Oh, My Pop Culture Religion: Fringe Got it Right

image via annatovnews

I’ve recently been binge-watching Fringe for the first time. It’s a series about the “Fringe” division of the FBI, where Agent Olivia Dunham and her team investigate strange and paranormal events, visit parallel universes, and save the day by being smart and badass. I honestly can’t believe it’s taken me this long to get into a show that’s three parts X-Files and one part NCIS. I found myself most intrigued by a strange one-off episode during Season 2 that was actually filmed in Season 1, but aired out of order on a different night for boring, time constraints reasons. Fans aren’t even certain exactly where it fits in the show’s timeline. It’s called “Unearthed,” and was panned by a lot of critics.

But this rather bad episode succeeds at one thing: giving its audience portrayal of a real religion that isn’t wildly offensive or inaccurate. It does a great job giving us a small window into what Catholicism looks like today. Catholicism pops up all the time in science fiction, maybe because its trappings are easily identifiable for audiences. I’m happy to see a show get a lot of the details right, even though it’s tucked away in an episode no one really cares about. The most shocking thing to me is that the narrative doesn’t make these characters into perfectly good Catholics, either. They’re much more real than what I’m used to seeing.

Spoilers for “Unearthed” below!

Manga Mondays: Trinity Blood

Hey all! It’s been, hell, it’s been a while since I’ve picked up a Manga Mondays around here, but for the good of all I sat down yesterday and re-read all of the Trinity Blood manga I own just so we could talk about it.

Explaining the plot of Trinity Blood is a bit tricksy. You see, the manga is based on a set of light novels, and an anime exists as well, and each of them differ slightly. But the manga is the one I’m familiar with (I’ve never read the novels, and it’s been years since I watched the anime), and this is Manga Monday, not light novel Monday, so I’ll do my best to sum it up.

The setting is a post-apocalyptic Eurasia, divided into human and Methuselah empires. The Methuselah are a long-lived alien species whose traits and habits strongly resemble the human vampire myth, but the story makes it clear that calling a Methuselah a vampire conveys ignorance and/or xenophobia. Humans (mostly led by the Vatican, which controls most of Western Europe) and Methuselah (whose empire is based more in what was once western Russia and Eastern Europe) have held an uneasy peace for centuries, since the apocalyptic events that coincided with the Methuselah’s arrival.

The story starts off in the city of Istavan in Hungary, on the border of the two empires, where Sister Esther Blanchett, a young nun, is betrayed by her best friend and falls in with a priest from the Vatican’s special forces in order to stop the traitor. Political, emotional, and dramatic tensions mount as her former friend plots to set off total war between the Vatican and the Methuselah. After diffusing her former friend’s first attempt, Esther follows the priest, Father Abel Nightroad, back to the Vatican, where she is trained to be a part of the special forces as well.

Abel is a great character, a textbook crouching moron hidden badass who loves humans and tries to embrace pacifism despite his dark secret: he is a genetic experiment, a bloodsucking creature called a Crusnik who feeds on Methuselahs, developed during the first interspecies war as an ultimate weapon for the humans. Most of the time he’s a goofy, clumsy guy who flirts with literally everyone (even the robot priest) and takes 13 sugars in his tea; but fuck with him, give him a reason to release the nanomachine controls on his Crusnik form, and he’ll end you.

Esther is, after re-reading this series, one of my favorite manga heroines. She’s never oversexualized or objectified. She and Abel, save for a few instances when they’d just met, have a relationship that is wonderfully, relievingly platonic (yay for realistic male-female friendships!). She often gets herself into sticky or dangerous situations, but she almost always saves herself (and others, at times) rather than needing to be rescued. She is fiery, caring, and noble, a good on-the-fly strategist and a loyal friend, but also flawed in different ways. She is often naive; she has to train hard to become a skilled marksman; and when she learns Abel’s secret, she is realistically and understandably terrified of him and has a difficult time overcoming this fear to restore their friendship.

This was one of the things that, weirdly, really made me happy about her characterization. When you find out that one of your good friends is hiding a terrible monster, especially when it’s something you’ve been trained to fear, hate, and kill, inside himself, it’s unrealistic that a person will just shrug the revelation off and move on with being friends with no issues. (This was one of my biggest beefs with the Blue Exorcist anime.)

