What Harry Potter Teaches Us About Heaven

What was your emotional reaction upon the completion of the world's largest selling movie franchise in history?

There's a universal human phenomenon out there: we love a good story. It is the story that communicates the depths of human experience to us. It makes us, as Chesterton so ably points out in Orthodoxy, feel like normal people in an extraordinary world. There's interesting literary analysis out there as to why Harry Potter is one of the best of stories, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

But this isn't that blog post. Lots of people have analyzed the sublime content that makes up the Harry Potter narrative. I want to discuss something more simple than that. It's this: when big things that enrapture us end, we feel a little disappointed that it's over.

Admit it. When you finished reading The Deathly Hallows, whenever that may have been, you were a little sad. You enjoyed the journey. You couldn't sleep or eat those last 300 pages. You were a part of the story as if you were there. And because your whole world revolved around these characters for a few days (I know of no one who read The Deathly Hallows over a period of weeks), the bottom dropped out on you, and you were somber for a few days. Don't get me wrong: you were thrilled Harry vanquished the evil foe. But you were enthralled when you were reading it. When the reading stopped, so seemingly did your life for a second.

Then the movies came out, closely following behind the release of the final few books. And the movies were good too. And now you've seen the final film. And now there's nothing left. Now there's nothing left to look forward to. It's all over. Your world is no longer intertwined with Harry's.

I think it's this univeral human fiction which has given rise to so much fan fiction; people never want the story to end so they continue to write more of the story.

Isn't this interesting? It's like we're designed for an amazing story but an earthly consummation of the story seems less fulfilling. But what if there were a consummation that made the entire journey worth it, and the goodness never ended? What if we felt a part of the entire story and had a stake in its ending? What if, could it possibly be, the ending was better than the journey? Would we have any language that could possibly come close to describing such a thing?

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

Revelation 21:1-7, NIV

The Demand Side of Prostitution

There is an interesting column in the Denver Post today about attacking prostitution at its core, which apparently aims to attack the demand side of the economics instead of the supply side. A major excerpt:

So how can prostitution be considered an ordinary "work option"? It's not only an egregious public health violation; it's modern-day slavery. Yet we blame the victims and let the buyers walk free. Yes, it's illegal to sell sex, but it's also illegal to buy. So why is it that for every nine women arrested for prostitution, one man is arrested? Nine to one. Talk about blaming the victim.

So what does the column propose as far as punishing the ones who want prostitution as opposed to the ones who provide it? Education. The columnist, Swanee Hunt, tells us that first-time offenders that are caught will be required under a Colorado bill (currently under consideration) to take classes that educate them on the harm of prostitution in all aspects of their life.

This is certainly a noble goal, but it's also slightly misguided. The columnist doesn't mention other alternatives to curb demand (do others exist?), and this proposed solution reveals one of the fundamental flaws of our culture's worldview. Our culture thinks that "education" will solve many human problems. If we only know what the right thing is, then we will do it. The human program for evolution and progress is one of research, of knowing more.

Obviously, this view has problems. Almost all of us know what the right thing to do is in many circumstances. Knowledge isn't the problem. Right action based on that knowledge isn't even the problem. The human heart is the problem.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 
Jeremiah 17:9

Knowledge isn't our problem. Right action isn't our problem. The depravity of our heart is. The heart is diseased. The human condition isn't that we're merely sick and do wrong things. It's that we're diseased to the point of death without hope of redemption unless someone steps in in our place. Wrong action and wrong views of knowledge are symptoms of the greater disease inside us.

But our culture doesn't like to talk about evil and sin and the corruption of every individual. We believe the lie, despite obvious evidence to the contrary, that everybody is basically a good person. And we'll never address the problems until we recognize the core issue.

Thus, while trying to curb the demand for wicked things like prostitution is a noble thing, it's ultimately empty without a reformation of the human heart. I don't deny the significance of a societal solution to a societal problem; there are some good laws and things the government can do. But in the end, if we're not trying to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ into people's lives, we'll never curb the demand for sin.

To Facebook or not to Facebook

Facebook has become quite the topic of controversy as of late. It's continuing assault on user privacy even made the cover story at Time magazine this week. Some highlights from that article:

• "[T]he site is premised on a contradiction: Facebook is rich in intimate opportunities — you can celebrate your niece's first steps there and mourn the death of a close friend — but the company is making money because you are, on some level, broadcasting those moments online."
• "...Facebook keeps finding itself in the crosshairs of intense debates about privacy. It happened in 2007, when the default settings in an initiative called Facebook Beacon sent all your Facebook friends updates about purchases you made on certain third-party sites. Beacon caused an uproar among users — who were automatically enrolled — and occasioned a public apology from Zuckerberg."
• "And it is happening again. To quell the latest concerns of users — and of elected officials in the U.S. and abroad — Facebook is getting ready to unveil enhanced privacy controls. The changes are coming on the heels of a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on May 5 by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which takes issue with Facebook's frequent policy changes and tendency to design privacy controls that are, if not deceptive, less than intuitive...  The 38-page complaint asks the FTC to compel Facebook to clarify the privacy settings attached to each piece of information we post as well as what happens to that data after we share it.
• "In April, the site started giving third-party applications more access to user data. Apps like my beloved Mob Wars used to be allowed to keep your data for only 24 hours; now they can store your info indefinitely — unless you uninstall them. This spring, Facebook also launched something called Instant Personalization, which lets a few sites piggyback onto Facebook user data to create recommendation engines. Once again, as with Beacon, users were automatically enrolled."

