The Stories We Tell

Last night, I watched Disney's Robin Hood. We're talking the 1973 animated bunnies and foxes version, out of the vault because of Disney's new streaming service, not an adultier version. It was one of my favorites as a child, and I was home alone, so no one could object. I was not prepared for Robin Hood to launch political angst. Again, I watched the animated version with bunnies and foxes.

Yet, the villain hit a little too close to home. He's Prince John, made ruler of the land by deceit. The rightful King Richard is off fighting in the Crusades. He exploits the people through high taxes that buy them nothing; failure to pay lands them in jail. Prince John fills his coffers ever fuller and so enter Robin Hood, robbing from the rich to give to the poor. The scruffy lion version of Prince John is petulant most of the time. One of the movie's songs about him proclaims, "He throws an angry tantrum if he cannot have his way."

It reflected American politics a little too closely. Of course, it was easier in the cartoon version. There is a clear rightful ruler there, one who is good and benevolent. When he shows up, he returns wealth to the people, pardons Robin Hood for illegally doing the same, and imprisons the corrupt rulers. But here I set, knowing I'm in a country with a president elected because of Russian tampering with the election. I've read articles calling for a return to paper ballots in the last week because of this tampering.

The temper tantrums are frequent and public, thrown on Twitter and on camera. This same president passed a tax plan that literally takes money from the lowest earning populations and gives it to the wealthy. I just wish we had someone as effective as organizing a response as Robin Hood was.

And somehow, we've missed it. Or forgotten. Or something. Robin Hood is a deeply embedded story that has been around for centuries. Most people in the US would know something about the good guy who robs from the rich to give to the poor. The connection to our reality isn't even a big leap. It's a puddle jump at best. Yet, we've gotten ourselves into this mess and can't see a clear way out.

Maybe even more shocking is that my reaction was much the same when seeing a live production of A Christmas Carol a couple years ago. There was no subtlety in Dickens' story of a rich man exploiting a poor one, even cutting off access to healthcare. It's also one of the stories that is part of our culture. It's a Wonderful Life is surely another. How many stories of deadly dragons hoarding wealth do we have? Smaug isn't the only one by a long shot. I'm guessing someone better versed in pop culture could rattle off a dozen movies that remind us how bad it is to be a rich being who hoards wealth.

We don't even have to get to the Gospels, presumably also a deep part of our cultural story. There, Jesus said things like "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." The man goes away grieving, because he had many possessions. (Matthew 19:21-22)

Jesus follows it up with, "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:24) Plenty of commentary tries to work around this strange, impossible saying. It's pretty helpful at face value. Rich is bad; it means you are hoarding resources beyond what you and your family could ever use. That's not what money is for.

If you've made it to my blog, you probably already know this. If you're offended I likened President Trump to Prince John, go watch the movie and then let's talk. Here's the thing I really want though: tell these stories. There's a whole realm of political discourse that won't get us anywhere, or at least we can't start there. We've proven that time and time again. We can start with the stories we know. We can start we the stories we learned as children, and the stories we tell our children. We can tell these stories more. We can remind adults of them. We can sit and ask why on earth acceptable for Jeff Bezos to be allowed to hoard wealth when refusing to pay workers' a living wage or provide benefits when Prince John is the hated bad guy.

For those of us who have been shaped by the Gospel, it's easier to see. But we can take this one bit of Gospel to the world in so many ways--and starving for these stories.