Insider language. If I were to approach you with a question about whether I should use Joltic’s Jolting Charge to fuel Amp-You-Very-Much or if I should instead simply rely on Electric Generator combined with blowing up a Magneton on turn two, you might be tempted to smile blankly while slowly backing away (unless you’re into Pokemon).
But in addition to signaling awareness or ignorance, insider language also serves to create division. Sometimes this division, when it perpetuates for centuries, can be profound to the point of being totally alien. One of the places this divide has become most stark is in world religions.
A book I’ve reread recently uses the insider language of Star Wars (How the Force Can Fix the World: Lessons on Life, Liberty, and Happiness from a Galaxy Far, Far Away) as an overlay for understanding many of the profound struggles we wrestle with in contemporary Western society (with a focus on the United States). The author of the book seems to hold to a Judeo-Christian worldview, but his true expertise is in Star Wars, not Christianity…or even world religions. Keeping this in mind, I’m willing to grant him a pardon for making a few assumptions I find to be based on failing to connect the dots between disparate insider terms generated over centuries within different global religions.
The example that stood out to me the most came to surface during his exposition on a phenomena known as “force ghosting.” Within the Star Wars universe there exist certain characters who upon their physical death appear to be whisked into some sort of second life that is fully integrated into the singular sustaining force of the universe. The author makes the point that these characters are not necessarily chosen for their good deeds or “heavenly character.” They are individuals who have wrestled with their “demons” and emerged victorious in the end. They have confronted the darkness within. The author then continues to attribute this aspect of the Star Wars universe to George Lucas’s interest in Eastern religion.
Upon reading the text I had to take a moment to sit back and smile. Force-ghosting. Reincarnation. Eternal Life. Holy Spirit. The Force. The forces of chaos and darkness. Often it is only the specific terminology that separates universal concepts from one audience to another. In this sense, the author is correct; often it takes a shared adoration of a fictional universe to bridge these chasms.
What indeed happened to Elijah of the Old Testament if he was not “force-ghosted?” How should we understand the “transfiguration” of Jesus Christ when he meets (perhaps to receive council) with Moses and Elijah a century later? And when Cain is warned by God that a beast certainly waits in the dark to devour him lest he check his darker instincts, how does this differ from the wisdom of Yoda when counseling Luke Skywalker about the cave on Endor? And while many, many Christians today believe that heaven will belong to those who practice good deeds and have “heavenly character,” this is not actually a Christian tenet (Jesus, as well as ancient Jewish tradition, taught something closer to the wisdom of Yoda.)
It turns out that most of our most profound desires are not Eastern or Western. Deep spiritual truths tend to find expression around the globe. And yes, different traditions have found different solutions. I believe these differences matter. I’m not advocating for relativism or the diminishing of truth itself. I suppose I’m simply suggesting we practice pealing back the insider terminology in places to discover we may have more in common with others than our fierce tribalism would lead us to believe. If we can all agree that Jar Jar Binks is annoying, there is hope for humankind after all.
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