Bonnie Burton
Bonnie Burton wonders where the good angels are
Bonnie’s loving angels – but they’re not loving her.
Angels have a long biblical history of comforting humans and acting as God’s messengers. Guardian angels supposedly protect us from harm that crosses our paths daily. However, you wonder if they would rather shove us in front of cars and push us off rooftops, thanks to their depictions in popular culture.
Lately I’ve noticed that angels are being portrayed in TV shows, movies, videogames, comics and books as anything but caring creatures. No longer do we have the benevolent and compassionate characters that graced us in the likes of Highway To Heaven and Touched By An Angel. Instead of angels that come to the aid of us lost humans so that we find our way back to redemption, we have the likes of Tilda Swinton as an insane angel Gabriel in Constantine ( 2005), demanding that humans suffer in order to earn the love of God.
In Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere the Angel Islington is an evil menace. The angel Castiel in Supernatural tries to remain neutral among the humans but helps the Winchester Brothers so often other angels resent him. Even the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who send shivers down our spines from the mere idea of “death by blinking ”.
So why have angels in popular culture transformed from happy- to- help angels of classics like It’s A Wonderful Life into bitter, violent agents of destruction we see portrayed in film and TV?
Perhaps sci- fi, horror and fantasy have little use for religion and those who inhabit it? The everyday evil that lurks behind every corner and within us is fairly horrific to think about, so stick a pair of wings on our fears and suddenly it becomes entertainment. It’s not that hard to contemplate considering we’ve been letting lost angels entertain us since Milton.
But that still doesn’t quite explain the sudden desire for us to accept angels as creepy jerks. To be honest, the descriptions of angels in the Christian Bible don’t exactly make them sound approachable. The Bible describes the seraphim as having six wings covering their bodies. Then there are other angels that are reported as having bodies that are constructed of multiple wheels covered in flaming eyes, with limbs of bronze.
When we think of angels now, we don’t immediately think these curious agents of God always have our backs. Then again, God did banish an entire legion of angels rather quickly for not bowing down to Adam after he was created, or so we’re told. If I were an angel, I’d have a chip on my shoulder where wings used to be too.
And what happens once angels fall off the corporate ladder? In popular culture, they end up
Why have angels transformed into violent agents of destruction?
mixing in with us unwashed masses. Many of them mate with humans and create children known as Nephilim. Or worse, they get management positions in Hell.
The Prophecy film series ( 1995- 2005) has angels killing pesky humans who keep trying to undermine their power. And the never- ending angel battles in Supernatural make you wonder if God’s old beardy face should be printed up on “LOST DEITY” flyers and posted around the neighbourhood.
Perhaps that’s the biggest question of them all. When God’s away, is this how the angels play? Are angels just a bunch of juvenile delinquents who bully anyone beneath them when the ultimate authority figure isn’t around to smite and banish them?
If pop culture has anything to say about it, we’re not going to see those helpful Jeeves- like angels around to keep us out of trouble. And if I were you, I wouldn’t stand too close to those commuter train tracks. Guardian angels with grudges might give you a slight nudge towards a painful retirement. Bonnie ponders that if Nietzsche was right and God is indeed dead, then does that mean we’re stuck with a bunch of moody angels from Abaddon to Zaphkiel?