Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Religion in Fiction?

Very interesting topic. "Religion in Fiction." It's something that could be built into a master's thesis, should someone wish to take on the job, assuming that someone's faculty advisor approved it.

Any work, whether fiction or not, gets filtered through the lens of the author. For example, I recently read a book by the late Stephen Ambrose entitled "Undaunted Courage." It's a work which tells in detail the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition, but even more so, it reveals the character and personality of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his relationship with his co-leader on the expedition, William Clark, along with his relationship with then-President Thomas Jefferson. Ambrose goes into great detail to lay out the workings of Lewis's mind, discussing why he did certain things and why he did not do certain things, and even gives a vividly detailed account of the night Lewis shot himself to death in a roadside inn just outside Collinwood, Tennesee, on the night of October 9-10, 1806.

Why do I bring this up? Because it's apparent that Ambrose admired Lewis from the way the volume is structured. He thought very highly of Lewis's industry, his great personal strength and vitality, and his near brilliance in planning and executing the perilous expedition through the newly purchased Louisiana Territory (the expedition lost only one man, from illness, over nearly two years of constant hazard). At the same time, Ambrose deeply regrets the melancholy bent of Lewis's mind, which prevented him from receiving the credit he and the others of his company deserved.

Ambrose doesn't try to hide his conclusions about Lewis. And it wouldn't be difficult to find other historians who believe that the Lewis and Clark expedition was a Very Bad Thing for the nascent American republic and the native populations the expedition encountered.

My real point is that we all, writers and readers alike, view our input and output through certain lenses. Religion is one of them. We have to remember that The Powers That Be in network television and Hollywood movies rarely, if ever, portray religion in a positive light. They either ignore it, hoping that no one will notice that it's missing from the story, or they use it as a negative plot device, portraying religious adherents as either misguided but basically harmless dolts or dangerous fanatics. So we got the "ignore it" message in the L&C TV series. When Lois needed professional help, she saw a therapist (Dr. Friskin) instead of her pastor. Same with Superman. When Perry was so very depressed that a friend of his for many years ("Chi of Steel" and the Nazi episode) turned out to be far less than he'd believed, he didn't seek out spiritual help. When Cat went to confession during the Nightfall incident, the producers were ultimately trying to play the scene for a laugh when she propositioned the priest. (I thought that the scene really showed the hollowness and futility of her chosen lifestyle, so it wasn't all that funny to me.)

"Canon" shows us that neither Lois nor Clark had an active religious segment on their lives. As several have pointed out, both Schuster nor Seigel were Jewish by heritage, and in 1930's America, it just wasn't "fashionable" to be publicly Jewish if you were trying to sell something to the white people with money. So Superman was originally depicted without any active religious affiliations.

And any religious overtones regarding Luthor's name are probably coincidental. Lex's first name was introduced during a period of "LL" initial frenzy at DC comics which also gave us Lori Lemaris and Lucy Lane, among many others. Readers were subtly encouraged to collect such names. There was even a Jimmy Olsen story where Jimmy viewed a previously unseen film of Adolf Hitler where someone appearing to be his identical ancestor stood beside the dictator, so Jimmy traveled back in time to see who it was. Turned out it was him. He got himself hired as Hitler's spiritual advisor, warning him (too late) of Allied victories in the middle of the war. But he forgot to mention the attempt on Hitler's life in July of 1944 and was forced to flee for his life. A Lucy Lane lookalike working with the French resistance fired a pistol at two SS men chasing Jimmy out of a doorway, but she hit the decorative swastika above them instead and knocked two L-shaped pieces off, which fell on their heads and disabled Jimmy's pursuers. (She was either a crack markswoman or the luckiest pistol shot who ever lived.) He returned to the present to find that the film evidence of his trip through time had been destroyed when the projector (which he'd left on) had overheated and set fire to the film. And Jimmy was left ruminating over being saved by the initials "LL" once again, but never thinking about the paradox of viewing a movie about himself taken in the past before he'd time-traveled to make the movie possible. DC comics did a lot of that. Lex Luthor was just one example.

