There Truly Is A Dark Side

The recent and much talked about bank robbery in Long Island, New York, this past week by a man in a Darth Vader custom confirms that the leading and loudest voice in American everyday life is not the voice of politics, but the voice of entertainment. Entertainment, in all its spheres, has such a vital role in the shaping of our cultural minds that one seldom stops to think about its long lasting effects.

There’s a reason or several reasons why the bank robber in case decided to use the disguise he used in his very serious attempt at bank robbery. I wonder how long must he have been thinking about the hold up before actually implementing it? Did he have several customs from which to pick? Which one would have serve the purpose best? Which one would give him the most bang for his buck? No doubt, in deciding to don Vader’s suit, something would have to be surrendered in order to give the robbery more credibility. Alas, no light saber! A handgun would have have to suffice since sometimes reality gets in the way.

It was the handgun more than the custom that made the crime a success. A light saber, had it been possible to use one, would have been the “wow weapon”, but I believe the robber would have still chosen the lethal weapon he used. There’s little resistance to such things and the custom was just a mere disguise. Yet, let us not dismiss the significance of that unequivocal suit.

For over thirty years, our collective psyche has associated that custom with evil, with “The Empire” and “The Dark Side”. The fact that the perpetrator decided to show up as Darth Vader says to us more than a few things, loud and clear. I’ll limit myself to two of them. On one side, it does say that when people decide to commit crimes they can get pretty creative and funny too. (Nothing funny about a hold up, mind you. Just look at the guy behind Vader.) On the other, it also says there truly is something called the Dark Side, something so obscure within us - not outside - it permeates our whole being and consciousness; it permeates our relationships with one another bringing about the sad consequences we see in our world today; and ultimately, it permeates our relationship with God.

I’m pretty sure there have been millions of Vader customs worn by big and small, young and old alike since the Stars Wars saga broke the scene. What I do not know is if this is the first recorded time a Darth Vader custom has been used not on Halloween or Hollywood Boulevard, but at a bank to commit a crime punishable by federal law. Darth Vader doesn’t come across as entertaining at all in that context. And I feel sorry for George Lucas who probably never thought that Vader would come out of the safe haven of his entertainment universe and intersect his non-entertainment one with much gusto and success. I dare say it was only a matter of time. There truly is a Dark Side, my friends, and it exists in the right here and the right now.

However, to put it in Star Wars lingo, the Force also exists in the right here and the right now. In God’s economy, it’s called his love. It’s the only thing capable of taking our Dark-Sideness and turning it upside down. It is God’s love that has the power to infuse with his perfect light all that is dark in us; everything that keeps us blind and far from him. And that love has been demonstrated fully, perfectly, once and for all in Jesus Christ his only son. So good bye, Death Star.