On the planet Haven, a desperate Shepherd Book (Ron Glass) delivers a sermon that includes this line: “It doesn’t matter what you believe, just so you believe.”
This is the world created by Joss Whedon in the new science-fiction western Serenity. Whedon created the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and is directing the upcoming movie Wonder Woman. Although Serenity is based on a short-lived TV series called FireFly, it’s not necessary to have been a fan of the original show to enjoy the movie.
Serenity is the most provocative and entertaining sci-fi movie since The Matrix, and it rivals Star Wars in its spiritual and mythic sophistication. In The Matrix, life presents us with the option of taking the blue pill or the red pill. We must choose between conventional reality or a deeper, darker, unsettling truth that offers traumatic discoveries, precious little hope, and no guarantee of a happy ending.
In Star Wars, life presents us with the option of joining a fascist Empire that controls reality and manipulates the dark side of the Force to maintain its own hegemony, or join a rebel Alliance that despite its spiritual inclination towards the Force must fight its way through battle after battle like Wild West outlaws on the run.
Whedon’s Serenity takes a huge interest in spirituality and offers an unconventional approach that should resonate with many gays and lesbians. Serenity’s is a message for all trailblazers of new spiritual territory in times when the price of being a pioneer is enough to make you an outlaw.
Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) heads a small crew on a Millennium Falcon-like ship called Serenity. The name is symbolized in a new language that blends old English with Chinese. The newest member of their crew, a 17-year-old girl named River Tam (Summer Glau) is a schizophrenic psychic formerly in the custody of the Alliance, and they’ll stop at nothing to execute her.
It makes sense logically for the Serenity crew to abandon the girl out of self-interest, but Mal struggles with the heavy moral and spiritual weight of the decision. He must wonder at the cost of saving one human life. Must he give up everything he has left--his life, ship, and crew? Does he even care what secrets River Tam holds that the Alliance seeks to squelch?
Mal will need faith in something if he is able to see a reason for not sending the hunted River packing, even if she is a psychologically tortured young girl. His crew will need faith, too, even if their Higher Power is none other than confidence in Mal. Faith is the true object of the quest in this space odyssey.
The idea that a single human person is of sacred worth is anathema to the powers that be. The fascist Alliance not only controls the population politically, but through horrifyingly "meddlesome" procedures that deny individual human dignity and choice. The cannibalistic Reavers that patrol the edge of space are even more barbaric.
The world of the future has become so spiritually polluted that it is no longer possible for people to behave in truly moral and humane ways. Belief has become totally irrelevant. In five hundred years, the new frontier of the Wild West is spirituality. Only rebels and outlaws can live close to truth to hear the beating pulse of morality and spirituality.
Shepherd Book said: “It doesn’t matter what you believe, just so you believe.” He added: “Why do you always assume I’m talking about God?” Shepherd’s advice shouldn’t be confused for a call to bring back that old time religion or some sort of wishy-washy moral or spiritual relativism. Shepherd is saying that we all need something important, worthy, and inspiring to believe in. We cannot afford to lose that without ceasing to be worthy of being called human.
Mal has already lost belief in God, religion, country, the law, and everything else. Even his belief in his job and crew have failed him. Mal needs to find a rebel’s faith. Outlaws aren’t content to search and discover a truth out there; they have to be willing to make their own truth, set their own law, and define their own boundaries.
The outlaw’s code of life must include a principle that elevates comradeship or friendship to a family-like status. It must insist that no member of the crew should ever be left behind, even as the crew faces bloody and sometimes death-dealing battles.
Of all the tasks vital for an outlaw’s spirituality, none is greater than wrestling with serenity itself. Mal and his crew converse with carefully chosen language that prevents any individual from getting too hot. When one angry crewman says, “You’re disturbing my calm,” then another asks if he wants to leave the room. He goes quietly.
Late in the film, a recorded message is discovered, a sort of dark creation myth in a time capsule. It explains aspects of history (including the origin of the Reavers) that are so disturbing that none, not even the psychotic River, had dared to imagine the full truth.
Belief is only possible in a universe that makes sense, one that is fundamentally coherent and hospitable to life. The Serenity creation story affirms the possibility of belief and inspires faith in the sacred worth of each person. But it also shakes our old values to the core, including any beliefs in the salvific power of serenity.
Aristotle once said: "Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power, that is not easy."
The overarching question with serenity is not if or when, but how. It’s not whether you take the blue pill or the red pill. It’s not whether you join the Rebels or the Empire. The question is how you balance calm, passion, and fierce anger.
Thanks to Joe Perez