I'm assuming that if you're reading this post, then you probably have facebook. Does this alarm you?

If not, then this should. You have almost no private information on facebook anymore. If people want access to your info, then they have it so long as they pay facebook enough for it. It doesn't matter if you only allow friends to see everything and not anyone else, facebook can sell your content. Why? Because they own it, and not you.

For more interesting reading, take a look at the top 10 reasons to delete facebook.

So where does that leave us? Is privacy a virtue in and of itself? Not necessarily. True communion with others is a much higher virtue. Isolation is not a virtue. But facebook provides a false community.

But that desire for community isn't entirely bad. See my post from a year ago about how Twitter is like prayer. We want to be known. We want to know that someone out there really cares. They really care if we stubbed our toe and we posted it on facebook. They really care that our favorite movie is To Kill a Mockingbird. But though the desire is real and good, it is also taken too far. The desire for intimacy with others becomes narcissism on facebook, a perpetual "look at me" game. And you know what? Those third-party companies co-opting facebook's info do care. They care about making money off of you, and they know your favorite books and that you stubbed your toe too.

And this makes facebook a far-from-perfect model of real community. Can it be wielded properly? I still think so. But is my identity and personal knowledge perpetually compromised? I think so. Buyer beware.

Andy Rooney and Desire

One of my favorite TV personalities is Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes, mainly because he always has an interesting take on an aspect of culture that befits his curmudgeonly personality. He develops a popular view of human desire this week that I thought was worth responding to.

Rooney misses the same point on desire that I referenced with Tiger Woods last week. Desire isn't bad. Bad desire is bad. Selfish desire is bad. Unquenchable desire is bad. And these are the things that Rooney is talking about. A world with no desire, or with a desire-reduction pill, is a sad world not worthy of the beauty and deep emotion this world offers through its Creator.

On the other hand, Rooney's words are an apt rebuke of our culture, and indeed human nature, which is constantly craving deeper lusts. The very nature of sin draws us all in to be addicts, never having enough of whatever fix we need: ambition, fame, power, sex, or food. We are indeed living in a dark world that cries out for a solution.

Just not Rooney's solution. We are in need of something worth desiring. We are in need of an object of our desire that won't ask for unfulfilled desires. We are in need of an object of our desire that actually fills our desires, and then some. We are in need of a person, the only person or thing that can, rightly change our desires and give us good ones.

We are in need of Jesus.

Tiger Woods, Buddhism, and Desire

I am huge golf lover. I play it. I watch it. I read articles about it and follow it closely. I even got to go to the Masters in 2005 (the last time Tiger won) and almost got hit by Tiger's golf ball and made national tv (the proof is currently on a taped VHS). So naturally, I was glued to my television yesterday as I was watching the drama play out at the Masters. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and a host of other great golfers vied for the win that Phil ultimately achieved.

Given Tiger's indiscretions and public scrutiny, much of the commentary focused on Tiger even though he never led the tournament yesterday or at any point (he finished tied for 4th). Tiger started horribly yesterday, bogeying three of the first five holes (for non-golf lovers- he lost three strokes to par= the standard score). Tiger wasn't throwing his usual tantrums or lighting up the curse words early on, which is typical of him when he plays poorly. Also, though, when Tiger turned it around and started playing great, he wasn't fist-pumping and revving up the crowd either.

Why? Well, Tiger has talked about returning to his family roots of Buddhism so he can "center" himself on the golf course: not get too high or too low. In Buddhism, emotion and desire are bad and ultimately things to gain higher enlightment over. But the commentators didn't like that. One of them remarked, "Tiger without emotion is like Superman with kryptonite. He can't feed off his own energy, which he's so used to." (That's a rough paraphrase).

And the commentator hit on a Christian truth without knowing it. The Buddha, in his quest for the alleviation of suffering, mistakenly linked good and bad desires together, thus trying to achieve nirvana over all desire (since desire is the source of much suffering). But in Christianity, good desire is good, and bad desire is bad. And there are oh so many good things in this world to desire and appreciate: the beauty of azaleas in the spring in Augusta, enrapturing music that leads you to truly experience beauty, and even excellence in one's craft.

Lying behind it all is One who gives the desire and grants the possibility that those desires can be fulfilled. He also works against all the evil desires of the world to ultimately bring justice to it all.

That's comforting to me, and I hope it will be to Tiger Woods someday too.