A Communique from Zombieland

Zombieland (2009) is, suffice to say, not a family film; but I was struck by its surprising moral undercurrent. In the last ten years or so, the idea of zombie hordes overrunning the planet has achieved greater cultural interest in North America. The numerous films, varying in budget, have captured the imagination of especially teenagers and twenty somethings. I can't give you any great stats to back up this claim, its just something I've been noticing over the years and I am willing to bet you have too...if you at all have any interest in the horrific idea of undead zombie hordes devouring the living; and not just in film.

In fact, some books have detailed with meticulous interest and disturbing, albeit fictional, hypothetical accuracy, tongue in cheek scenarios for survival ("Zombie Survival Guide") and worldwide catastrophe ("World War Z"). Marvel Comics has released zombie themed issues, and Jane Austen's (1775-1817) Pride and Prejudice (1813) has been parodied in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009).

I'm not sure about this next claim, but it would seem to me that zombification of the entire world is being given far more careful attention, detail and marketing than the classic 'B' movies of yesteryear. Maybe you horror buffs can correct me if I'm wrong.

Zombie films I have seen have a strong moral (or rather amoral) undertone. A world overrun by zombies is a world that has totally lost its "humanity". Nobody is innocent, nothing is sacred, survival is everything. The moral dilemmas presented by wasting zombies who were formerly family members or those commonly regarded as "the innocent" of society is frequently an issue; (as well as an excuse to create some dramatic tension).

Ironically, the greatest threat to survival comes not from the zombie hordes, but from the fellow living. (SPOILERS AHEAD) George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) illustrates this by the scavenging gang of thugs which finally dismantle the relative safety and comfort of survivors holed up in a shopping mall. In Zombieland, betrayal is commonplace, though the zombies themselves pose marginal threat themselves to intelligent and sensibly cautious wanderers.

Concurrently, both films contain radical critiques of the stupidity and emptiness of material culture. Woody Harrelson's character craves a Twinkie snack cake but in a world of endless material goods he is willing to smash anything to curb his frustrations. In "Dawn of the Dead" the zombies putter stupidly around the mall doing as they had done as the living. What results is a thinly veiled but powerful critique of consumerism. In a world of survival, the stuff of great worth is utterly devalued and rendered comically meaningless.

The zombie phenomenon is worth great cultural examination: it is a symbol of the current 20th-21st century post-modern wasteland in which we live. It is the nihilism after the great failure of secular existentialism to re-value all values. It's cynicism is the bitter but sober and truthful disbelief of the humanist hucksters who would sell us false bases for our, or nature's supposed intrinsic worth.

The zombie wasteland takes no prisoners. There is no rank, no wealth, no great hero, but simply a tragic-comical waste of human life and existence combined with wanton bloodshed. The shotgun and chainsaw become the weapons of a generation frustrated, bored and only too eager to take up arms to a worthy cause- so long as it is not classified as murder (killing the living).

But zombie films are also about re-discovery - and redemption. In "Zombieland", "28 Days Later" (2002) and "Dawn of the Dead" we see people banding together. In a world that no longer has the blind optimism of modernism, but has seen the ugliness of blind postmodernism, human relationships and the spiritual moral law seem to pop up with new strength. One can bury the dead, but one can't bury what isn't dead. What isn't dead is the human spirit, absolute moral law and the drive to selfless deeds. Where "Columbus" in Zombieland formerly had a personal survival law to "Don't be a hero" he realizes that to save the emo-hot chick and forsake his "World of Warcraft" dominated life, he must adapt and overcome, he must "Be a hero". Where formerly the party knew only cutthroat cold indifference, they learned to band together as family.

No zombie film I know ends with a perfect fairy tale ending, there is one bloody awful mess left in the wake of the metaphorical "disaster" (postmodern death, nuclear annihilation, new world order etc.). This is an ugly world. It is bloody, it is sexually perverse and violating, it is horrific, and full of demonic threats.

The hard but necessary realization? We have done it. The good news? Not even the age of "non-supernatural" zombies (zombies resulting from viruses or some even more ridiculous nonsense than the occult explanation) can eradicate the supernatural order underlying all things.

The message is, don't let yourself be found as the walking dead; in the words made famous by one zombie smasher, "Hail to the King baby."

What Wolf and Lamb Have in Common

We could probably agree on the idea that Christians are supposed to be Jesus to the world. We could also probably agree that God isn't necessarily or often going to drop solutions from the sky when we ask for his provision, protection etc.

