian to provide sermon notes for pastors who want to preach about Superman on Sunday. Titled “Jesus: The Original Superhero,” the notes run nine pages.

“How might the story of Superman awaken our passion for the greatest hero who ever lived and died and rose again?” the sermon notes ask.

Just please, no un-Biblical sermons with titles like this.

Just please, no un-Biblical sermons with titles like this.

In response I wrote this, slightly edited here, after of course having my “called it” moment:

Do understand: I completely agree about the parallels [between Superman’s story and Christ’s true Story].

My objection, if any, is to Christians and pastors:

  1. Needing Hollywood PR firms — no blame on them; they are simply doing their jobs — to sell them on a fantastic Christ-reflecting film (assuming it is).
  2. Deciding to Use the story for silly sermon references or over-the-top “wow, we’re getting recognized in culture!” rhetoric.

Stories should not work like that, as Tools to be used for self-promotion or solely to push for others’ conversion. Stories are means of worship, of exploring God’s beauty and goodness and truths and delights (and only secondly to draw connections for possible conversion help, etc.).

supermanjesus_youdontsayI suppose my objection, then, isn’t to the Warner Brothers marketing effort, but to how some Christians with good intentions will inevitably apply it  for wrongly pragmatic ends.

At least that’s not the reason outlined by Craig Detweiler. Yesterday he “outed” himself as the author of the infamous stock sermon-notes, and shares why he participated.

I wrote the Sermon Notes for the recent Man of Steel blockbuster film. Thousands of pastors took the time to visit a website, enter their address, and download the notes. I am glad that many have found the parallels (and distinctions) drawn between the life of Jesus and the myth of Superman helpful. Countless moviegoers from different faith traditions (or lack thereof) noticed the rather obvious connections between Jesus of Nazareth and Kal-El of Krypton. Hopefully, such comparisons do not detract from either story. My sermon notes were designed to connect (and separate) the superhero film from the enduring testimony regarding Jesus.

Nevertheless, some see the structuring of a sermon around a blockbuster movie as everything that’s wrong with church in the 21st century. It is compromised and compromising. Why would we surrender a sacred service to a secular movie?

I would say this: because, after Christ’s victory, the entire world is becoming a “sacred space.”

When I find a filmmaker asking all the right questions, I make an effort to come alongside that spiritual search. As Philip came alongside the Ethiopian Eunuch, we can ask people, “Do you understand what you’re reading (or creating)?”Our attention (and ticket buying) encourages studios to create even more spiritually informed sagas.

Yet how does this inform our actions? Can Christians, for God’s glory, work with “the world” and even directly with film studios to remind others of Biblical reflections in “secular” stories?

If not, perhaps we at Speculative Faith have some soul-searching to do.

  1. Superman is Like Jesus? You Don’t Say, Speculative Faith News, June 11. ↩
E. Stephen Burnett
E. Stephen Burnett creates sci-fi and fantasy novels as well as nonfiction, exploring fantastical stories for God’s glory as publisher of Lorehaven.com and cohost of the Fantastical Truth podcast. As the oldest of six, he enjoys connecting with his homeschool roots by speaking at conferences for Christian families and creators. Stephen is coauthor of The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ from New Growth Press (2020, with Ted Turnau and Dr. Jared Moore). Stephen and his wife, Lacy, live in the Austin area, where they help with foster parenting and serve as members of Southern Hills Baptist Church.
Website · Facebook · Instagram · Twitter
  1. Sarah says:
    June 20, 2013 at 9:41 am

    >>Can Christians, for God’s glory, work with “the world” and even directly with film studios to remind others of Biblical reflections in “secular” stories?<<

    I say, “yes”. Why not? People write fiction for God’s glory, can’t they dissect fiction for God’s glory?

    Reply
  2. Austin Gunderson says:
    June 20, 2013 at 10:58 am

    My reaction to this story is entirely dependent upon the quality of those sermon notes.  If they’re shallow or confused or stretch for parallels that aren’t there, then it was a bad idea to write them.  But if they’re insightful, comprehensive, and manage to maintain perspective, then this whole story is one of the more awesome things I’ve read this month.

    You’ll notice that Warner Brothers didn’t ask an imam to compare Superman to Mohammed or a guru to compare him with Krishna.  Neither did they commission treatises regarding his reflections of Buddha, Thor, or Joseph Smith.  This means that a major Hollywood film studio A) acknowledges the Christian majority composition of America, and B) recognizes that the heroic attributes of Christ eclipse those of all other faux-messiahs.  These are good things.  Who cares whether there’s money to be made in the process?  It’s not as though Christians sell their books for free …

    Reply
    • Austin Gunderson says:
      June 20, 2013 at 11:23 am

      Ultimately, this story makes me happy because those sermon notes — at least in their title — don’t take that repellently desperate and wheedling tone so common among anecdote-laced ‘comparative preaching’: “Hey, look — Jesus is kinda like Superman!  That makes Him cool!”  Instead — in both the film and, apparently, the sermon notes — it’s Superman clinging to Christ’s line of heroic credit: “Hey, look — Superman is kinda like Jesus!  That makes him cool!”

      There’s a world of difference between those two approaches.

      Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      June 20, 2013 at 11:33 am

      There’s a world of difference between those two approaches.

      ^ This. ^

      Yes, there is.

      And this is rooted in the God-comes-first worldview. If God, rather than man, is the axiom of all existence, then naturally we will presume that His nature and His actions and His story come first — and that the best of our stories can only reflect Him and His.

