Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I love The New Christians and Sylar too!

I have two competing thoughts to blog about this morning. Apparently I will do justice to neither.

I've just finished reading the book The New Christians by Tony Jones. If you haven't read it, it is an excellent, well written book explaining the emergent church. And since Tony has been there since the beginning his insider's view is invaluable. I appreciated the humility and grace with which he presented his position, as well as how responded to his critics. He approached them and their criticisms with a kind spirit and took the opportunity to educate and correct mis-assumptions without ridicule or anger. The book shored up my beliefs and helped me remember why I am where I am. If you have questions about the emergent church, and want to read something to help you understand the whys and the hows and the reasons behind it, I highly recommend this book. And at the same time it makes me sad for what we have lost - we in the larger sense of Christianity and the church, as well as we meaning our family having just lost our small community gathering.

How that transitions to Heroes, I don't know. But last night I found myself becoming a Sylar fan. I find Sylar fascinating. I used to hate Sylar. Now I feel like he's a lost, confused little boy in the shell of man. So confused that anger and violence is the result. All his attempts to make things better, to fuse all the disconnect within him have made him a monster. At the beginning of the season, in a conversation with his mother she helps him realize the error of his ways and put him on the path of redemption. Last nights episode showed a younger, very confused Sylar who was obviously frightened by his power, by his desires, his inability to control impulse - and willing to kill himself to prevent more incidents. I think he was shocked when he killed his "father".... and horrified. It reminds me of the look (granted, on a much smaller and quite different scale) that an ADD child gives when they do something unacceptable because they just can't control that impulse. You know better, and you watch yourself doing something you know is not appropriate, but you can't stop from doing it. And the look of horror and embarrassment that crosses that child's face is quite telling.

So, now does the blame for Sylar's actions in the future shift, or get shared with HRG or the company? After all, they kept him alive. To their benefit of course, but at what cost? And what happened to Elle that she had a conscience when she first met Sylar, and a year from this point is the person she is?

So, now I hate the people that did this to SYlar. I just wanna take him and fix it......I feel empathy for the Sylar he becomes, with a child himself, trying to erase his past by doing good - loving and raising a child the correct way. But the company can't leave him alone no matter how hard he tries to put it behind him. And it makes me hurt for him when they come after him and force him to be the Sylar he wants to forget. It's so sad that no one can even begin to see the good in him...

And where did Arthur Petrelli get his power? How does he control minds the way he does, and so efficiently. He obviously wasn't part of the group of children that the company experimented on. Apparently his hold over other people lessens when he is not present or Linderman could not have gotten through to Angela the way he did, changing her "blind obedience" into seeing the truth. Wow. I loved what Linderman asked Angela last night - "do you want to live in blind obedience? Or do you want to know the truth?" Seems like a path I have been on quite recently.....

I want to see more back-story with Flint and Claire's mom. Don't know why - I guess I just wanna know what makes them tick. Her protectiveness towards her brother despite compromising her own safety intrigued me too. There seem to be as many redeeming qualities in these people as there is darkness. What prods them to do what they do?

I really, really want to see how this all started. What the experiment was, how they procured their test subjects, what the original intent was - was it always evil, or good gone evil?

But still, the thing that intrigued me most was Sylar. Hmmmmm.





--
Dancin' with my Father God in fields of grace.

http://fluctuatingcertainty.blogspot.com/

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