The last episodes of Battlestar Galactica’s first season are driven by leaps of faith. President Roslin takes a leap of faith when she decides to ask Starbuck to return to Cylon-occupied Caprica in an attempt to retrieve a mythical arrow that could point the way to Earth. Starbuck takes a similar leap when, against orders, she decides to follow through with the president’s request instead of her commander’s orders. Commander Adama himself takes a leap of faith, though I assume he would prefer to call it a “tactical gamble,” when he asks Boomer to take a Colonial ship fitted with a Cylon transponder into the heart of the enemy’s base ship and drop a nuclear warhead. Meanwhile his son, Lee, decides to place his faith in democracy and side with the president, even though he disagrees with her decision. Helo, who recently found out that his partner is a Cylon, has to decide whether he should kill her because of what she is or trust her because of who she claims to be. The plot thickens when Sharon, the Cylon on Caprica who claims to love him, reveals that she is pregnant with his child. Finally Gaius, whose crisis of faith is one of the show’s consistent sub-plots, finds himself yet again following Six (the Cylon only he can see) who promises to reveal “God’s will” to him.
Faith, it turns out, is an integral part of what this show is all about. Faith in humanity, faith in love, faith in God (or gods), and faith in a plan (or story) that is bigger than any of us and is leading towards a significant end are the kinds of things this show really wrestles with beneath all the laser blasts. For this two-part finale we find President Roslin and Commander Adama facing off about in what they are going to put their faith, or trust. Roslin, who has started to have visions that seem to be a fulfillment of sacred scriptures, decides to place her faith in the gods. In particular, she ascends to the idea that there is something bigger going on than what can be seen and that she has a role to play in this story. Adama, on the other hand, is unwilling to take this risk and opts instead for sensible action based on what can be known through rational means alone.
After all, Roslin wants to find Earth but the search for Earth was simply a ruse that Adama himself created to give the fleet something to live for. Roslin knows this but it does not stop her from believing that Earth actually exists. Adama insists that he’s not trying to mock Roslin’s faith but he begs her, “Don’t let it blind you to the reality we face.” Therein lies a conundrum. For Roslin, the best hope the fleet has is tied to a legendary artifact left on Caprica. For Adama, it is dropping a nuclear bomb in the heart of the enemy’s ship. Both of them need the captured Cylon spaceship to get the job done. Adama appeals to reality as a trump card to Roslin’s faith but the tricky thing about faith is that it must intersect with reality if it is to be of any value.
I’d be the first to admit that there is far too much division in the world we live and that we, the Church, should focus more on hospitality than hostility. However, the fact is that there are times when the issue at stake cannot be resolved because we see the world differently than those with whom we are in dialogue (there are, of course, respectful ways to disagree and disrespectful ways to disagree). I think that often this series invites us to see all of society through its lens, but my goal in writing about this series was never to address society.
Instead, I set out to talk about the ways that the Church, particularly the Church in Western culture, can see itself as a group of pilgrims who are in this world but seeking a better one. I don’t have an answer for the way faith should play out in the public sphere; in fact, I’m quite sure there isn’t one answer to that problem. So whether the nations should follow leaders like Commander Adama, who places his faith in reliable assets like military strength and refuses to speculate on what cannot be seen or place their faith in people like President Roslin, who believes that those things which cannot be seen are the very forces that guide our future, I do not know. There is no question for me, however, which kind of leader the Church should follow.
In Isaiah chapter seven, the latter part of verse nine offers these words, “If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all” (Isaiah 7:9b). We should not avoid reality, nor should we be bitter to those who prefer to make choices based solely on what can be discerned by factual evidence. I don’t even think that we should allow ourselves to be out of touch with such evidence. We cannot, however, be a people that relegate faith to a place of uselessness. Faith in God, in scripture, and in the idea that there is a better world that we as a people are moving towards must meet with reality and ultimately it must transform that reality. If we do not stand in faith, well we won’t really be standing then, will we?
So where does the series land? Is faith rewarded or did the president send Starbuck on a fool’s errand? The first season decides to leave us in the dark about such things. It seems for a moment like Commander Adama’s trust in his pilots is worth more than Roslin’s faith in the gods. The base ship is destroyed and Boomer and her co-pilot return to a hero’s welcome. Unfortunately, Adama’s trust is betrayed when his faithful pilot, who is actually a Cylon sleeper agent, unloads her weapon into his chest. Trusting in only what we can objectively know can be dangerous since there is so much that eludes us. So we are left with Starbuck now stranded on Caprica, Gaius Baltar stranded on Kobol, Lee Adama in handcuffs, President Roslin in a cell, and Commander Adama bleeding out on the bridge. A happy ending seems a long way off, if there such a thing exists at all. Indeed, based off what can be seen, it looks as if our friends in the fleet may never reach earth. Similarly, there are days when I feel we may never reach the renewed world because the brokenness of this world is so overwhelming. Thankfully, because we are a people of faith, we are not limited to what we can see. As it says in Hebrews, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
Oh God give us the strength to live for that we cannot see.
Do not let our understanding of reality shape how we see You but transform our understanding of reality by giving us the eyes of faith.
As we travel through this world as a pilgrim people help us to not abandon it, but give us the strength to shape it to reflect the world that is to come, the world without end.
Amen.