Elisabeth, I agree that my first example was the best, which is why that example was the one I used when I talked to the pastors. I would not have brought up the other examples if it had not been suggested that one instance of genocide can be used to explain or condone another.
The point I really wanted to make is that I was raised on huge numbers of religious children's books, given to me by my Pentecostalist relatives. They expected me to embrace their God as fiercely as they embraced him themselves. But when I read their books, particularly their various Biblical stories, I concluded that God sometimes behaved in ways that disturbed me deeply. In one book, given to me when I was seven, there was a picture of a small Egyptian boy, around three years old. The boy was crying his eyes out because he was attacked by huge swarms of insects that God had sent to torture the people of Egypt, because Pharaoh wouldn't release the Israelites. But the small boy being almost eaten alive by insects wasn't responsible for the fate of the Israelites. I can't tell you how much that picture disturbed me.
(One year after that, when I was eight, my grandfather told me that the world was coming to an end any day now, and I had better prepare myself. I knew right away that I was doomed, that I would be separated from my parents and go straight to hell, because the picture of the small Egyptian boy had engraved itself in my mind, so that I saw it when I thought about God. And then I couldn't believe that God was good.)
Anyway, the reason why I care so much about Superman's morals is that Superman represents an idea that is somewhat like the idea of God. Of course Superman is not God; how could he be? According to Christian, Jewish and Muslim belief, God has created the universe, the Earth and humanity. Has Superman done that? The answer is so obvious that I shouldn't have to write it down, but no, of course he hasn't. Not even in the most fictional of fictional worlds has Superman created the world and humanity. Moreover, in Christian and Muslim belief (I'm not absoutely sure of the Jews) God has the power to redeem humans and grant them life after death. Can Superman do that? Even in the most fictional of fictional worlds? Of course not.
But Superman is godlike, which most certainly doesn't mean he is God. Even the very human Clark Kent in LNC:TNAOS is somewhat godlike, because he does have awesome, superhuman, somewhat godlike powers. And what attracted me to Superman when I was twelve years old was precisely that Superman was so powerful and so good. Superman would never send wasps onto small children to punish a distant leader for treating another people badly. Superman only used his powers to help.
When I was a child, it was easy for me to think that everything in the world was either black or white, and that there were clear-cut answers to everything. Well, I don't believe that anymore, and I know that if Superman had existed, he would be put in "shady gray" situations where it would be really hard to make the right choice. Also, a "human" Clark Kent like the one we saw in LNC:TNAOS has his own human needs too, which can't be ignored. Precisely because this Clark Kent isn't God, he can't be there for other people all the time. He has to have time for himself, and because he is fallible, he is bound to make mistakes. But I need him to try to hold himself to the highest standard possible. I realize that others may not need him to do that, and there is no way I can say that they are obliged to. (Also, Elisabeth, my need for Clark to hold himself to the highest standard does not at all include an obligation to steer clear of extramarital sex with Lois Lane. I consider Clark and Lois to be "soulmates of cosmic proportion", and to me that easily overrides any earthly rules and regulations about when and how they can be physically joined together. But I realize that you feel very very strongly that such an act is totally unacceptable on Clark's part, and here we must agree to disagree.)
Let me make one more comment. In the horror story in Judges, it should be noted that the Biblical condemnation of the whole thing is very mild. I think that there is one reference to Gibeah in the entire Bible, one verse where someone, proably a prophet, tells people to "remember Gibeah". Other transgressions, however, are mentioned and condemned far more often, and they are punished by God in various ways. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the dance of the Israelites around the golden calf are mentioned several times in the Bible, and they are held up as severe warnings. The Isrealites didn't have a king then either, but that is not offered up as an explanation for those misdeeds. But when it comes to the horrors of Gibeah the Bible merely points out that this happened when there was no King in Israel, and leaves it at that. That is not much of a lesson to learn from such an atrocity.
But when Clark makes mistakes, I very much want him to learn from what he did wrong. That is why my need for Clark to be "good" has its roots in my readings of the Bible.
Ann
