How Buffy put the ‘Christ’ back into “Christ, this show can’t stand Christianity”

[Buffy Summers]

I found this article, and I thought it was kind of an interesting perspective.

Please remember to be respectful when discussing this topic. Bashing either Christians or atheists will not be tolerated.

With the upcoming release of the next entry in the Dresden Files series, I’d like to take the time to look at modern fantasy series and their portrayal of Christians and Christianity. As an audiobook listener, I’ve come to appreciate James Marsters’ rendition of each of the Dresden books, so it’s in tribute to him that I’ve chosen to start with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I love urban or modern-setting fantasy. I think the complexities of the modern world enhance the classic “magic and monsters” nature of high fantasy, and add infinite possibilities for world-building. One such complexity that has always been a hot issue for me is the portrayal of Christianity and Christians in urban fantasy. Now, spoiler alert: I am a Christian.

This isn’t the part where I spend the next paragraph proselytizing, and I’m certainly not going to warn off the “children of God” from exposing their children to media that includes spoOooOky black magic. I don’t actually think a modern fantasy story needs to validate Christianity, I’m just of the opinion that it is a huge world-building blunder to not address Christianity when the setting is otherwise saturated with Christian symbols and allegory.

Hear me out: nonbelievers have one extremely powerful and compelling argument to justify not believing in God: God is supernatural. It’s absolutely ridiculous to the atheist that there is a supernatural being that is infinitely more powerful than humans, knows everything, created everything, and exists outside of the flow of time. That argument becomes significantly less compelling when you, say, fight demons and the spawn of hell with crosses and holy water.

If you’ve made it this far, I’m going to assume that you’re at least generally familiar with the subject matter ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer. The title character spends her free time fighting vampires and demons as a sort of “chosen one”, trying to prevent the opening of a portal to hell (or “a” hell). Buffy and her allies use, among other tools, crosses and holy water to defend themselves against their supernatural and evil foes, despite the fact that none of them demonstrate or subscribe to Christian faith. Buffy herself admits that she’s not certain if God even exists, and nobody seems sure why their arsenal is so effective against the undead, despite the abundance of obviously Christian symbols.

This trend of willful neglect to the Christian influence in the show’s world takes a far more negative turn when Caleb is introduced. Caleb is the highest profile character with a significant link of Christianity (his history as a priest), we are reminded of this by his clothing (that of a Catholic Priest), and he just so happens to be a vicious sociopath and right hand of the First Evil. The show takes a sudden turn from complete neglect of the fact that Christianity is a real thing in the world, to introducing the character with the most Christian influence as a serial killer who serves the ultimate “big bad guy”.

The sort of inconsistency required to appropriate Christian relics as symbols of power to fight evil, but to refuse to acknowledge Christianity except as a loosely referenced past to a psychopathic antagonist is a significant world-building error. It reeks of the writer allowing their own bias against Christianity to bleed into their work in a way that is inorganic to the subject matter.

Perhaps the writer is unaware of this, or it’s done intentionally as a way to avert controversy or to pander to an audience the writer/producer anticipates is largely non-Christian, but regardless of the reasoning, it shows a significant flaw in the development of this modern fantasy setting. Again, I don’t require that a modern fantasy setting validate Christianity, but to appropriate symbols and lore from Christian belief as symbols of power and then invalidate the faith and associate it exclusively with the bad guys is something I cry foul at.

Tune in next week for my look at Christian influence and portrayal in The Dresden Files. Maybe in two weeks. Actually, let’s just play it by ear. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

Source: The Work Print

 

[Skanky Vamp]

That was the part of the movie that I did appreciate (and a part which Sutherland brought in to the dismay of the writer) was more of the Christian symbolism.. but yet even in Whedon's script Buffy holds up and cross to which the vampire makes a comment about her faith.

I think if the TV show touched on that just a little more it could have really had a more profound effect on the series. But that's another reason why I don't 'hate' on the Adam stuff as much as I enjoyed the scene in which he brought vampires into the church and all.

