Self-Sacrifice is a Theme Ingrained in Pop Culture

When some atheists twist the concept of self-sacrifice and self-denial, especially in regards to homosexuality, it drives me crazy. Reject the Christian concept of self-denial and self-sacrifice all you want. But guess what? It's ingrained in a lot of contemporary entertainment. Here are quite a few examples of self-denial and self-sacrifice in pop culture. 

Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible movies is frequently willing to lay down his own life to protect everyone else. After receiving unconditional human love for the first time in his life, the Phantom realizes that he can't force Christine to be with him and lets her go, even if it meant he'll be alone for the rest of his days. And this is commendable, especially given his traumatic childhood, isolation, and extremely limited social contact.  Others treated him as less than human for much of his life due to his deformed face and it took Christine's unconditional love to make him feel like a person and place her happiness above his own. 

The Daniel Craig 007 makes the ultimate sacrifice to protect his family. And this decision stemmed from his love for them. 

In the Top Gun movies, Maverick goes from arrogant and self-centered young fighter pilot to team player who has learned to check his ego and then from seasoned Navy pilot who has to be smack in the middle of the action and has quite a few regrets to mentor who helps his students learn the value of humility and helps them believe that a very dangerous combat mission can be flown. And he's healed by the end of Top Gun: Maverick. As I noted in my post, Why We Like Maverick From the Top Gun films, Maverick's arrogance, rebelliousness, and bold flying in the first movie stem from a insecurity caused by the Navy and the US government's decision to prioritize saving face over telling the truth and not violating one of Mav's primary integrity needs. 

In The Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan allows the White Witch to kill him instead of  Edmund who betrayed his own family, Aslan, and his army. And it should go without saying that this part of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a deliberate Christian allegory. Many of the Christian elements in The Chronicles of Narnia are in your face, unlike LOTR and The Hobbit, which are also deeply Christian, but the Christian elements are not as obvious as they are in The Chronicles of Narnia. 

In Star Wars, Vader defeats the Emperor out of love for his son, Luke, and ends up dying. Kylo Ren, Vader's grandson, gives his life to bring Rey back to life.

In Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Spock gives his life to get the Enterprise and everyone onboard out of danger. In Star Trek: Into Darkness, it is Captain Kirk who sacrifices himself to save the Enterprise and everyone onboard.

Harry Potter lets Voldemort kill him so that the Dark Lord is one step closer to becoming mortal once more and being defeated for good.

And last but certainly not least Loki from the MCU has gone through a redemption arc twice now. And both times, it required him to make a big self-sacrifice. The first time around, he literally gave his life to save Thor. The second time around, he didn't die. But he assumed a throne, which he never wanted in the first place, to save all of existence out of love for his friends.

Out of the many examples I listed here, two characters did something they didn’t want to do out of love for those they cared about (Loki and the Phantom).

Loki ascended a throne, which he didn't want, to save his friends and the Phantom let the woman he loved go and accepted that he would be alone for the rest of his life after spending most of the story pursuing her to alleviate his loneliness, isolation, and misery. 

To my fellow Christians, self-denial does not necessarily mean entirely giving up a legitimate need or want. This sounds contradictory to the concept of denying oneself, but it's actually not. In an article in Our Sunday Visitor, Catholic psychotherapist Dr. Greg Popcak dispels a common misconception among Christian that self-denial means eliminating desire and being satisfied with just God. He writes, "The traditional practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving present a challenging, but welcome opportunity to turn away from distractions and seek the joy we can only experience by drawing closer to the Lord.

Even so, as popularly practiced, these important spiritual disciplines can unintentionally communicate an unhealthy and, frankly, ungodly attitude toward desire. I regularly hear from callers to my radio program and clients in my practice who feel guilty wanting or needing anything but God."

Dr. Popcak then gives specific examples of remarks from people who people feel guilty about needing or wanting anything that is not God.

He continues, "When I hear comments like this, I imagine an unwritten chapter in C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters," in which the Senior Demon, Screwtape, counsels his nephew, a demon-in-training named Wormwood, on how to use a Christian's good intentions against him. "If your patient must practice self-denial, let him do so in a manner that will leave him completely unfulfilled, despondent and alone. When he hears The Enemy (i.e, God) say, 'Draw close and let me love you,' let his efforts to respond leave him cold, resentful and guilt-ridden."

The Christian walk does certainly call for self-denial. But too many Christians believe that self-denial requires the destruction of desire itself. It would surprise many Catholics who believe this to learn that they are better Buddhists than Christians.

The Buddha taught that the destruction of desire and passion was necessary to attain fulfillment. He taught that the only way to achieve Nirvana was to extinguish the need for anyone or anything. This is not the Christian way."

Instead, he suggests a healthy and holy alternative: "To properly practice self-denial, we must first acknowledge what we want and what we hope it would do for us to get it. Then we bring that desire and intention to God. "Lord, I don't know how to pursue this desire in a way that will be good for me and pleasing to you. Please teach me."

So though I gave two examples of fictional characters who were left unfulfilled after sacrificing things they legitimately wanted or didn't want, God wants our fulfillment way more than we ourselves do and is more than eager to help us get it.