A recent Wall Street Journal piece by Rachel Feintzeig, “What Superfans Know That the Rest of Us Should Learn,” gleefully describes a pitiful state of affairs in which some people try to find meaning in life by substituting entertainment for the only thing that can truly give meaning to life.
The gist is that many “superfans” can teach the rest of us how to live a fulfilling life by filling the void left by an absence of religion with obsessions for Star Wars, Taylor Swift, Disney, or Harry Potter.
As Feintzeig explains,
“From the outside, it’s easy to roll our eyes at devotees of everything from Taylor Swift to ‘Star Trek.’ We deem them nerdy or frivolous, judge their costumes, the time they waste on Reddit, the money they spend on concert tickets.
What if they’ve figured out something the rest of us haven’t?
After all, so many of us lack community. Data from Cigna finds 58% of Americans are lonely. Religion is fading. Work doesn’t love us back. Maybe letting ourselves be obsessed with that highly specific and possibly weird thing we love is the answer.”
She tells the story of a couple who had a Star Wars themed wedding on May the fourth, “exiting the ceremony to music from the original 1977 film, under an arch of glowing lightsabers held aloft by their guests.” Not surprisingly, the photo of the couple leaving the wedding chapel shows a wall bereft of any religious imagery behind the presiding minister (rather, galactic emperor).
Then there is, “May Naidoo, a British Ph.D. student and content creator, traveled to Japan, Paris and Chicago as part of his quest to see real-life versions of famed artworks featured in his favorite Nintendo game, ‘Animal Crossing,’” and Tara Block who was so infatuated with Harry Potter books that she got a Harry Potter tattoo and took flying broomstick lessons at a castle in England. This made me realize that the twenty-something and otherwise businesslike man I recently saw with a Pokemon tattoo covering his forearm was much more normal than I took him to be (and here I mean “normal” in the most discouraging sense).
Under the heading “Hobbies Overtake Religion,” Feintzeig goes on to explain,
“More than six in 10 Americans said hobbies or recreational activities were extremely or very important to them, according to a 2023 poll from Gallup. That’s up from 48% in 2001 and 2002. Meanwhile, the share of people who said the same about religion dropped 7 percentage points, to 58%.”
One point worth noting about the difference between superfandom and religion is that religion does enable people to align their beliefs and lifestyles with what is actually true, beautiful, and just. This can be appealing for those eccentrics who have an interest in that kind of thing.
Toward the end of the article an insight is given as to why adults choose to anesthetize themselves with infantile fandom, but the insight is given (unintentionally) in the form of an Orwellian truth inversion.
“And yet joining in requires vulnerability. Fandom asks us to latch ourselves to something outside of us, to allow a person or object we don’t have control over to become part of our identities. How much easier to stay cool and removed, rather than risk having our enthusiasm batted down or betrayed.”
The kind of fandom in question does not ask us to latch ourselves to anything outside ourselves. It is pure self-indulgence, demanding nothing from a person that isn’t fun and reassuring. On the other hand, the pursuit of truth about God and real purpose is difficult and demanding. It causes tension, within one’s self and occasionally with others. And, unlike God, Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter will never make burdensome demands on a person’s spending habits or sex life.
Why subject one’s self to the demands of study, prayer, debate, and contemplation in pursuit of the true purpose of life when you can have a Star Wars marathon or make snacks from the Hogwarts cookbook? The path out of the cave of ignorance into the light of reality is difficult, so some judge that it’s best not to take it. The superfans described in the article seem to be living illustrations of Chesterton’s famous quip that Christianity has not been tried and found wanting but found difficult and left untried.
I’m all for having fun with hobbies, and I enjoy sci-fi and fantasy stories, but obsessing over these as a substitute for religion is like obsessing over the silhouette of palm trees printed on a ticket to Hawaii instead of actually boarding the plane to go there. Fantasy stories are valuable because they stoke in us a desire for the ultimate realities for which those stories are sign posts. What a pitiful thing it is when people are satisfied with the sign posts with no concern for the destination.
Mike Mitchell holds a PhD in philosophy and religion and is the author of the forthcoming book, Truth Before Logic, Finding Wisdom with G.K. Chesterton in a World Blinkered by Scientism (Resource Publications, Fall 2024)
Comment by Tim on September 6, 2024 at 9:54 am
I don’t really worry about these folks. At the end of the day, they have their community. I’m far more concerned about the lonely and disconnected.
The main reason religion has declined in America is that the church has become repulsive. Jesus put us on a mission to respect the dignity of every soul and to do our best to uplift their lives, but too many Christians are like the Pharisees in Luke 6 who would rather our faith be based on following arcane rules than helping people.
Comment by David Coxton on September 6, 2024 at 11:07 am
This might also help explain all of the men you see wearing tactical military gear. A fantasy land of martial might & fellowship in a quasi “band of brothers”.
Comment by John on September 6, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Don’t forget sports fandom, celebrity worship, and of course, excessive expressions of nationalism. There are many contemporary idols.
Comment by Douglas E Ehrhardt on September 6, 2024 at 7:10 pm
Social justice ain’t the Gospel either.
Comment by MikeB on September 6, 2024 at 7:27 pm
Tim,
You know that’s not what Jesus literally said, he said;
Mark 16: 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Matthew 29: 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
God made sure that was recorded twice, those are the parting words of Matthew and Mark.
That is the great commission.
