Touched By An Angel "I Will Walk With You" Part 2 3/5

In response to Faith Blogger's March 22, 2012, post My Best Friend Is A Monster, which is a interesting narrative drawn together using the character, Edward Cullen from the movie Twilight, and the Sloth character,  from the movie, The Goonies, bringing both characters to present themselves as a approachable "demon/monster" hero's for humans, their nature is subverted for the convenience of fulfilling human needs. 

Similarly, the program, Touched By An Angel, uniquely incorporates religious ideals and angels to the rescue of society in times of crisis, relies on characters like, "Andrew", who plays the role of the angel of death (played by actor John Dye). Andrew's supportive role to the character "Monica" (played by actress Roma Downey)  who is a angel in human form that helps to guide, support and comfort people in precarious living circumstances, plays an instrumental position in resolving human conflicts and crisis. So just as Twilight's, Edward Cullen serves to avoid his vampire role in nature, the final episode of Touched By An Angel, leaves Andrew wanting, for an alternative role outside his primary occupation as the angel of death.

A great contrast to movies like Twilight and The Goonies is an example of the final episode of Touched By An Angel, which like many others, places Monica revealing her status of being an angel at the climax or crisis point in the show. However, in this particular episode, Monica and Andrew have a conversation about about the spiritual warfare going on in and around this case and Andrew tells Monica,

"we not fighting against flesh and blood here, we are fighting  "evil", against the Devil. But you and I both know that he is not going to win the war, but sometimes he wins the battle  (during frames between 8:12 to 8:30)" (CBS/Moon Water Productions, 2003),

while discussing the survival of a recently convicted murder, convicted of murdering 46 children.




However, in a later part of the episode, the identity of the convicted murderer "Zack" is revealed to be Jesus in the human form of the person Zack.

Monica tells Zack, also the incarnation of Jesus,

"Forgive me, I didn't know who you were" and Jesus responds, "they hardly ever do Monica."

Monica responds to Jesus' comments by saying,

"Why didn't I recognize you?" and Jesus responds, "because you would have done anything for me, but look what you did for a stranger, no greater love hath no person nor angel, than to give her a life for another, well done good and faithful servant", (CBS/Moon Water Productions, 2003).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkwuERhiB-M&feature=related

These scenes illustrate every day "spiritual warfare" battles and revive the Christian traditions  modern day narrative of Jesus' gift of love, sacrifice and transcendence through life and death, but also the paradigms of evil, demons and monsters in human form. Although the Bible, and particular in Revelations, where Jesus is to come again during the Rapture, the Santana and Erikson reading, Demons, Aliens, and Spiritual Warfare: Belief and Reality, amplifies and examines a more theological role of contemporary monsters and demons.

However, a gap missed in FaithBlogger's argument was highlighted in Cowan's reading, Stalking Life: Fear of Death and of Dying Badly, wherein this scholar looks at the racialization of angels, demons and monsters to include how African slaves were affected by their life in the West Indies. In noting that Africans brought their religions with them on their journey of slavery and colonization, the after effects lead to a creolization of their religions with Catholicism. Cowan notes that, "In doing so, many of these films [and shows] constantly recreate a dangerous religious Other that has barely a passing resemblance to its offscreen source but that highlights yet again the ambivalence and fear with which we regard religion generally and religions other than our own specifically" (Cowan, 2008:158). Haiti has been known for the the practice of Voodoo, but the contemporary popular culture hears much about the effects of Voodoo, with Zombies and the walking of the dead (similar to the video shown in the March 20, 2012, lecture), popular culture rarely depicts a "good or loving" ethnic hero, monster or zombie" to save the day like Wesley Snipes character in the 1998 movie Blade.

Nonetheless, society needs to be able to self-identify with a hero that loves, saves and conquers evil with martyrdom being the ultimate crescendo, whether it be on a secular or religious basis. Monsters like the Sloth in Goonies have a transformative nature on humans, but vampires and demons like Twilight's Edward Cullen, bring an alternative form of angels to human rescues.