Christian Missions and the Three Flaws of Thanos

Before I start talking about missions and its awkward relationship to Thanos, I must clarify that I am speaking of “Movie-Thanos.” Others have noted this, but Thanos in comics was very different. I used to collect comic books, and one series I collected was “Captain Marvel.” This was the Captain Marvel of the 1960s Marvel Comics Group. Thanos was the ultimate enemy of Captain Marvel, but their motivation for conflict was due to motivations. Thanos (unlike in the movies) was driven by a fascination with death. In fact, he had a fascination with Death (the cosmic personification of the abstract concept of death). In fact, that fascination (romantic or perhaps more) drove him to kill to impress Death, or serve as a gift (akin to bringing flowers and candy to a date).

Movie-Thanos was different. This Thanos appeared to be ecologically driven (or perhaps there is a better term for this). Thanos saw the great population of living creatures throughout the Universe and saw it as a plague on the limited resources of… everything. His solution was to kill 50% of all living beings everywhere.

But lets look at Movie-Thanos and see how what he did does not give good guidance for Christian Missions. This may seem too obvious to bother even noting. Yet I will.

#1. The Method is Evil (Bad). Murdering half of all living things is pretty evil. I hope that can be agreed upon. Ignoring whether Movie-Thanos had a worthy ultimate goal (ecological sustainability of the Universe), the method is morally repugnant. Can that happen in Missions? Can worthy goals in Christian missions drive missionaries to use morally unacceptable methods? Absolutely.

The “Cross or the Sword” method of evangelism, started as far as I know with Charlemagne, King of the Franks. This has morphed into “Gunboat Evangelism” and some other dubious methods used in Colonial Missions. Even things like “buying” local ministries and converts could be argued to be immoral, at best. Jesus not only gave us guidance on what we need to do, but also how to do it. Focusing on the goal too much, and not enough on how to do it right, is a deep concern in missions.

This issue relates to “Deontological Ethics” (The means must be ethical)

#2. The Results are Ineffectual (Bad). It has been noted by others that Movie-Thanos had a method that really would fail to do what He sought to do. For example, suppose 50% of all microbes died everywhere, how long would it take for the original population to be restored? Potentially, the population could be restored in a matter of days. In reality, populations are controlled by resources and predation. Humans would take longer, but one should expect the population to recover in less than a century (unless limiters occur). Removing half of the population would not have much effect on the resources— not much more than a “BLIP” in the history of the Universe.

There is not necessarily complete agreement on the goals of Christian missions. John Piper suggests that it is worship. More Biblically, one might say that it is to expand the Kingdom of God, or to make more disciples. Yet others make speak in terms of holistic transformation. Yet much Evangelical (especially) missions is often to get as many affirmations to the Gospel message in as short of a time as possible. While this may seem both reasonable and noble, it may often fail to develop ANY of the above listed goals (worshipers, Kingdom servants, disciples, or transformed peoples). Other missions may be centered on planting as many churches as possible, or meeting felt “social” needs through missional “presence.” I would argue that these methods, if in absence of other broader activities, may feel to achieve Biblical goals, and so are sub-Biblical.

This issue relates to “Teleological Ethics” (The results must justify the means used)

#3. Rejection of Morality is Wrong

Even though Movie-Thanos had a moral code of sorts, everything he did was based on power. The power was demonstrated in physical power of himself and his army, monetary power as indicated, again, by his army and war machine, and his expensive quest, and cosmic (near divine) power of the Infinity Stones. Power does more than accomplish change (regardless of good or bad), it also tends to justify its own actions. Lord Acton’s warning about the corrupting nature of power is apt.

It is easy for Missions to fall into that as well. Three-self churches and vulnerable missions (among others) seek to eschew outside (missions) power. Still, many missionaries and mission agencies use power (ecclesiastical authority and money particularly) to control the work, as well as local Christians and congregations. Frankly, missions has often engendered anger and pushback NOT from non-Christians, but local Christians.

It is worth noting that in the Movie-Thanos story arc, his plans were not thwarted really by opposing power. It could be argued that his plans were ultimately thwarted by a mouse. Then his final undoing was in the use of the power he had against him. Considering that the action of the mouse is seemingly so random, and so trivial, one might argue that the power of Movie-Thanos was undermined by a nearly powerless “divine’ activity. While this was an act of fiction, Biblically we often see God acting through methods that appear small or weak, to overthrow the mighty.

Summarizing. Movie-Thanos utilized bad methods (murder) to try to achieve results that would ultimately fail to meet somewhat noble but misguided goals, aided by power that was thwarted through the action of the powerless. There just might be something we in missions could learn from this.