 

[The Bronze]

Joss is an atheist I believe so it makes sense that something he doesn't believe in takes a back seat in his work. He doesn't include any of the other thousands of Gods that people have come up with through the ages either. I've always assumed that the effectiveness of Christian symbols against vampires was more linked to magic and cult status than religion. If you think of the first Christian's along the same lines as the Shadowmen who just happened to create some effective weaponry then I think that works well in the verse.

I think the writer should keep complaints about the depiction of Catholic priests to a minimum though. Given that the church had to wait for a recommendation before apologising for aiding and abetting paedophile priests then I think just having Caleb in the show is them getting a fairly easy ride.

 

[Bluebird]

I often wondered how Christians would see Caleb in S7. I never gave it much thought myself, other than it seemed to be a ballsy move on tv. Although it was made clear he was no longer a priest, the imagery could be offensive.

I don't think Buffy is one way or the other. I think religion has no part in telling the story of Buffy growing up in the world but I know religious people have found comfort in some parts of the show - Buffy in heaven, the cross, the snow saving Angel. Whedon is an atheist so he isn't explicitly stating a religious view but he doesn't seem to have a problem with Christians seeing their religion in the show. Buffy and her Jesus complex. 😉

Tbh, the writer sounds a bit annoyed at the lack of acknowledgement of Christianity in Buffy. Christian symbols are long established in vampire lore, Buffy didn't invent it. There needs to be some callback to tradition if you are then subverting that tradition, which is how I saw the show. If vampire mythology had historically used Hindu symbols then that would be on the show instead. *shrugs*

 

[Buffy Summers]

I didn't read "annoyed" in the article, just the point that it's interesting they used Christian symbols to combat demons but only portrayed the religion itself in a negative light.

 

[Blaze]

Well to me, the perfect example of a show similar to Buffy that used religion is Supernatural. And I prefer Buffy by a LOT, and I'm glad there was no religion involved in it. I don't think religion was necessary to the story, regardless of the fact that we had crosses and holy water.

 

[Athena]

To be honest, it never occurred to me that Christians would see the show in a different light, but then, I'm an atheist so I probably wouldn't. I guess I just don't believe that everything must have religious undertones (unless explicitly referenced) but Buffy is interesting in that the whole history of vampires stem from the Christian faith (or lack of it), and that's why crosses and holy water are a staple of the vampire genre, so whilst I understand and respect the author's viewpoint, I disagree that BtVS should acknowledge it as being 'Christian', when it reality it has nothing to do with the faith, unless you go down the route of re-establishing vampire lore.

As for Caleb, I just always thought they chose someone who could be a figure of respect and friendship. As a young woman, new to the town, who would you be more likely to trust than the local priest? (I realise IRL that this isn't true, but a priest is the ultimate TV trope of good and kind and helping those in need, all of which Caleb would never do)

 

[vellavu]

This guy is too sensitive.

Though not as half over-sensitive as some people I saw who said:

"Gunn is the white people's twisted view of street gang black kid. They smashed all stereotypes into him. If they hate Gunn in the first place why do they use him as a character? Racist show."

or

"Chumash people are still alive you know. You can't make an episode about Chumash without doing enough research. And you see Chumash people as evil vengeance spirits. Bigot show."

Personally, I think you don't need to be a saint or omniscient before you make use/poke fun of some stuff.

 

[Taake]

Perhaps the writer is unaware of this, or it’s done intentionally as a way to avert controversy or to pander to an audience the writer/producer anticipates is largely non-Christian, but regardless of the reasoning, it shows a significant flaw in the development of this modern fantasy setting. Again, I don’t require that a modern fantasy setting validate Christianity, but to appropriate symbols and lore from Christian belief as symbols of power and then invalidate the faith and associate it exclusively with the bad guys is something I cry foul at.

To me this is kind of oversensitive, because I don't view the shows stance as pandering so much as trying to appeal to as large a crowd as possible (including many different types of Christians) which is something I think a lot of shows do. I don't think Christianity stands alone either as a religious entity that is either not spoken off a lot, or at all, on the show, yet has its symbols appropriated. I mean I'm sure even wiccans could complain that their symbols and beliefs are appropriated and misused or misunderstood on the show.

