'Enter Sandman' crashes into a seminary classroom

WABAC flashback to a 'signal' decades before #RationalSheep

Raise your hand if you are old enough to remember the WABAC machine used by Mr. Peabody in the classic Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon series. That’s pronounced “wayback” and we are, of course, talking about a time machine.

I want to time travel back to a funny — but symbolic — classroom moment during my Communicator on Culture days at Denver Seminary in the early 1990s. We were talking about the “signal” concept that was at the heart of the public-square apologetics course that I taught during those years, which later evolved into my “Exegete the Culture” undergraduate seminars at Milligan and Palm Beach Atlantic. Now, spotting “signals” is at the heart of this Rational Sheep project.

Let me stress that the goal of finding valid “signals” in mass culture is not to find “cool” stuff to play on megachurch video screens to make sermons “relevant.”

Heavens, no! That was already an issue in the early 1990s, as the “seeker-friendly church” movement kicked into high gear. It goes without saying that, as an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I am not interested in seeing digital screens integrated into our ancient rites. I worship in a church that is multimedia, but doesn’t have to have electricity.

So, why look for “signals”? The goal is to recognize when artists and thinkers in mainstream culture ask valid questions — questions about issues that religious leaders and believers cannot afford to ignore, about subjects found in a good Bible concordance.

It’s poignant, to say the least, when talented artists and performers raise questions and then demonstrate that they cannot answer them or offer shallow or even tragically incomplete answers (usually having to do with human emotions alone). It’s especially important to note when media professionals ask valid, important questions, and then offer answers that directly clash with the “faith once and for all delivered to the saints.” Can faith leaders be silent?

This brings me to a classic signal discussed long ago with students in a Denver Seminary classroom. Stay with me, because this real-life anecdote gets wild in the best sense of that word.

We are talking about the release of the classic music video for “Enter Sandman” by Metallica, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-level metal band.

I am not, as a rule, a metal guy — when it comes to hard rock The Who is more my style. But a friend played some Metallica material for me and I quickly recognized that band’s high-voltage anger was often focused on valid issues.

“Enter Sandman” was the No. 1 video on MTV (long ago when MTV was about music) before it was even released. As soon as it was out, I played it in my seminary class and asked students (including a few youth ministry and pastoral counseling majors) to focus on the lyrics and the powerful images — in which a young child’s attempts to pray are starkly contrasted with “snakes” that soon surround him, representing the evil in his scary world.

Now I lay me down to sleep
Pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I die before I wake
Pray the Lord my soul to take

Hush little baby, don't say a word
And never mind that noise you heard
It's just the beasts under your bed
In your closet, in your head

Exit light
Enter night
Grain of sand

Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
We're off to Never—Neverland

By all means, watch the video and, well, look for symbols of pain and brokenness. Any answers? None. But what are the “wars” and “liars” under this child’s bed?

Now, you need to know that this class was in a large classroom that had no windows, thus with no way to see the typical afternoon storm that was rolling in from the Rocky Mountains.

I played the video, with the volume loud enough for students to hear the lyrics. When the song was over, I asked: “Does anyone have a comment?”

At that moment, a bolt of lightning hit a power transformer just behind the building, plunging us into total darkness. I asked: “OK, does anyone else have a comment?” There was nervous laughter.

Then the lights came back on and the clock on the wall was shorted out or something. The hands were turning backwards at a higher-than-normal rate of speed.

This was decades before the soaring statistics that we are seeing, today, linked to anxiety, depression, suicide and various forms of acidic confusion. Exit light. Enter night, indeed.

What are the wars, beasts and liars under the beds of young people? Are there clues in the mass-culture in which they swim or in the social media bytes accessed with thousands of clicks each day?

Again, I am not suggesting that this kind of “signal” be played in worship. No way. But how about a retreat for parents? Maybe for discussion with a pastor during a youth meeting?

“Enter Sandman” was three decades (plus) ago. Are there valid, worthy signals around us today? Does anyone have a comment?