      Reply
  3. Bainespal says:
    June 20, 2013 at 11:48 am

    Wow, you certainly did call it.  This goes to show that we can trust Mr. Burnett’s insights into Evangelical pop culture and the entertainment industry.
     
    I guess the only cause for concern in this is that the initiation came from Warner Brothers instead of from Christian pastors.  Still, there’s no cause to be overly cynical or pessimistic.  Yes, the outward professing church and the world sometimes use each other, as they have for many centuries.  This has certainly been a bad thing at times, and Christians can lose sight of their spiritual purpose in the face of worldliness and pragmatism.  But all the people involved in this — both in “the church” and in “the world” — are individuals with personal motivations that are either good or self-serving.  There is no reason that this venture could not be used for genuine worship by many.

    Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      June 20, 2013 at 11:52 am

      Well, I wouldn’t go that far. This is unprecedented, really, for any summer blockbuster action film — studios have only tried it for The Passion of the Christ or The Blind Side or something like that, in addition to all the Christian/Hallmark-style smaller movies.

      Reply
      • Bainespal says:
        June 20, 2013 at 12:05 pm

        Well, I wouldn’t go that far.

        What do you mean?  That you’re not very confident that many people will use this public media campaign to worship God?

        Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      June 20, 2013 at 12:08 pm

      No, I meant your personal compliment. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Galadriel says:
    June 20, 2013 at 12:17 pm

    I think I’ve heard of similar approaches for,  say, the Narnia films, but not for superhero movies.  It can be done well, but, like all things, should be approached with discernment.
    (Side note: has anyone noticed that some books are being written as combination novels/devotionals? Maybe it’s an attempt to skip the intermediate step and go straight from ‘good story’ to ‘Bible study.’)

    Reply
  5. Audrey says:
    June 20, 2013 at 1:52 pm

    I don’t have a problem with pastors mentioning Superman—or making any other culture reference for that matter—if it’s focused on preaching Christ, as Austin says. For me, it’s fun when a pastor refers to Narnia, or Moby Dick, or something else I know and enjoy. It means the pastor is acknowledging my language, even if he doesn’t speak it well. I expect anyone who is really into Superman would feel the same.

    At the same time, I don’t like the idea of handing out sermon notes—especially if pastors use them to write their sermon, instead of doing their own homework. I’m talking in ignorance, since I haven’t seen the ‘notes,’ but borrowing someone else’s sermon like this strikes me as plagiarism and just plain laziness.

    I also don’t like the idea of a sermon themed around a movie. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I do prefer sermons based on Scripture, with cultural references, rather than the other way around. Again, I wouldn’t mind a pastor mentioning Superman, but I would like him to teach me some Scripture while he’s at it.

    Reply
    • Austin Gunderson says:
      June 20, 2013 at 2:41 pm

      I agree that a pastor who just parrots someone else’s sermon notes should take way more pride and show way more initiative in his work, but every pastor out there — unless he’s some kind of hermit — resides in the marketplace of ideas. The pastors I know are constantly ingesting and evaluating literature which purports to help them interpret Scripture. Why should a movie-themed examination of Christ’s status as the Ur-Hero be any different than Generic Devotional 583-B? It’s not as though the folks at Warner Brothers wrote the notes themselves; they asked a pastor to do it. I just don’t see a downside to this.

      Reply
      • Audrey says:
        June 20, 2013 at 3:38 pm

        As I said, I haven’t seen the notes. If they are intended to spark ideas, as you suggest, I wouldn’t have a problem either. It may only be the label ‘sermon notes’ that concerns me, along with the idea of preaching of a movie, rather than preaching from Scripture.

        Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      June 20, 2013 at 3:33 pm

      For me, it’s fun when a pastor refers to Narnia, or Moby Dick, or something else I know and enjoy. It means the pastor is acknowledging my language, even if he doesn’t speak it well.

      Exactly. It also means the pastor is recognizing that God’s truth, while found centrally and 100 percent accurately in Scripture, is also reflected in the rest of the world. Knowing this truth is not enough to save a person, but it is enough to get us started — and according to Romans 1, it’s enough truth for God to hold us guilty if we reject Him.

      Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      June 20, 2013 at 5:33 pm

      I also don’t like the idea of a sermon themed around a movie.

      Doubtless the Apostle Paul would not have liked this either. Our only instance of him “preaching a sermon from a movie” is in Acts 17, and even there he is: a) not preaching to other Christians, b) only cites the “unknown god” altar as a starting point and makes a few references to Greek poets, to approve and subvert them.

      Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I do prefer sermons based on Scripture, with cultural references, rather than the other way around.

      Amen. Let us hope this “fashion,” which God has instituted, never goes out of style.

      Reply
      • Audrey says:
        June 21, 2013 at 2:18 pm

        Thanks, Stephen! I appreciate your thoughts.

        Reply

What do you think? Cancel reply

  • From CAPC To Realm MakersFrom CAPC To Realm Makers
  • Why Are Batman and Superman Fighting?Why Are Batman and Superman Fighting?
  • Badfan v Superman: Top Ten Movie Myths, Part 2Badfan v Superman: Top Ten Movie Myths, Part 2
  • Badfan v Superman 5: You’ll Believe A Man Can DieBadfan v Superman 5: You’ll Believe A Man Can Die
Lorehaven magazine, spring 2020

Wear the wonder:
Get exclusive shirts and beyond

Listen to Lorehaven’s podcast

Authors and publishers:
Reach new fans with Lorehaven

Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
Website · Facebook · Instagram · Twitter