Books I've been reading lately suggest that if one wishes to know what's going on in the culture, the arts are a fruitful place to begin. I kept that thought in mind recently while sitting in a darkened movie theater watching “The Dark Knight.” Although comic book fans thank Marvel Comics for injecting serious reflective issues into characters not accustomed to being taken seriously, the writers assigned to beef up the Batman film franchise have certainly not ignored the trend. This Batman is filled with good intentions that go wrong. He is a vigilante run amok, according to his detractors. Even his defenders and cohorts notice how his desire to right wrongs and clean up injustices creates unintentional moral dilemmas and bad consequences not only for himself but for those whom he tries to protect. His development of a universal eavesdropping mechanism designed to impede the Joker's plans earns him a scolding from an associate who rebels at justifying the end with this means. Batman himself is plagued by questions of self-identity and purpose.

Could there be a more transparent allegory about the United States? Our nation has determined to deal with madmen like the Joker, who seem to kill and terrorize senselessly. Our missteps have led to self-criticism and doubt among some, unswerving determination on the other. Outsiders don't know how to view us – noble heroes or cowboy vigilantes ready to go it alone when others will not step up to join the fight. I think The Dark Knight strikes a chord with viewers who understand that more than power and good intentions are needed to overcome evil and injustice. This is a movie whose tenor is far different from that of yesterday's James Bond adventures. The reason I draw that comparison is that a number of similar gadgets have appeared in those films too, but in those earlier films, the hero is self-assured and his cause is unquestionably just with no moral entanglements.

So is this film just a left-leaning Hollywood piece of propaganda? In his little book, The Spiritual Society, LCMS pastor Frederic Baue says, “cultural change registers first in the arts.” The media mirror society, not vice-versa. We are in the throes of another bout of self-doubt and angst that move us beyond postmodernism. For dialog between the Joker and Batman at one point yields this disturbing thought: good and evil need each other to justify their own existence and work. While another round of films will take us into end-of-the-world blow ups and threats of destruction, sometimes using ecology, sometimes otherworldly hostilities, make no mistake: the nation is nervous about its future. It is frustrated that its idealism has yielded tainted results. They may be a conflict that rages forever.

Now my purpose for writing is not to do a movie review. It is to say that in this dark time of national frustration with both the President and Congress (their ratings have never been lower), we Christians have a word to speak. The victory over darkness has been won. Although the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, the risen and triumphant Christ walks about his churches and has not left them alone to face these unsettling times. The movies tell us no surprises – we know the ambiguity that the devil likes to create as he spoils noble causes with questionable self-interest. Yet our hero does not cloak himself in anything but light – pure light, Light of Light. His mission is just and complete. Accomplished not with the latest gadgetry but on two pieces of wood. The “hardware” used consisted of spikes, not of ingenious circuitry. So while we all may have our doubts about the future of the kingdom of the left hand and the madness which is always astir, the kingdom of the right hand is in sure control of its white knight. From the reported gross box office receipts of The Dark Knight's first week-end, a lot of people would benefit from hearing about the White Knight.

- President Cripe