Faith in What?

Epistemic Theology Part 4
(Parts 1, 2, & 3)

In X-Men United, the new X-Men movie out last year, there’s a scene where Storm, our lovely weather-controller, needs to get on the other side of a locked door. She turns to her friend Kurt Wagner, also known as Nightcrawler, who happens to be a teleporter. Nightcrawler happens to be Catholic. Very Catholic. In fact, he spends a great deal of the movie talking about his faith, presumably his faith in Jesus Christ. Nightcrawler has also repeatedly said that he can’t just teleport anywhere. He has to be able to see where he’s going, or he could miss, pop back into the world in the middle of something solid, and die. So when Storm asks him to teleport her to the other side of the door, he tells her he can’t—because he can’t see where he’s going, he could kill them both.

Storm puts a hand on his shoulder and looks deep into his eyes. “I have faith that you can do it,” she says. That changes everything. Nightcrawler nods his head, pulls her close, closes his eyes, and pop! They’re on the other side of the door. Storm rushes in and stops the bad guy and everything is better.

I always felt sorry for poor Kurt Wagner in that scene. I know it was important for them to get to the other side of that door—and it obviously worked—but it just wasn’t fair. I know it would have ruined the movie to suddenly take a break in the action for a deep religious discussion, but Kurt really needed to ask her, “You have faith in what?!”

What was she really saying here? Was she saying “I have faith in God, that he has been directing us since the beginning of this movie, and if he brought us to this place where we need your ability to do this, then he will give you the ability to teleport us to the right place.”? It would be nice, but I really doubt it. What she was probably saying was more like “I have faith in you—you can do it!!” That would have been a nice thing to say, but it really would have had no basis, since he had been undermining that kind of faith since they met him. But I can tell you what the audience was thinking: “Hey, if you can’t jump to the other side of that door, you’re all dead anyway… ooh, faith! that’s nice.” Me? I had faith in the scriptwriter’s love of money, that they wouldn’t make the movie bomb by having a major character die by teleporting into the middle of a steel door.

It really is important to know what the object of your faith is. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen,” literally. If you’re in the jury of a murder trial and a key witness tells you, “he did it,” then the only evidence you have is your faith in that witness. If your witness is a liar, then your faith is unfounded.

So. Who is the witness attesting to the scriptures? Fortunately, the bible tells us, in Romans 10:17, who our witness is: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Author: KB French

Formerly many things, including theology student, mime, jr. high Latin teacher, and Army logistics officer. Currently in the National Guard, and employed as a civilian... somewhere View all posts by KB French