I also don't see Christianity as invalidated in the show, nor exclusively associated with the bad guys either (Riley is a chuch-goer and a good guy).

Honestly the "appropriation" is simply the background noise of the cultural settings, traditionally some christian symbols have come to be associated with vampires, the show carries that torch onward and adds some new elements.

It could also of course be argued that many Christian symbols pre-date Christanity so "crying foul" at Christanity's power being invalidated but not its symbols is ridiculous. If we're talking a verse that posits the existence of vampires BEFORE Christianity, well then it's the essence of the symbol that carries significance, not the faith that later appropriated them for it's own purposes.

 

[thetopher]

Two things:
I remember reading that a lot of, shall we say, hard-line Christians actually enjoyed Buffy for that first Season and a half. It was only after Buffy slept with Angel that they decried the show as immoral and rallied against it. They didn't care how their religion was portrayed, only about the morality of the characters actions.
On the other hand I've met lots of Christians who love Buffy and don't care that God isn't referenced specifically. They argue that plenty of Christian themes are right there to see. Redemption is a huge theme on Buffy and Angel, as is atoning for ones sins through positive actions- both certral catholic docrines.
The bad guys are all, y'know, demons from hell and you don't see Buffy waving Thor's hammer at them to keep them at bay. She wields a cross, holy water works wonders on demons, vampires are afraid of churches, latin is involked in spells for no real reason, etc.

Secondly, seeing how the writers tackled another religion onn the show- Wiccans- and how they apparently completely ballsed that up I'm thankful we didn't get more overly Christian types.
There were some after all. Riley was a decent enough church goer, Wesley and Angel sought a priest to help with an exorcism (so that's canon- Catholic priests fight demons all on their lonesome, armed only with the power of Christ apparently) in 'IGYUMS', not to mention the nun just knowing that Angel was a vampire (how?)
There are more positive Christian influences that the writer of this article could point to.

I have to say that I didn't particularly mind Caleb, although he is a fairly one-note villain to be sure, and saw his past and all the references to it as simply a perversion that the First encouraged. After all Caleb didn't think that the First was God, the First was something that he found so he turned away from God.
The only bit I objected to was his joke about the last supper, which seemed like the writer deliberately mocking Christianity for the purposes of a weak joke.

 

[white avenger]

I was never bothered by the lack of religion present in the Buffyverse, though I did notice Willow's consistent references to "the Goddess" once she began practicing magic, and wondered if some might be offended by it.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

The original vampire story of the modern era was "Dracula" and Bram Stoker included all the Roman Catholic imagery that had been handed down for generations. Most writers would rather keep to the universe that had already been created since it was what viewers would be expecting. There are further examples in Buffy - in the show, two vampires are assigned to bring the Master out of his burial plot that had been doused with holy water and they were complaining that the dirt was burning them. Kralik died of holy water during the cruciamentum in "Helpless". For someone who is an atheist, Joss had the standard attitude to exorcism in "I've Got You Under My Skin" and the nun knew what Angel was without any need for introduction.

Caleb is a different phenomenon - I don't see him as being from the Catholic side of Christianity, he appears to be Bible Belt protestant (and some protestant ministers wear a Roman collar) and being from the southeastern US. The First appears to him as Buffy and they have this conversation:


BUFFY/FIRST
Do you think I'm God?
CALEB
I, surely do not. I'm beyond concepts
like that.
BUFFY/FIRST
But you still wear the outfit...
CALEB
Man can't turn his back on what he
come from. Besides, black is
slimming. Everyone knows that.

Caleb states that he is beyond concepts like God, letting us know that he is certainly not a preacher - just someone who used to be.

 

[bespangeled]

The sort of inconsistency required to appropriate Christian relics as symbols of power to fight evil, but to refuse to acknowledge Christianity except as a loosely referenced past to a psychopathic antagonist is a significant world-building error. It reeks of the writer allowing their own bias against Christianity to bleed into their work in a way that is inorganic to the subject matter.

