Not long ago, I binge-watched the entirety of Supernatural on Netflix. Supernatural is the story of two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, who bop around small town Americana investigating the supernatural. They kill vampires and werewolves, banish demons, destroy ghosts and monsters, and basically make the world safer for humans.
The show is soaked in Catholic imagery – symbols, lore, sigils, demons, angels, purgatory – even though Sam and Dean aren’t noticeably Christian and Jesus barely gets a mention except when the ‘monster of the week’ involves a Christian church (not often). The show’s writers probably left Jesus out so as not to offend Christians [fn 1]. Besides which, Jesus showing up in answer to prayer to banish a demon would have been the ultimate deus ex machina.
I don’t know if the show’s writers intended the effect of that, but what I saw in the Christianity-without-Christ is just how many bystanders get hurt by religious stuff. With few exceptions, the people that Sam and Dean save don’t even believe in ghosts and vampires and other supernatural baddies. They just want to live their lives. The demons and monsters (and eventually the angels) have no bigger meaning than just being the creatures who are trying to kill the humans.
We don’t live in a world with vampires and werewolves. But we do live in a world in which people are willing to hurt other people over beliefs in the supernatural. Wars, either shooting wars or cultural wars, over religious beliefs harm people who just want to be left alone – people who don’t believe in heaven or hell, or God and angels, or scripture and commandments, at all. Or people who do have those beliefs but don’t see any reason to insist that other people believe like they do.
The battle in Supernatural isn’t really good vs evil. It’s human life vs evil. God and angels aren’t helping the humans. In fact, God turns out to be a selfish jerk, and (most) angels are as dangerous to humans as the demons are.
An apocalypse happens several times. The first one is when Michael the Archangel is supposed to battle Lucifer the Fallen Archangel. Sam and Dean have no interest in helping Michael win the battle. Who cares if Lucifer wins? Who cares if Michael wins? Sam and Dean are out to save human lives. Michael and Lucifer’s battle is going to wipe out wide swathes of humanity. Innocent bystanders will die by the millions.
Another book/show that fictionalizes the apocalypse is Good Omens. That one is on Amazon Prime. It’s based on a book written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Season one is about the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley trying to stop the apocalypse because they like earth and humans. Angels and demons, heaven and hell, are working to get the apocalypse going. Why do Aziraphale and Crowley want to stop it? Because the apocalypse will destroy all the creature comforts they enjoy. Why do so many humans have to suffer and die just so Heaven can say it won the war? Aziraphale and Crowley betray “their side” to take sides with all the humans who don’t even know what’s happening.
Save the bystanders.
The supernatural, the deity and the devils, move humanity around like chess pieces. The prophecies don’t care about human lives; they care about God’s glory or Satan’s power. The Winchester brothers, the demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale don’t care about God’s glory or Satan’s power grab. They just want to make the world safe for humanity.
It’s the ultimate “Think Terrestrial” [fn 2] power play. Make life on earth livable for humans by pushing the supernatural out of the way.
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[fn 1] Another show that draws from Christian mythology and leaves Jesus out is Lucifer (also on Netflix), in which Lucifer Morningstar owns a nightclub in Los Angeles, goes to therapy, helps solve murders with a gorgeous detective, and gripes about “dear old Dad” (God) and has disputes with his siblings, the other angels.
[fn 2] I’m working on a “Think Terrestrial” post that builds on these ideas with more specific applications. Let me know what comes to mind when you “Think Terrestrial” and I’ll try to incorporate those ideas and comments too.
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Questions:
- Did you ever hear the temple prayer leader say something like, “We pray that the day when God sweeps wickedness off the face of the earth will come speedily”? Was that weird?
- In 3rd Nephi, most of Nephite civilization gets wiped out before Christ comes. Do you think the survivors thought the destruction was worth it? Go ahead and speculate – assume you’re a survivor and your city is rubble and most of the people you know are dead. Then you meet Jesus.
- How many of your beliefs and life choices are based on teachings about the supernatural, i.e., about heaven and hell and how to get to one place and avoid the other?
Wheat & Tares 
I just want to push back a bit on the idea that evil vs human life isn’t good vs evil. In my humble opinion physically and emotionally healthy human life is GOOD. In my opinion it’s even better than narratives about God and angels.
On the other hand, narratives about God and angels, or narratives about Satan and devils that influence human emotional and/or physical health in a negative way are evil in my estimation.
To me, if religious narratives have negative emotional and physical consequences, they are evil. In my opinion, good people ought to use their power and influence to change narratives that hurt people, into narratives that support human health of all kinds.
I personally don’t find blaming problems on Satan or the last days, to be a good way to tackle problems.