The series is also full of other strong female characters, both human and Methuselah: Esther and Abel’s boss, Cardinal Caterina Sforza, is a caring but stern administrator and a genius at political scheming. The Empress of the Methuselah is a loving and maternal figure who’s not afraid to get her hands dirty and kick ass when the situation calls for it. Lady Astarothe is a low-ranking Methuselah noble who’s loyal, intelligent, a skilled warrior, and comfortable with her body. (But seriously on the topic of objectification, this series is really wonderfully non-objectifying while not being afraid of the female form—there’s an entire scene where Astarothe and Esther talk in the bath, and even though that meant ten or so pages filled with boobs, the scene wasn’t portrayed in a sexually titillating (/badpun) way—they just happened to be in the bath, and thus there was nudity.) The rest of the cast, both female and male, are a bevy of interesting, unique, and well-developed characters as well.

The story also has a lot of interesting religious aspects and themes. Any divergences from current Catholic doctrine or practice (female cardinals, militaristic special forces populated by priests and nuns, robot priests, and boy popes) I personally forgive, because considering the story is set 900 years in the future a hell of a lot of things could have changed. Abel and his family are both named after and obvious callbacks to creation-myth characters: Abel, Cain, Seth, and Lilith. Other character names are obvious callbacks to notorious Catholic leaders of the past—Caterina and her brothers, a bishop and the Pope, have the surname Sforza, a family closely tied to the Borgias in medieval/Renaissance Italy.

There are also interesting race-related themes, regarding intolerance, fear, and hatred of those who are unlike ourselves. That’s another reason I liked Esther—although she grows to accept humans and Methuselah for their character rather than making judgments about their species, we see that she has to work through her preformed prejudices in order to do so. I found this far more realistic; if she’d started out as a girl from a border town growing up around fear of ‘vampires’ for her entire life, and then the second she met a real one she immediately befriended them, it would reek of Mary Suedom to me.

The art of Trinity Blood is beautiful and the storytelling is clever, funny, and flows very well to me. Unfortunately this series was licensed in the US by Tokyopop, which went under last summer, so only the first dozen or so volumes of this ongoing series are available in English. Despite that, however, it’s definitely worth checking out. Give it a look and tell me if you liked it as much as I do! (Athough feel free to write less—good gorram I wrote a freaking novel here…)

Oh, My Pop Culture Jesus: The Divine Feminine

Women often get screwed when it comes to being a Christ figure. Sure, if I was watching a movie about the actual historical person of Christ I would be a bit confused if Jesus was cast as a woman, but a Christ figure is just that, a figure. I don’t think anyone but perhaps crazed religious extremists would protest Aslan being a lioness instead of a lion, but alas, Christ was a man so I don’t blame anyone for constantly casting Christ figures as male. There is no harm in that and completely understandable. It does, however, leave another divine role open to women, one that doesn’t have a gender.

It’s been said that portrayals of God are often a white male. While this may be true in religious iconography, I don’t know if it’s fair to say the same about pop culture. In recent years, God has on occasion been black and even a woman once or twice; so pop culture has been branching out. Before that, while God was occasionally a white male, for the most part God was a disembodied voice or hand (think Monty Python or The Ten Commandments). Many times, God wouldn’t appear at all but would be an unseen, unknowable force, seemingly moving the events of the story (think Good Omens).

Women have been portrayed as God a few times, but for the most part we get what I call “a taste of the divine.” Women get an opportunity to touch or commune with the divine, but they don’t stay that way and often return to their normal human states after.

Rose Tyler of Dr. Who goes through one such touch with the divine in the season finale of Dr. Who in 2005 when she absorbs the heart of the Tardis.

To give you a bit of background I have only just finished watching the episodes of Dr. Who with the 9^th Doctor. So if there is later information that I do not mention it’s because I’m not aware of it.

Anyway, Rose absorbs the heart of the Tardis and promptly becomes a conduit for God. Rose looks into the time vortex, which the Doctor explains that no one is supposed to see. He further tells her that if she doesn’t stop she’ll burn. This is very reflected of instances in the Old Testament where someone encounters God and is changed by or even dies by it. In this way, the Tardis appears much like the Arc of the Covenant, which the ancient Jews believed was the seat of the God. God is physically present in the Arc and anyone who looks upon or touches it that is not supposed to dies. The Doctor warns Rose that she is not meant to see the time vortex and is worried that Rose will burn up, but Rose manages to hold on long enough to destroy false gods (the Dalek emperor) and resurrect the dead.

