Unfortunately my first James Bond was Roger Moore, but I quickly converted to Sean Connery. Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig - I dig you all, but me and Sean...we're tight. I mean, this dude hung out with chicks with names like Honey Ryder, Plenty O'Toole, and Pussy Galore. He had the fly clothes, mad license-to-kill skills, cars, gadgets, the list goes on and on.
What better role model for the young American male? Bond is intelligent, confident, cultured, and let's face it - he is really good at ordering a martini. Resilient, self-reliant, tender with the ladies (I can't recall him getting into one argument about who forgot to put out the garbage or didn't get the sour cream that was ON THE LIST) - James Bond is the epitome of what a man should be.
This is going to be a shocking revelation - prepare yourself - SPOILER ALERT! - James Bond is fiction. Goldfinger is NOT a documentary. No one ever really named their baby girl Pussy Galore.
Since childhood I have measured myself against unreal, inhuman standards. And while James may be really cool and have loads of brains - I never recall seeing him pray or ask God for guidance. Even in certain death situations, where I have to think that 99% of all humanity would find religion, James relies on himself alone.
And yet this mindset is in almost direct opposition to my Christian spirituality. It is only through God's mercy and His great sacrifice that I am saved. I need God. I need Christ's sacrifice. I would be lost without the Holy Spirit as Helper and Comforter.
It is prideful arrogance to believe that we do not need God in our lives. And yet I feel that God endows us with gifts that should be used for a purpose. My question becomes: for whose purpose am I using my gifts? Mine or God's? And how can or will I know the difference? I don't know the answers.
I do know that I cannot make it on my own. I can say that it is not weakness to admit that I need God, but I cannot say that I know that it's not. My James Bond upbringing tells me that to admit that I need God equates to weakness. If James is the epitome of a man's man and he doesn't have a need for God, what does that make me, a man who does have a need for God?
Our popular culture teaches and preaches the Gospel According to James Bond. My faith and spirituality follows a more traditional Gospel. I feel that there are places where my two "Gospels" touch at a few select points, but they are far from synoptic - they are divergent.
I feel like James Bond has a leg up in the marketing department. He's got major studio backing and these days, some truly amazing CGI. Jesus had no need of CGI, for He was the real deal. Yep, there's no Halle Berry, Megan Fox, or even Ursula Andress in the Gospel According to Luke. There's no Optimus Prime, Neo, or Storm Shadow in the Gospel According to Mark.
It's a shame that there is even such a competition for our attentions, but we are carnal, of flesh and blood, and carnally minded. As such, we are drawn to that which satisfies the flesh. James Bond is flesh. What strikes me now is the method in which Bond is continually re-incarnated. While of flesh, he has none of the drawbacks. Ageless, no emergency gall bladder surgery, no love handles to fight - I still want to be James Bond.
I turned 33 this year. I'm pretty sure James didn't age much past that. For me it's a matter of perspective now. I may call James for a chat from time to time. Heck, he may even visit for a few days. But in reality, the place where I live, breathe, work, love my wife, and spoil my daughters....in that place - I don't want to be James Bond. They don't need James. They need Bryan - a flawed and fragile human. And Bryan, as self-reliant, resilient, and superfly TNT as I may want to be - I submit myself to a higher power, a God worthy of my highest praise. And I'm pretty sure that that is how He wants it to be.