Perhaps the writer is unaware of this, or it’s done intentionally as a way to avert controversy or to pander to an audience the writer/producer anticipates is largely non-Christian, but regardless of the reasoning, it shows a significant flaw in the development of this modern fantasy setting. Again, I don’t require that a modern fantasy setting validate Christianity, but to appropriate symbols and lore from Christian belief as symbols of power and then invalidate the faith and associate it exclusively with the bad guys is something I cry foul at.

I actually find this kind of offensive because of the idea that Christianity is the only true way. Christianity is not invalidated, it is simply accepted as one of many belief systems. As for appropriating Christian symbols, yes this is the vampire mythos. It has bothered me, and I've posted about it but my problem is the opposite of his. What do Hindus do when confronted by vamps? What do Muslims do when confronted by vamps? This is the world building problem that I see needing to be addressed. There seems to be a general idea that only Christian symbols work, which leaves most of the world at a huge disadvantage. I do wish this had been addressed by more than Willow nailing a cross to the wall. A simple conversation about belief systems would have done a lot to take care of this. I also wonder - if only Christian symbols work - why a Hindu holding a symbol someone has no belief in works more effectively than Ganesh.

It does help to know that the cross predates Christianity - but since it is largely seen as a Christian symbol now, my conundrum remains unsolved.

This trend of willful neglect to the Christian influence in the show’s world takes a far more negative turn when Caleb is introduced. Caleb is the highest profile character with a significant link of Christianity (his history as a priest), we are reminded of this by his clothing (that of a Catholic Priest), and he just so happens to be a vicious sociopath and right hand of the First Evil. The show takes a sudden turn from complete neglect of the fact that Christianity is a real thing in the world, to introducing the character with the most Christian influence as a serial killer who serves the ultimate “big bad guy”.

That's just cherry picking. Kind of odd deciding such a completely evil person can be considered a portrayal of a Christian. He seems to value appearance far more than substance. Or else he believes there is a huge danger that others will?

I didn't read "annoyed" in the article, just the point that it's interesting they used Christian symbols to combat demons but only portrayed the religion itself in a negative light.

In what way was it portrayed as negative? The entire idea that places and things sanctified by some form of Christianity work against evil hardly seems negative to me.

I was never bothered by the lack of religion present in the Buffyverse, though I did notice Willow's consistent references to "the Goddess" once she began practicing magic, and wondered if some might be offended by it.

Virtually every religion has some sort of goddess - or several. In Judaism, it's the Sheckhina. the Sabbath bride/queen, the female half of a dualistic image of God. This would be a reference that would keep Willow within her Jewish roots.

 

[cryptwarmer]

In School Hard when Willow and Cordy are hiding in the janitor's closet Willow suggests they pray, and at least Cordy does.
We never see any evidence of Jewish symbols that are used to fight evil (well not that I recall) But there are SO many items, spells, symbols etc that are used that have no reference to Christianity at all.
It's late and I'm pulling things out of the air so probably not thinking of lots of things.

Do we know which faith/tradition the monks who created Dawn were?

I'm a Sun worshiping Pantheist and the thing I worship is an Ultimate killer of vamps and apparently many demons avoid it as well. So yey for my side!

 

[AnthonyCordova]

Absurdities.

Christianity is itself a metaphor and a deep, complicated allegory. To focus on mere surface details about how and why crosses and holy water work against vampires, spells with or without obvious reference to Christianity, or to dwell on the need for belief in God to be explained in the context of salvation (which is the kind of thing I imagine this type of Christian critic would call for) does not in any meaningful way make the show more sufficiently Christian.

Christian symbols and allegory interpreted more poetically, productively and efficaciously would invoke themes such as radical existential moral insecurity, a sense of existing in a fallen state from perfection, a sense of profound remoteness from the divine and more, all of which were implicit themes thoroughly explored to great detail by way of the main vampires of the show, in some form or other, on both Buffy and Angel. The more redemptive themes of Christianity were also given significant attention by the show as well (e.g. the value of self-sacrifice in how Buffy transforms through the course of S5 as a consequence of the death of her mother and the responsibility of being an older sister and surrogate mother for Dawn, culminating in "The Wish") throughout the course of seven seasons. So in other words, I don't think the show ignored or mistreated Christian themes at all. It just didn't pay overt and explicit homage to Christianity in institutionalized and dogmatic form in a way that would make most Christian 'literalists' happy enough.