If an author wanted to add religion to a story, it would have to be a believable addition within the framework of these boards to be accepted here. We have members who are strongly religious (and not necessarily Christian), some who are agnostic or atheistic, and some who are indifferent. The main thing to remember is that Lois and Clark should be together unless there are reasonable and logical circumstances presented in the story to keep them apart. An excellent example is Becky Bain's Ad Astra Per Aspera, which explores what might have happened if Clark hadn't returned from New Krypton. I've read the story and I think it's outstanding, even though it's somewhat bittersweet. Others have read it and posted different reactions to it, some negative and some very positive. It depends on that lens I mentioned earlier, specifically the one which either does or does not allow the reader to see Lois and Clark happy with other life partners.

Religion is like that in that the reception of the story will depend on the lens through which the reader sees it. I have a partially finished L&C story where the Bible is used to educate one of the original characters on basic morality and the American legal structure, but I don't know that I'll ever post it because of some of the reactions I've seen to situations such as this. (I will mention that it's not a major plot point.) But I also don't wish to make people mad if I don't have to.

I, personally, can't imagine Jonathan and Martha living in a small Kansas town without being involved in some kind of church family. They might be Methodist, Baptist, Wesleyan, or Presbyterian, but one of the strong nuclear binding forces of Middle American towns like Smallville is the congregation one belongs to. They'd be a part of the group simply because that was where the group met.

So Clark would have gotten some of that through his parents and by association with the other kids. But when his powers began to appear, it's reasonable to assume that they would have withdrawn somewhat from the others in the congregation in order to protect Clark from discovery. They couldn't have separated themselves completely without become objects of curiosity, but they probably would have pulled back some, just to keep everyone else from finding out how odd their son was becoming.

Lois's background is far murkier. Folks in big American cities can live for decades without entering a church building except for weddings or funerals and they won't be marked as subjects for gossip. And a young adult's behavior isn't always an indicator of that person's religious upbringing. The teen pregnancy rate in the American Christian community is close to that of the non-churchgoing teens and has been for a couple of decades. The percentage of sexually active teens within Christian circles is also close to that of the non-Christian teen.

*(I admit that to our shame. It shouldn't be that way, but it is.)*

So Lois's lifestyle (her undefined relationship with Paul in college, her "friendship" with Patrick the mad Druid, her brief affair with Claude) doesn't necessarily give us any insight into her religious principles or beliefs. People often behave against their stated life precepts. If an author wishes to give Lois a religious bent, it should be a reasonable and logical turn, but I personally see no reason not to do so. As long as the story is entertaining - and isn't that why we read the stories posted here? - go for it! Make us believe it. Make us see that it's not only possible but the only way the story would work.

Most of all, let's have fun with it.

Damn, Terry, you did it AGAIN. I was about to write the exact things.

It is a fascinating subject and as a writer, I also try to flesh out my characters' backgrounds as much as possible in my head. Even when those elements don't end up in the story. I want to disagree with one point Terry made. I don't think Hollywood neglects religion because of deeply held animus. I think Hollywood generally tends to neglect religion because it's a hot button issue that could seriously cut out a segment of your viewership. It's also why characters in TV shows don't express strong political viewpoints, unless it is central to their character. It allows the audience to view those characters through their own lenses. Now, granted, the writer's lens is always going to inform the character, either consciously or unconsciously, but a good writer should be able to write a character whose views and opinions differ from theirs. But I think it certainly helps if the writer really tries to get to know the character's history and past experiences.

For example, I assume Lois is an Episcopalian. I mean, the Lanes are just so stereotypically WASP-y - the alcoholism, the emotional dysfunction, the patronizing perfectionism . But seriously, it is only in the last few decades that the old class/religion affiliations in the US have broken down. In the 60s and 70s, it was still very much the case that the well to do class was largely Episcopalian, especially in the Northeast. Episcopalianism was the religion of the Northeast elites. Thirteen of our 43 presidents were Episcopalians - the most well represented denomination, followed by Presbyterian at 11.