Rose Tyler: I want you safe, my Doctor. Protected from the false God.

Emperor Dalek: You cannot hurt me. I am immortal.

Rose Tyler: You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space, every single atom of your existence, and I divide them. Everything must come to dust. All things, everything dies.

This quote 1) shows Rose’s ability to see all things the way many imagine God. She sees the big picture. 2) Rose destroys a false God, which is a theme often depicted in the Bible. In the final line, Rose actually discusses the creation of all things reflecting Genesis 3:19. “…for you are dust and to dust you will return.”

Finally, Rose restores life to those who have died and, despite the Doctor’s begging, seems unwilling to let the power go. Though it doesn’t seem to be because she is power hungry, but rather she doesn’t want to let go of this connection. Many Catholic and Orthodox saints who have claimed to experience the power of God describe it as touching ecstasy. Rose seems only able to let go after the Doctor describes his own experience feeling what Rose does. (And for those of you wondering, yes, the Doctor is something of a God figure too. I’ll get to him later.)

In the end, Rose let’s go of the power and remembers nothing, again implying that the power and awe of this divinity is too great for human Rose to comprehend. Well, not without dying anyway.

Buffy is another character that touches the divine and is even something of a Christ figure. Yes, Buffy dies to save the whole world and then rises from the dead, but I hope that last week’s talk on Christ figures has made you realize there is more to Christ figures then simple resurrection. After all, Spike died and rose again, but we’d hardly call him a Christ figure. Let’s call Buffy a pseudo-Christ figure, though Buffy does have her own touches with the divine. In the finale of season four, Buffy faces off against the Frankenstein-like monster Adam. Adam may be my absolute least favorite Buffy villain, but how Buffy defeats him is probably the coolest. Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles realize that the only way to stop him is to use a Sumerian enjoining spell to combine their power.

It’s worth mentioning here that Buffy, unlike most other fantasy/horror shows, draws on the Judeo-Christian tradition notably less. But let’s break this little spell down. It’s Sumerian, one of the first and greatest human civilizations. One could argue humanity started there—creation started there. Who creates? That’s right, God. Buffy does combine with Willow, Xander, and Giles, and Joss Whedon has even mentioned that this was to show the power and closeness of their relationship. One tradition in ancient Jewish and Christian culture was that God’s body was comprised of all people. In this way, God was all races, all genders. In other words, God was everything and humans were all just a tiny piece of God. Buffy and her Scooby Gang enjoining, in their combined strength, could be viewed as a larger piece of God.

In fact, the same things happen to Buffy as they did Rose. Buffy glows, especially her eyes, she turns death to life by turning Adam’s bullets into doves (Holy Spirit symbolism… maybe?), and seems to see the same bigger picture that Rose did.

Adam: How can you…?

UberBuffy: You can never hope to grasp the source of our power. But yours is right here.

She then proceeds to destroy the false god Adam, who was going to destroy humans by creating a new race of composite monsters, by removing his power source.

So these are some women who have communed with God and been a part of God, but hey, sometimes those women don’t need to commune with God, because they are God.

In the movie The Fifth Element, Leeloo is created by the Mondoshawns, a race of aliens, to defeat evil when combined with four elemental stones, thus obviously, making Leeloo the fifth one. Leeloo is created perfect and often called the Supreme Being. As a feminist, I always got a kick out of this movie, because of the constant assertion from people that don’t know Leeloo assuming the Supreme Being was a man. There is definitely a very obvious commentary here about female empowerment and God as feminine by the creators.

From a theological perspective, however, as much as I love this movie it can be damn well confusing. The religion in this movie is all over the place. Leeloo is created by these other aliens, yet she is the Supreme Being. Are those aliens gods? To create a Supreme Being you would assume they’d have to be. Or are they creating a body for God to inhabit in the same way that the Virgin Mary said yes and allowed God to be born through her. Furthermore, the idea that Leeloo could not defeat evil (evil here being this giant intelligent dark planet which only has the intent to destroy) without the stones (the four elements) limits her Godlike powers. If she is the Supreme Being couldn’t she just defeat the evil anyway? She doesn’t seem that powerful either. She has one fight scene in the whole movie, is later saved by Bruce Willis’s character, and then after realizing he loves her, saves the world, because love is worth protecting even if humanity tends to screw up. She defeats evil with the light of creation, but seems to have little to no control over it and it takes everything out of her.