An audiobook series “We Are Bob” winds up creating a human-based AI that is supposed to locate planets suitable for earth colonization (triggering World War 4 in the process) that addresses similar questions. Bob wants to explore the universe and to save humanity (but not be a “Savior of Humanity”). His stance is more from an agnostic/atheist perspective working with a human organizations (civic and/or religious). It’s interesting because his concept of “heaven” (working on a meaningful project mostly alone while in concert with others) is the “hell” of most of the humans he meets. Bob also deals with “the consequences of immortality” – chiefly experiencing humans shift from known individuals to nameless “ephemerals”.
I want to add to the previous post that I find truth claims about harmful narratives to be irrational, irresponsible and irrelevant.
If the narrative is evil and harms people, it doesn’t matter to me if you think it comes from God. I am looking for good fruits to show me what is good. If a narrative is having evil outcomes, to me, that proves it doesn’t come from God.
If we go back to a pre Jesus sort of “god”, then he is pretty much a tribal god out to kill the enemies of the handful of people who worship him, and of course, the other tribe has their god. So, it is one tribe and their local god fighting against another tribe and their local god. And historically that was how it was. The God of Abraham was just the god of Abraham’s tribe, and he was out ti kill the neighboring tribes who competed with Abraham’s tribe for land and resources.
There are all kinds of remnants in the Bible. The priests of Jehovah trying to destroy the priests of Baal. Moses going before pharaoh and defeating the priests of pharaoh, or magicians of pharaoh depending on your translation.
And some Bible scholars suggest that what has come down to us as “Satan” was just the god of a competing tribe.
So, those shows are not too far off. Satan is just another god competing to get humans to worship him, just like in the old pagan religions. Under this theory, Satan is just a god who is not our tribe’s god and no more evil than any other God. Each god is just good to his own worshippers and evil to any other God’s worshippers.
Yes, Dan McClellan says Satan in the old testament originally meant adversary; like a neighboring king or tribe
The first thing that came to mind when I read “Think Terrestrial” is when Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is among you”. We’re not supposed to build a faraway heaven, or bring about an apocalypse so the wicked are replaced by the righteous, but build heaven with the people we already know.
Oh! I can’t wait for Think Terrestrial! Here’s mine: unapologetically prioritizing myself and making my little corner of the planet the best it can be for me. Do I need a nap? I’m going to take it, even at the expense of _____. Splurge on the unnecessary bouquet of flowers at the grocery store? Yep. Thinking Terrestrial means I get to prioritize me and my needs, guilt-free. I don’t need to feel bad about everything I -could- be doing or everyone I might be helping with my time. This is all I’ve got, and I’m going to make it the best I can for me. Will I feed and care for my children? Donate to charity? Try to be kind? You bet. I enjoy those things anyway when I take care of me.
I used to teach Gospel Principles. The last few chapters of the good ‘ole manual was for me always disconcerting.
It’s like reading a Big Brother pamphlet from the novel 1984.
(Paraphrasing)
‘Yes there’ll be an apocalypse, yes the wicked will be destroyed. Don’t worry, good people of all faiths will live to see the church and state unite under Christ, and we’ll finally have world peace!’
I’m ashamed to say, it wasn’t until I was already on my way out that I managed to put my finger on why these chapters bothered me.
The church’s discourse (still to this day) requires both a violent apocalypse and an eventual Christian theocracy for it to remain “true”.
At what point (or to what extent) will the church, or its members, take it upon themselves to usher in these dire events?
What’s the relationship between this apocalyptic view of the future and Christian nationalism, unconditional support for Israel, Dominion Theology?
As an aside and only slightly related:
Did you know that there are no inherently “evil” or “good” colours within the Magic: the Gathering Card game? (White, Blue, Black, Red, Green)
Even selfless White, the colour most concerned about altruism and order, sometimes finds itself representing the main source of conflict in a set.
Beware the paladin.
Canadian Dude,
My husband loves to be the paladin in his various role games.
I think what Dan McClellan (LDS scriptorian and scholar) says about Revelation is pertinent to the subject of the apocalypse. He says Revelation nearly wasn’t included when they put together the Bible because it conflicts clearly with the tone of the Gospels. The guy in charge included it in the end because it reinforced his authority.
According to Dan, Revelation was NOT a prophecy. He says there were many manuscripts like it written in the same time frame and it was a reaction to current problems at that time whereas the Babylonians and other were dragging the Jews off, and so forth. It was a was revenge text to say “You’re going to get bad times too because you mistreated us. So there.”
I am sorry. I am not a biblical scholar and I am sure I haven’t explained this as well as Dan McClellan does. I suggest you look him up on social media. His videos are fascinating and they really push back on Evangelical Christian culture. Dan was a translator for the LDS church for 10 years & served a mission in Ecuador, so he understands the LDS point of view too.
I agree with you that our church traditions about the apocalyse can be problematic. I am a lot more comfortable with the uncertainty of the deconstruction of these scriptures based on the agreement of most scholars of Revelation.