In this respect I think I could probably build a convincing case that would find plenty of Christians agreeing that we are Christ's witnesses, we are Jesus' life incarnate (in the flesh) to the world around us. I'd probably find a lot less agreement arguing that we are also Jesus' death incarnate.

CHRIST PUTTING THE FLESH TO DEATH
In the first sense of death here I mean something controversial to Benny Hinn and the prosperity gospel crowd but not to pretty much any other form of Christianity (though a problem for all of us all the time): carrying with you the dying of Jesus. Suffering. Trading your sorrows and pain for the joy of the Lord is good and not being crushed and all that; but you've also got to carry about "the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" 2 Cor 4:10.

If you never got into the suffering of the cross, its likely that you're still contemplating Christianity at the "Can I play Daddy?" level of difficulty and never actually pressed on (the button :P). Or you've just remained at the "Don't hurt me" stage of comfortable lukewarmness. Jesus was no pansy looking for a fancy chariot or Miata to carry him into Jerusalem. (to his unjust but willful death)

OK. Lets get to the more racy bit.

CHRIST PUTTING HIS ENEMIES TO DEATH
Maybe your first thought is, yeah, in the second coming Jesus is going to judge the world and wipe out all those who refused Him and carried on in spite of His Lordship over all. Well I'd say, heck yeah; but I mean it a little differently here, and I'm going to use Psalm 18 to illustrate it. Jesus isn't just destroying his enemies in the future, he's putting them to death through you: right now.

Paul said in the letter to the Romans, that we should never take our own revenge, but to let God do it (Romans 12:19). So far as I know, David, the king of the Old Testament who put to death personally or under his rule, thousands of men, women, children and animals, (under orders from God) was never said to have taken his own revenge. He was tempted: recall the story of Abigail and Nabal. Abigail restrained David's vengeance, God ended up striking that "worthless fellow" Nabal dead.

Taking your own revenge is the attitude of the heart that says "Bring 'em on!" it is a selfishness that does not respect the Lordship of God in justice; vengeance is His.

PSALM 18 - "I AM DEATH INCARNATE"
So what was different about David?
I can't do a big analysis of the entire chapter here but it would be really beneficial. I'm going to present some interesting point-counterpoints to ponder.

a) David crys for help and God hears (v.6) : The enemies of David cry for help and are ignored (v.41)

b) David is terrified and surrounded in darkness and death (v.4-5) : God comes in darkness and terror to bring death to David's enemies (v.7-15)

c) David says he was righteous and thus God saved him and brought him out of darkness (v.20-28) : David says it was God who made him righteous (v.32)

d) David says that God delivered him from and destroyed his enemies, taking vengeance for him (17-19, 39-40, 47-48) : David says that he destroyed those who hated him (39-45)

e) David calls his enemies violent (48) : David brutally beats his enemies to death (42)

Now you can take the route of saying that these are all contradictions and walk away from Jesus real fast. Don't, they aren't, (they disappear in the unity). God hears his children, and is going to destroy and IS destroying his enemies.

True Christians pass through death and bring it to their enemies in justice; all others & fakers create it because their father the devil is a murderer and has been from the beginning. But it is this latter people, mystically speaking, that has been raised up for the sole purpose of making wood for the fire, (Psalm 92:5-7).


David was a master in the art of destroying God's enemies. He was so good at it that he was described, with his mighty men, as a mother bear robbed of her cubs; fierce. He was not allowed to build the temple because he was a 'man of blood'. His forefather Jacob ?cursed? David's tribe (Benjamin) saying "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, And in the evening he divides the spoil." (Genesis 49:27)

But here's the rub: he was "a man after God's own heart", and the greatest king Israel ever had. But he knew he was not the Supreme King of the spiritual people of Israel, he lived under the wing of Jesus Christ, wore the cloak of righteousness Jesus wore by grace through faith, and under His command and lordship David was life and death incarnate.

"...behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades" (Rev 1:18)

Are you a wolf in the sheep's clothing or a sheep in wolf's clothing? Both love and kill. The former is made for death, the latter for life. You cannot live by the sword; it is a weapon wielded only by right authority; but you can live under right authority and wield the sword. (Romans 12:1-6)

If you do not live under the Lamb and live by the sword; expect the sword: across your throat.

You're ministers of life, you've heard that; but I say you're also ministers of death.

Save a lamb: kill a lion.