The priest who is with Leeloo seems like he is part of another sect of Christianity. He makes the sign of the cross and still refers to a God or Lord throughout the movie, but calls Leeloo the Supreme Being and guides her through our world. Leeloo never has a big picture moment. In fact, she seems to know nothing about the world and spends a large chunking of the movie going through human history on the computer.

At this point, I have to conclude, that despite Leeloo and others constant assertions that Leeloo is the Supreme Being, she’s not, not really. I’m guessing more a super-powered human used, once again, as a conduit for the divine with the help of the stones. She may be perfect, but really she’s a perfect vessel, not God. This does not make me think this movie is any less awesome or any less a feminist narrative. It has its problems, but doesn’t everything. Leeloo may not be God, but she is still worth watching.

There is one female character that I know with absolute certainty is God.

God in Dogma is a woman. That’s just fact. It’s clear this God can take other vessels, but God’s actual gender in this movie is spelled out as being female. While that’s not theologically accurate because God has no gender and every gender at the same time, it is a refreshing change of pace. This God is completely and utterly powerful, awe-inspiring, but yet funny and relatable. She has a sense of humor about Her creations and Her plans, while still being powerful enough to see the bigger and to have greater plans in the first place.

It endlessly annoys me that a movie most Christian groups heavily criticized actually has an awesome portrayal of the feminine God and asks good theological questions. Dogma was a great movie about God and faith. You should keep an open mind and watch it.

I suppose now you all want me to talk about the male portrayals of God. Well, I need a break from God right now. What? Talking about God is hard. God is unknowable, after all. So what can we talk about next week if not God? It has to be something big, something that connects all people no matter what religion or philosophy. Hmm… oh, I know! The one thing all people fear to some extent.

Next time on Oh, My Pop Culture Jesus: O Death!

Tune in next week and—die! Uh… I mean get some religion…

Oh, My Pop Culture Jesus: Christ Figures

Believe it or not Jesus often comes to save many of your favorite geek characters. I have to assume at this point that Jesus was and still is a bit of nerd, because he seems to be featured much more often in nerd movies, books, TV shows, etc. Either that or nearly every nerd is a Christian, or maybe it’s because the Christ figure story is very compelling.

The story, for those of you who don’t know it, usually goes something like this, special baby is born, special baby grows up and faces horrible trials, dies selflessly to save everyone from whatever horrible thing they are facing, and then is resurrected and defeats evil for good.

Usually, there are other indicators denoting a Christ figure as well, such as some kind of Trinitarian aspect to the character, a descent into the literal or figural hell, and usually some connection to royalty or a very powerful father figure.

So let’s talk about some of my favorite Christ figures.

I know you’re all thinking it, so I’ll start with the first and most popular Christ figure.

“Because I’m Jesus.”

Aslan, from C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, I sometimes feel is less a Christ figure and simply Christ, but that’s just me being silly. Basically if Jesus isn’t actually in your book, then whoever stands in for him is a Christ figure, and Aslan is one of the best. Chronicles of Narnia is an allegory; that’s what C.S. Lewis meant it to be, so Aslan is literally Jesus. He is the king of Narnia (meaning Everything), he selflessly sacrifices himself for Edmund (humanity), is tortured and killed for it, then rises from the dead to defeat the White Witch (Satan/evil). Furthermore, it is clear that Aslan has always existed, the same as Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (Jn.1:1)” Aslan describes something similar to the Witch in the movie saying, “Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written.” There are so many parallels to be drawn between Aslan and Jesus, because C.S. Lewis intended it to be a pretty literal retelling of Christ’s story. Though the books have much to offer adults they were originally intended for children, and it shows. There is no way to confuse the message in Chronicles of Narnia, at least where Aslan is concerned.

