Jonah, Calvinism, and Pixar's Incredibles

Jonah reminds us that God desperately loves all of humanity. Even the Ninevites.

I was just reading a book on missions that took some time out to reflect on Jonah, and the author asked the searing question: Would we (missionaries) be scared if the whole world came to Christ? "Because it'd put us out of a job?"

In one sense it is of course a preposterous notion... to imagine everyone being a follower of Jesus. No "fears" of that happening any time soon.

But the notion does touch upon a reality in human nature. We do need "others" so as to be reassured of who "we" are. Hegel touched upon it with Master and Slave. (I say that in faith. I never understood that wretched essay which I may as well have read in the original German, for all I could make of what I read in English.) Michel Foucault understood that we need prisons (because the prisoners serve to reassure us that we're free). That may seem an outlandish claim, but the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was horribly real, and it exposes the same cancerous truth: we need a few crazies in order to reassure ourselves that we, at least, are sane.

Anyway, this takes me to Calvinism which carries on the rich tradition of exclusivism expressed so wonderfully by the Israelites who were sure that God loved Jews... and Jews alone. Yes, Jesus grew up among Jews who believed that Gentiles were just dry wood for the fires of hell. Gentiles themselves were worthless, but useful insofar as they reminded Jews of how wonderful it is to be Jewish.

That notion doesn't sound very true or nice to my ears, and I'm eternally grateful (literally) that Jesus didn't stick to the script he was handed.

But we Christians picked up the same hymnal and resumed the tune our Jewish forebears were singing readily enough. We just switched who's in and who's out. And we call it Calvinism. God only calls some people to eternal life. Others he damns to hell... from eternity past. People yet to be born are already today slated for hell. They WILL NOT be saved. God's got that planned out.

Frankly, I am in awe of the comfort with which we tolerate a view of God that assumes God does not actually want all people to be saved. We can phrase it any way we like, but if God's sovereignty is stated as Calvin would have it stated, that's the secret will of God, to use Calvin's own words.

Which leads me to the paradox stated so eloquently in The Incredibles. "Elastigirl" Helen won't let her son "Dash" run on the school track team (for obvious reasons), and he's irritated that he cannot use his special gifts... it's as if being special is bad.

Helen: "Everyone is special, Dash."
Dash: "Which is another way of saying no one is."

Dash looks a bit like Calvin himself... but here I refer to the "Calvin and Hobbes" Calvin. No matter, The comic Calvin was himself named after John Calvin, so the lineage is clear and appropriate.

But yeah. That scowl on Dash's face says it all, and I dare say many a Christian would sport the same look if he knew how many scummy not-church-attending folk were entering heaven ahead of him. (I think Jesus said something about that.) Can we tolerate the notion that in God's eyes everyone is special?

Stated differently, do we, along with God, really want all people to be saved? Really, really?? Think hard and search your soul before offering a quick answer. Speaking for myself, I know sometimes I do not. The missionary writing about Jonah asked the pointed question, "How did you feel when you heard that Osama Bin Laden had died?"

In our better moments, we should share God's (and here I do quote scriptures) desire that all be saved. Our theology should lean toward everyone being special to God. More often than not, our theology leans the other way.

And before we say it's impossible and heretical to strike out against the received theology cherished in our particular church tradition, let us remember that Jesus was brought up in an environment that had its own received, holy theology, too. He just didn't buy all of it.