Comment by George on September 8, 2024 at 7:17 am
Tim speaks of the religious decline in America and that is probably a fact I that I can’t dispute. However, the growth of homelessness, drug use, crime, and general depravity has skyrocketed. Does anyone see a correlation here besides myself?
Comment by Tim on September 8, 2024 at 1:36 pm
George, I absolutely agree the two are related. They’re both symptoms of the ties that bind communities together fraying. Ironically, it’s churches, of all political and theological dispositions, on the front line trying to help save the folks our society leaves behind.
I think there’s two big pieces of the scourge that have to be addressed separately. The first is that wealth inequality is through the roof. We can’t rebuild stable families and create the kind of communities we need if people are working 3 jobs just to make rent. The other is drugs. Modern drugs are so powerful, that looking at them as a moral failure no longer works. We have to treat them as a disease whose victims deserve treatment, because that’s what it’s going to take start to turn the tide. Just like Christ took the time to treat lepers, we have to take the time to treat users
Comment by MikeB on September 8, 2024 at 4:04 pm
George,
As you know, there are those who decide what world they want to live in, and think that if we encourage people to live how we wish, then those people will be happy, and then we will be happy. They even throw in a stray verse and mention WWJD.
That is an old lie.
Our job is not to fix society, it is to preach the gospel, and trust in God that his will be done.
Christ said, My Kingdom is not of this world.
Yes, there is a correlation between the number of people following Christ and the amount of breakdown in society in the last 50 years.
But that is only in America for a short period of time.
In other times, as things got worse, more came to Christ.
The thief on the cross came to Christ, and then he died, Salvation in Heaven is the goal, not here on earth.
The fields are white and ready for harvest.
Let us have faith in God’s plan, let us be workers in his field, bring the Word to those in need, not because we are good, not because they are good, but because HE is good, and let us go forward because of His sacrifice.
Comment by Tim on September 8, 2024 at 5:01 pm
No Mike, that is not our job. You spent the last week throwing James 2 at me but don’t seem to have read the end of it. What good are we if we preach Salvation and do nothing about the stumbling blocks keeping men from it?
Or to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: a just society not only picks up a man left for dead on the side of the Jericho road, but asks itself what is it about this road that people keep getting beaten up and waylaid on it?
Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone (James 2:17)
Comment by MikeB on September 8, 2024 at 6:53 pm
Tim,
Again you are dishonest as usual, you preach Satan’s words that what matters is only here on earth.
You twist things, we donate our time, and our money to feed the poor, because God is good, We follow God’s laws because God is Lord, we sow the seed, because God died for our sins and commanded us to. But we boast only in the Lord. As people are saved, they will be called by the holy spirit to act more like Christ, not the other way around.
You may continue to preach a partial Christianity that is incomplete. A Christianity where all that matters is generic good deeds. James speaks of works that include following the law, “get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”
You speak with such a forked tongue, saying whatever you think of that can undermine, denying anything not the gospels when you wish, then claiming any verse you can reference to attack Christianity.
I’ve read a number of false statements from you. You have preached that many verses should not be heard, and that some sins do not require repentance, you have preached that the old testament is gone (and then yelled about how the US is not like Israel on immigration). You have admitted to trying to push the sinful away from repentance.
You very well match 2 Corinthians 11.
You can claim all you want to speak for God, I’m sure you claim that I pretend to speak for God.
But indeed, God and His word speaks for itself, and you will not hear me saying to listen to me and not to God’s word. But you do!
As in 2 Cor 11:13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
So be it with anyone who claims that All scripture is not inspired by God.
Comment by Tim on September 8, 2024 at 9:39 pm
I speak of a Christianity that is incomplete?
You just said that our job is not to fix society but to preach the Gospel.
Jesus did both.
There’s no point to Christianity if we don’t care about people. Jesus didn’t just preach the Gospel. He fed people. He healed people. He visited the prisoners. And then he told us to do the same thing.
You’ve called me a lot of choice names. For what? Because I’ve said Jesus commands us to care about people? I’m willing to die on that hill.
Comment by MikeB on September 9, 2024 at 12:07 am
Tim,
You deny the primacy of scripture, again and again.
You yourself believe that Christianity serves man, that is full rank heresy.
Christianity serves Christ.
To quote Paris Reidhead
“Humanism is a philosophy that declares the end of all being is the happiness
of man… this became the effect of humanism, that the end of all being is the
happiness of man.”
“I’m afraid that it’s become so subtle that it goes everywhere. What is it? In essence it’s this: This philosophical postulate—that the end of all being is the happiness of man—has been sort of covered over with evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in heaven for the happiness of man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, all the angels exist for the happiness of man. Everything is for the happiness of man! AND I SUBMIT TO YOU THAT THIS IS UNCHRISTIAN! Didn’t God intend to make man happy? Yes. But as a byproduct and not a primary product!”
“Christianity says, ‘The end of all being is the glory of God.’ Humanism says, ‘The end of all being is the happiness of man.’ One was born in Hell: the deification of man. THE OTHER WAS BORN IN HEAVEN: THE GLORIFICATION OF GOD! One is Levite serving Micah, and the other is a heart that’s unworthy, serving the living God, because it’s the highest honor in the universe.”
Comment by Diane on September 9, 2024 at 1:25 am
Thank-you to Tim and Tim Ware…I appreciate your comments.
Comment by Tim on September 10, 2024 at 6:20 pm
Thanks Diane