Mario Kart 64 & Double Dash: a new perspective/teamwork makes the dream work
Welcome to part 2 of 4 of 'The Gospel according to Mario Kart' series
Click Here to read part 1.
Released on the Nintendo 64 in Japan in 1996 and worldwide in 1997, Mario Kart 64 was a total step up from Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo... don't get me wrong I love Super Mario Kart, but 64 took the frantic fun of the original and presented it in glorious (for the time) 3D. It added some great looking (and at times infuriating) tracks, the dreaded blue shell, that targets whoever happens to be in first place, often hitting right on the finish line, destroying any chance of victory...ruining friendships, and causing expletives to fly from even the most mild mannered player.
Mario Kart Double Dash, was released worldwide in 2003 on the Nintendo GameCube. Another step up, it took the 3D graphics and improved on them, new and exciting tracks (once again, occasionally infuriating). It also added a teamwork mechanic. The player picks 2 characters which effects weight, handling and more importantly the weapons and power-ups that are generated. It adds another layer of strategy to the game, and a great way to play with friends.
So what?
2 amazing games which have taken up far too much of my time, and caused me to have several rage induced adult tantrums...but what's the point? What exactly is there to learn about faith and Christianity from these video games?
The Church today is facing challenges. That's undeniable. These challenges are not going to be overcome by fancy buildings, music programs, the traditional 'trappings' of religion. They will be overcome by the 2 things I'm looking at in this post
I've split this post into 2 sections. There are 2 distinct lessons and reflections I've come up with; they're in the title, but here they are again:
1) A new perspective
2) Teamwork makes the dream work
A New Perspective
In 1996/1997 the original, epic, although sometimes kind of flat Mario Kart game was superceded by Mario 64. As above, it was the mid 90s version of glorious 3D graphics...it forced gamers to look at things from a new perspective...
It's vital that we start examining our preconceived ideas of what this world is and needs, and what the Church itself is or should be.
Essentially we need to break ourselves down and really take a deep introspective look at ourselves, what works, what doesn't. what we need, what we don't. That doesn't necessarily mean just doing away with traditions or centuries of experience, or any of that kind of thing. I would never usually find myself agreeing with Delores Umbrage from Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix...but she kind of has a point:
"Progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged"
I don't usually make a habit of taking advice from movie or literary villains...That being said, Sometimes they do seem to make a lot of sense. the things that don't work, or that get in the way of our relationship with God and our mission as the Church; we have to get rid of. So the advice from villain number 2; Alexander Pierce from the movie Captain America: Civil War (one of my favourites) is:
"to build a better world sometimes means tearing the old one down."
In the movie, the character then goes on to say that doing so, creates enemies... that's definitely true. Often it can seem like any form of change is resisted, some people resist for the sake of resisting, or simply hate change, I can totally understand that.
Change, even necessary change, often comes slowly, or not at all. But I get it, change can be difficult, painful even. The difficulty is knowing what changes we have to make. When to push for the necessary changes, when to fight back and cling to the foundations and traditions that the Church is built upon.
We live in times when inclusion is one of the obvious hot topics. I fully support inclusion, I make no secret of that. I don't believe that sexual orientation, race, gender, etc should in any way limit or suppress membership or activity within the Church and fellowship of God, I don't consider myself judge, jury and executioner for the Church. On the flip side of that, I will stand up for and speak out in defence of some of the rules, and tenets of the Church.
Being a Christian is something set apart. Prayer, baptism (by the spirit in particular), communion, holiness, teachings about the necessity of salvation, all these things are important, and make Christianity what it is, but above all, the most important thing is a belief in and striving towards Christ...I once had a strange conversation on an online forum with somebody who felt they were being discriminated against by others not considering them a Christian, despite having no belief, or interest in Christ or the Church, they simply considered themselves a good person and wanted to claim the label of Christian....that made no sense to me. Certainly, I accept that there are a myriad of ways of holding a personal belief in God and expressing that. Many religions, schools of thought etc, and of course in no way would I ever want to deny this person access to the Church. In any true Church, they would receive genuine welcome, love and prayerful, honest support; but a Christian is by its very definition and nature someone who follows, or at the very least tries to follow and have a relationship with Jesus. You obviously don't need to pass a test, or an interview to be a Christian, but we have to retain our sense of identity and not water down who we are or what we believe... and no, that doesn't however give us permission to be jerks, to deny people access to our churches, social aid where it's offered, or prayers etc, it doesn't give us the right to discriminate. But it does mean we have to be honest with ourselves and others, and to not shrink from being who we are.
Looking at the world and ourselves from this new perspective, isn't about watering ourselves down, denying who we are, or tearing down everything that has come before simply to do something different. "progress for the sake of progress". But it is about empathy with those we want to reach. Seeing them as whole people. Not just numbers, or as evangelism 'targets'. We have to start looking at ourselves through the eyes of those outside our fellowships, meeting people where they are, not where we expect or want them to be. People, particularly those outside our churches are not here for the Church's benefit, or to fill pews, keep the lights on or whatever...we exist for their benefit, to show the love of God, both in a spiritual/prayerful sense, and also a practical sense.
We can be incredibly insular and get carried away with our own comings and goings, and trappings if we're not careful....this new perspective is vital for the Church's future and the fulfillment of its mission to seek, to save and to serve.
As one of the Salvation Army's mission slogans puts it:
“Save souls, grow saints and serve suffering humanity”
I think that's one of the very best positional statements for any and every expression of the Church.
Teamwork makes the dream work
The second lesson that I've been reflecting on, from Mario Kart: double dash, on the GameCube is pretty simple... we're strong, we're better and we're just plain unbeatable when we work together.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 states:
"Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."
And that about sums it up.
We could stop there, but we all know it's not that simple...Christians do seem particularly good at fighting each other, arguing amongst ourselves and generally just sucking at working together.
I've been known to frequent online forums, and in the past get myself drawn into arguments... although I always tried my best to remain respectful. These days I just try and avoid them. But take a quick look on almost any Christian forum, or Facebook page and there seems to be no shortage of arguments, sometimes quite nasty. I don't think it's exactly the holy, contrite and pious image we like to attribute to ourselves.
We can, and we must do better. That doesn't mean we have to agree of everything, we can discuss, debate and disagree. But let's try and do so while remembering that we are a brothers and sisters in Christ. We share and agree on so much more than we disagree. And if we could just focus primarily on what unites us, rather than divides us, we could do and be so much more...but that's not me telling you anything you don't already know, the tricky bit is putting it into practice.
That bit, I can't really help you with. It takes personal reflection, introspection, maturity and empathy. Not the easiest qualities, but we must practice and get better at those things.
We can be a stronger whole, if we work together, and learn from each other. A quick example; my own denomination, the Salvation Army, is traditionally not great at discipleship, that's a huge and not overly fair oversimplification. Individual churches and groups do better or worse than others of course. But in general it's not something that necessarily comes easy for us...social work, organisation, practical stuff like that is part of our DNA...as with all denominations, and individual churches, we have our strengths and weaknesses. Through cooperation and understanding we have much that we can teach, and even more that we can learn from others. Not a single Church or denomination has all the answers. But by working together, we can all share and build on our strengths as well as get better at the areas we're weaker at.
It's not exactly rocket science. I'm not trying to fire up some deep theological truth here... we're stronger when we work together. It's that easy...and that difficult.
But linking this whole post together and maybe at the risk of repeating myself a bit, it takes a new perspective, to embrace each other, to find and celebrate our common ground, without watering ourselves down. It takes empathy, and introspection and compassion to really embrace a new perspective and make the dream work, through teamwork.
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