J.R.R. Tolkien, a close friend of Lewis’s, wrote a little series that you may have heard of called The Lord of the Rings. If anyone has a market on Christ figures it’s Tolkien—he has a total of three Christ figures in one story. I should note here that Tolkien was very, very, very Catholic and it shows in his writing. Our three Christ figures in The Lord of the Rings are Frodo, Aragorn, and Gandalf. Gandalf is probably the most obvious, because he literally dies and is resurrected, and when he comes back he’s white, glowy, and impressive. Yeah, Tolkien pretty much hits you over the head with Gandalf, but I think he did that on purpose. The reader expects Gandalf to do something amazing and mystical because he is a wizard, so when Christ figure aspects start appearing with Frodo and Aragorn we’re pretty surprised, but it simply shows that grace/Christ/goodness can be found in the strangest of places. A ranger can be a king underneath, and a simple Hobbit can save the world.

Aragorn is a king that has been gone from his kingdom and is destined to return and bring harmony back to the land. If it sounds like the second coming of Christ, that’s because it’s supposed to. There is also a reference to a journey into hell when Aragorn journeys to find the Dead Men of Dunharrow.

Frodo is another Christ figure. He carries the ring to Mordor, which gets heavy throughout the journey. This parallels Christ carrying the sins of the world, as well as Christ carrying the cross to his crucifixion. The parallel between Christ and the cross and Frodo and the ring is made even more explicit by Sam helping to carry the ring and Frodo up to Mount Doom when the weight gets too heavy for him, in the same manner that Simon the Cyrenian helped Christ carry the cross. Frodo is also pierced in the side by the Witch-King on Weathertop, similar to Christ being stabbed with the spear while on the cross. Though Frodo does not literally die nor is reborn like Gandalf, he does appear to be dead when poisoned by Shelob and later wakes up in Mordor. And finally in the end Frodo goes to the Undying Lands (aka Heaven) with the elves, reflecting Christ’s bodily ascent into heaven.

The reason that I mentioned Tolkien being very Catholic is because these three characters combined show the three offices of Christ. This is something I believe I have seen other Christians talk about, but it seems more often emphasized by Catholics, but to any Protestant out there, feel free to correct me if this is untrue. The three offices of Christ are priest, prophet, and king, and these three characters represent that almost perfectly. Aragorn clearly fits the kingly role, while I would say Gandalf represents the prophet role by revealing truth to his companions, and finally Frodo by going through a similar trial of crucifixion symbolizes the priestly role.

Now if you’re sitting there reading this saying, “but Lady Geek Girl, none of these three figures seem to be perfect analogies for Christ.” Well, that’s because they aren’t. In fact Aslan is probably the only one on this list that fits nearly perfectly into the Christ role, again because Lewis was writing an allegory. Tolkien despised allegories, which is probably why he had three Christ figures instead of one. All three characters, Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn together, could make up a perfect Christ figure, but separately they do not because Tolkien did not want to do a strict allegory.

Okay, phew! That’s enough talk about Tolkien; let’s move on.

I always find it funny that so many Christian groups burned Harry Potter books and refused to let their kids read them because of the “evil witchcraft.” I further find it hilarious that everyone, even fans of Harry Potter, where shocked by the fact that Harry died to save everyone and then rose from the dead to finally defeat Voldemort. J.K. Rowling actually tried not to talk too much about the fact that she’s a Christian. In an interview with Max Wyman from the Vancouver Sun on October 26, 2000 when asked if she is a Christian, she said:

Yes, I am. Which seems to offend the religious right far worse than if I said I thought there was no God. Every time I’ve been asked if I believe in God, I’ve said yes, because I do, but no one ever really has gone any more deeply into it than that, and I have to say that does suit me, because if I talk too freely about that I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what’s coming in the books.

I’ll admit, I didn’t see it coming. I thought that it would be appropriate if Harry died but I never thought she would actually kill him. But Harry of course is a Christ figure and rose again to fight another day. But Harry’s resurrection is actually not what makes me love Harry as a Christ figure. I love him because of all the Christ figures he comes closest to being a pacifist. Yes, Harry uses the Unforgivable curses in the books—again it’s not a perfect analogy—but after Harry rises from the dead he seems to have a more Christ-like perspective on things. For the first time he truly empathizes with Voldemort. When Harry fights him he already knows Voldemort’s wand won’t hurt him so Harry is pretty confident at this point, but I do think it’s important to note that Harry could have just killed Voldemort here, but he doesn’t. Voldemort kills himself in the books, because he can’t kill Harry once again and his own killing curse rebounds on him. Harry never kills him. He actually tries to appeal to Voldemort’s humanity. He calls him Tom and, yes, he does kind of mock his arrogance, but near the end of the battle Harry practically begs Voldemort to repent for what he’s done.