Most of the major world religions are based on ancient texts, stories, rituals, and beliefs – all pre-dating the Enlightenment and scientific reason. So even religion as practiced by modern believers is suffused with superstition and harmful thinking about the nature of god, our relation to god, the state of nonbelievers (or different believers) and how the world ends. Yet at the same time, in my opinion, religion can never become a truly modern belief system subject to scientific rigor and factual analysis – and was never intended to be that way (cf. Karen Armstrong’s “The Case for God” – an extremely important book for me, a skeptical, analytical, science-minded thinker, that allowed me to appreciate the mystical, unknowable aspect of “god” and not jettison religion and belief in a deity entirely). However, if religion makes us tribal, puts rules and rituals above people, fills us more with fear instead of awe and gratitude, or fails to be based on compassion for our fellow humans, then we need to rethink that religion or at least how we view and live it.
“Think Terrestrial” – I like it! Terrestrial means of the Earth, or earthly. The Earth is our home, the cradle of life, and the habitat for all current living things. When we think terrestrial, we think about caring for earth – our home – and all terrestrial life of which we are intrinsically connected.
“Think Terrestrial” is a good way to describe my focus the last few years. I can’t remember which post on which blog changed my focus, but they were talking about different views towards building Zion. That the dominant view is that we will build Zion after the second coming, while the post’s author viewed it as something that needed to happen to prepare the way for the second coming. That really resonated with me.
I’ve long felt that all we can do is make our little sphere more heaven-adjacent. (Helps dispel my high anxiety offspring’s stress over the realization that they probably won’t have a significant impact on the whole world, too, so there’s that. Neurodivergent parenting is a trip.) Maybe that’s the easy way out, since I was already trying to address my prejudices and biases, be less judgemental, meet people where they are at and love them there, etc. I live in a very conservative area (right in the center of a Venn diagram with three circles- southern culture, military culture and church culture) where there’s lots of us vs. the world, the world is a dark and horrible place, etc., talk in my ward that I feel like I am always pushing back against. It was nice to have the framework from that blog post to explain my different approach to the folks that will listen. Now I have a slogan for it, too!
lws329 – that’s a good clarification in your first comment. I was using “good v evil” in the sense that “good” means obedient and pious. I like your definition – that good means a happy and healthy life. And judging a narrative by its “fruits” is fair.
Anna – that’s a good insight from the Old Testament. The Hebrews weren’t looking for converts. God kept commanding them to go to war and wipe out everyone else. It was Us vs. Them for a long long time. I don’t know when people started thinking that they should convert people to their God, rather than wipe out people who believed in a different god. Then the wars led to mass conversions. We all know that’s why Christianity and Islam are so widespread, right? After a war, the remaining population was given the choice of convert or die.
Tygan – I read the New Testament the same way, i.e., we’re supposed to bring heaven to earth by learning to live with and love/accept the people around us. But there are a lot of people who focus more on the apocalypse and hope that someday the wicked will be wiped out. I don’t believe any of those types of religious doctrines anymore, though I was raised with that thinking.
Canadian Dude – Exactly! All this peace and love on planet earth is ushered in by horrible violence and destruction. And people who have devoted their lives to Jesus have to set that off? Does Jesus want his followers to cause that destruction? Yeah, no, that’s dangerous to teach things like that. I honestly believe that sort of doctrine leads to people hurting other people because they believe we’re in the end times (like Lori Daybell and Chad Vallow).
Bryce Cook – a second thumbs up for your comments about how reason and the Enlightenment came after the Abrahamic religions. I’d never thought of it like that. Good insight.
Margie, Tygan, Bryce Cook, Just Me – thanks for your thoughts on “Think Terrestrial”. That post is a couple weeks out, but it’s coming!
Think terrestrial. Terrestrial s about the earth that Jesus made for us. That we humans have polluted. So, Jesus comes back and yells, “what have you children done to the earth I gave you? You’ve made a huge mess of it, that’s what! I am going to pretend I haven’t just seen this mess, and walk out of here, and when I come back in one year, I expect it to be all cleaned up. I want the pollution gone from the air, I want the plastic that is killing my animals cleaned up, and I want global warming fixed. If it don’t cleaned up when I come back, there will be no breakfast, or lunch, or supper. Ever. For any of you. Do you understand?”
Thanks for the great post, Janey. I’m gonna run with this.
When your church leaders shrug off data about impending ecological disasters because it’s a sign of the times, think terrestrial!
When your family members decline to seek treatment for their mentally ill child because at least he’s priesthood worthy so he’ll be saved in the next life, think terrestrial!
When your church leaders tell you that gay people will be made straight in the next life, think terrestrial!
When DHO laughs off concerns about eternal polygamy because we should just “trust the Lord,” think terrestrial!
When your church spends billions on temples for mostly posthumous ordinances and spends a comparatively paltry sum on charity, think terrestrial!