And it is a commonplace fact that Whedon enjoyed Existentialism and spent no insignificant amount of time studying and exploring it. And it is a commonplace fact among philosophy students and teachers that existentialism not only had many important Christian thinkers among its "school" (e.g. Soren Kierkegaard, Paul Tillich, Karl Jaspers, among others) but also that existentialism as a movement only exists because of the moral tension and crisis that existed between the European loss of faith post Enlightenment and industrialism and the urgent need for the positing of new values in Christianity's absence as a moral authority among so many people who no longer had "faith" in the 19th century in the first place. And since Whedon everywhere placed existential themes and ideas in his show, it stands to reason that it would address, by an indirect path at the very least, many Christian issues of a moral nature anyway.

So what's this guy complaining about again?
 
Sometimes I wonder if these critics I've read were even paying attention or watching the same show.
 
I'm sorry, critical studies and articles of this nature bother me a little when I encounter them. What does an artist have to do to get you to see it? Ham-fist you across the head and say, "all right guys, this next 15 minutes, we're going to be exploring themes of a Christian nature and relevance, no one actually says it out loud but it is there, pay attention". It's kind of galling actually. Christian moral themes of diverse nature were treated seriously all across the 7 seasons of the show if you observe carefully at all.

"willfull neglect to the christian influence...." Huh?!? What the hell is this guy talking about?

 

[Buffy Summers]

In what way was it portrayed as negative? The entire idea that places and things sanctified by some form of Christianity work against evil hardly seems negative to me.

Having your Big Bad be a priest, which is what the person said in the article.
 

Wildfly: Was Caleb the big bad really?

Close enough. The point is, making a very negative commentary on Catholic priests.

 

[Athena]

Caleb didn't need to be the Big Bad, but he was an agent of the Big Bad which is just as bad.... and he was a Catholic Priest.

 

[Bluebird]

Having your Big Bad be a priest, which is what the person said in the article.
 


Close enough. The point is, making a very negative commentary on Catholic priests.

Do you think the OP believed Caleb was purposefully made to be a negative commentary on priests? I didn't see it. I think the show overall was probably more offensive to Wiccans.

I can't imagine a tv show being allowed to make such an overtly negative commentary on Catholic priests, that's why I didn't really think about it. I feel like the writers, generally speaking, are fairly respectful.


The biggest point of interest in the religious sense, for me, was Angel's epiphany in AtS. He believes there's no reward, no great end to it, and that all that matters is the present. Whereas Buffy got to go to heaven after a heroic sacrifice. I think there's a lot more to be said for Angel's attitude towards religion. I know Buffy gets more focus because it's the more famous but Angel was a lot more controversial in that sense, imo.

Edit: I mean Buffy and Angel's attitude towards religion and their underlying themes, as TV shows not the characters themselves

 

[gite63]

Something Joss said:

The New York Times
10 QUESTIONS FOR . . .
Joss Whedon
Published: May 16, 2003

With a soul comes a more adult understanding. That is again, a little vague, but… can I say that I believe in the soul? I don’t know that I can. It’s a beautiful concept, as is resurrection and a lot of other things we have on the show that I’m not really sure I can explain and I certainly don’t believe in. It does fall prey to convenience, but at the same time it has consistently marked the real difference between somebody with a complex moral structure and someone who may be affable and even likable, but ultimately eats kittens.

SOURCE

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Do you think the OP believed Caleb was purposefully made to be a negative commentary on priests?

Yes, I did. I think the show was littered with his own beliefs and feelings strewn about. On religion, on politics, on sexism, even on geekdom. I don't think it was a coincidence that a priest was in league with the first evil. It was a statement.
 
As Whedon himself says: "We think very carefully about what we’re trying to say emotionally, politically, and even philosophically while we’re writing it" so, what were they trying to say when a priest is evil, draws his power from the first evil, and tries to punish those he deems 'immoral'.