Lois's hobbies (including chess), the sports she plays (tennis and golf), her music preferences (jazz), her father's profession (a doctor), and her mother's obsession with status all point to the Lanes being well to do, not middle class. We know the Lanes attended church (unless Sam Lane got caught kissing Mrs. Belcanto in the church parking lot for some other reason) and I think to them, attending the right church would be just as important as belonging to the right club and sending their children to the right schools.

I don't see the Lanes as being particularly devout, but there are plenty of members of every faith who aren't particularly devout, so I don't think that tells us much about what Lois's particular faith is. I know plenty of a la carte Catholics and some very devout Episcopalians who attend church every Sunday and really judge every one of their actions by whether or not it advances their purpose of doing God's will on Earth. That being said, the Episcopalian church is more comfortable with doctrinal pluralism than many other faiths, so even if Lois were devout, I don't think that her failure to adhere to all of the tenets of her faith strictly would trouble her as much as it would a devout Catholic.

They gave us a lot of absolute gems when it comes to the Kents' history. We know that despite being from a segregated state (though not as rigidly segregated as the deep south), Jonathan and Martha marched for civil rights. We know that Jonathan told Martha's mother to "stuff a sock in it," and it apparently caused Martha to fall in love with Jonathan in the first place. We also know that Martha doesn't just march to the beat of her own drummer, she pretty much makes her own drums. No matter what religion Clark was brought up with, the Kents doubtlessly instilled in him not only a strong sense of doing what's right, even when it's not popular, but also doing what is right for him, even when it isn't always the expected or traditional thing to do.

I agree with Terry that church is an integral part of life in small towns and think that Methodism, which is often cited as the religion Clark was brought up with, makes sense given the geography and timing. I also agree that the Kents probably withdrew a bit from church when Clark began developing his powers (in order to protect him from discovery), but they wouldn't have stopped going entirely.

I tend to see Clark as a 'seeker.' His very existence isn't well explained or even accepted by most traditional faiths, at least not explicitly so. He's traveled the world and has seen a lot of what others believe and what they have faith in, so I assume that whatever Clark believes, he's not terribly dogmatic about it. He probably believes that there is a lot of value and a lot that can be learned from other people and their ways of life.

I really dislike the 'Superman as Savior' motif and Jor El loving the world so much that he sent it his only begotten son, nonsense. Jor El sent Kal El to Earth in order to save his only begotten son from Krypton's fate. What makes Clark's story so compelling isn't that he was destined to save mankind, but that he chooses to use his powers to help his fellow man. He could be selfish with them, or just keep his head down and try to fit in, but he chooses the burden of being Superman.

All this being said, this is just the backstory I give the characters. None of it is canonical and I'm sure other writers have given the characters their own backstory. I mean, I find it tremendously helpful to think about the experiences that I imagine shaped the characters when trying to figure out how they would react to particular situations, I'm sure others do as well. I don't just apply this to Clark and Lois, but to characters like Perry and Clark's parents as well. I assume that Martha is a transplant to Kansas (at a very young age) from Boston, that her mother never adjusted to or appreciated small town life and was thus never really impressed with Jonathan and couldn't stand the thought of her daughter dating a simple farmer (leading to the 'stuff a sock in it' remark that caused Martha to love Jonathan in the first place). I also assume that it was rebelling against her mother that gave Martha the same sort of stubborn independent streak that Lois has. I think of Jonathan's ancestors as having been Free Soil Republicans who settled Kansas back in the 1850s. I've also written that he had two older brothers, both of whom had passed away fairly young. These backstories - the family histories, the events in the characters own lives, the places where they've grown up and lived, as well as their religious backgrounds, all go into making them who they are, even when they aren't explicitly stated in stories. I would actually find it very hard to write these characters without thinking about all of this backstory.