Harry Potter: “Yeah it did, you’re right. But before you try and kill me, I’d advise you to think about what you’ve done…. Think, and try for some remorse, Riddle….”

Voldemort: “What is this?”

Harry Potter: “It’s your one last chance, it’s all you’ve got left…. I’ve seen what you’ll be otherwise…. Be a man…. try…. Try for some remorse….”

This scene is amazing! How many other stories show something like this! Harry wants to save Voldemort. He wants him to be human again instead of the monster he has become. I always kind of wished that this would have worked, that Voldemort would have repented. To see that transformation would have been amazing, but alas it didn’t happen, but we still get a great Christ figure out of it.

Now let’s step away from British fantasy novels, which seem to hold the market on Christ figures, and move into some American comics.

Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird… it’s a plane… no, it’s… Jesus…. But seriously if you don’t think Superman is a Christ figure then you are not reading his comics or watching his movies right. I mean dearest Jor-El basically spells it out for us when talking about humanity.

They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you… my only son.

Jor-El here takes the form of God and seeing that humanity is good sends his only son to help guide them. This quote is repeated in Superman Returns, which continues the Christ figure narrative. When Lex Luthor creates a continent made out of Kryptonite that will wipe out a good portion of the United States, Superman selflessly sacrifices himself and nearly dies when he hurls the landmass into space. In the movie, he passes out while still in space and his body plummets to earth in a classic crucifixion pose.

Add to this Superman’s basic good moral compass and his unwillingness to kill and Jesus is pretty much spelled out for you. There is a reason Jesus wears a Superman shirt in the Godspell musical.

Superman, furthermore, in the comics and the movies, has his dual identity as Clark Kent and Superman, which people argue can be viewed as him being God and man at once. It’s not a perfect analogy, but I can see how it works. However DC Comics has in my opinion a much better Christ figure and analogy for this.

If you have read the graphic novel Kingdom Come, then you probably already know whom the next Christ figure is. The title alone should give you a clue at how heavily religious this graphic novel is. The story tells about the growing conflict between humans and the growing superhero population. Superman tries to mediate between the two groups but fails. In the end an all-out war between the heroes—those with and against Superman—happens, while the humans simultaneously decide to bomb where all the heroes are fighting. Someone has to stop the bomb and save the day, but this isn’t a job for Superman. It’s for Captain Marvel. Billy Batson is a boy magically given the gift to be the great Captain Marvel, but Billy and the Captain are the same person, but also separate. It’s hard to explain. Perhaps the easiest way to do so would be to say that he is God and man, two natures, together and distinct. Yep, just like Jesus and just like Billy. Superman could stop the bomb, but if he does the heroes will run rampant. If he doesn’t they die. Superman proclaims that he can’t choose because really Superman has never been a human person. He’s always a hero—a god.

But you, Billy… you’re both. More than anyone who ever existed, you know what it’s like to live in both worlds. Only you can weigh their worth equally.

In the end, Billy dies. Choosing to sacrifice himself so that both groups can live, and like Christ, by doing so he leaves behind an example to follow.

I asked him to choose between humans and superhumans. But he alone knew that was a false division and made the only choice that ever truly matters. He chose life in the hope that your world and our world could be one world once again.

Billy may be my favorite Christ figure because the message he leaves behind is so powerful and expressed so beautifully here. In the other stories the death and resurrection seem to have little effect on people. It works like magic and is used to defeat evil. Billy doesn’t rise from the dead but is arguably the better Christ figure because he chose life and he let that be his answer to Superman. His legacy is that we need to choose unity and life over death and destruction.

Christ, the real one, didn’t die on the cross for himself or even to defeat evil. He was leaving  an example, a legacy, to follow. And out of all the Christ figures I know of, Billy is the only one that comes closest to this.

“But wait,” you say, “this can’t be the end of the article. There are so many more Christ figures.” Yes, there are, and I would be happy to discuss these and others with you in the comments below.

You know I am kind of disappointed there are no women on this list. There are female characters kind of like this but they are less Christ-like and more… divine.

Next time on Oh, My Pop Culture Jesus: The Divine Feminine

Tune in next time and find some religion!