I recently saw “2012″ and “The Road.” Why do you think people, especially Christians, love these apocalyptic stories?
I’m not sure that Christians love these sorts of stories in any special way; however, we have inherited the Jewish apocalyptic tradition and our history is stuffed full of the faithful believing and acting upon end of the world scenarios. Here’s my armchair theorizing. . .movies/stories like “2012″ satisfy a couple of human impulses. First, we love the idea of starting over. Everything is so screwed up; everything is beyond repair–let’s just wipe it clean and try again. Second, our fav villains are cast as the cause the disasters, so we get to wallow in a little Told Ya So. In Jewish-Christian stories, it’s the sinner who brings down God’s judgment on the planet. In the eco-theistic stories, it’s evil capitalists, polluters, and Christians who cause the apocalypse. One of the many, many things I love about The Road is that McCarthy avoids completely writing about the cause/blame of the world’s destruction. This single decision saved the book from being just another disaster story. Third, and this is likely to be controversial, I think we want to be punished. . .not as individuals but as a whole. Strong consciences are very much aware of guilt but survival instincts tend to keep us bobbing and weaving responsibility. Wholesale destruction relieves guilt through punishment but also makes sure everyone else gets punished too. Fourth, and perhaps scariest, these stories have a real wish-fulfillment element to them. Reviews of “Avatar” have pointed out that it is an adolescent suicide note to negligent parents (i.e., corporations, etc.), a sort “you’ll be sorry when I’m gone” film that wants us to wallow around in the narrative’s pretentious eco-preaching and then do penance by living lives of consumerist self-loathing. For Christians, none of these should matter much. God is in control; we aren’t. All things will be well. The secret for us is to make darn sure that our priorities are properly ordered and that we know who we are in Christ. Come the end, that’s all that will matter anyway.
