‘Superman For All Seasons’ and ‘Superman: Red Son’ portray how different the Man of Steel would end up if he grew up in Kansas or Soviet Union ruled Ukraine.
Superpowers like flight, heat vision, freeze breath, flight and light speed are only abilities surrendered to the will of the mind. And doctrine(s) internalized will the mind.
If THE Superman was at the mercy of the influencing doctrines he grew with, how much more us? How much more are we the result of the doctrines we internalize?
Superman: Red Son under Stalin
How would Superman turn out if he was Stalin’s greatest weapon?
Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union who was influenced as a youth reading the Communist Manifesto.
In the comic book written by Mark Miller, Superman reasoned that in order to keep order in the world, everyone and everything needed micromanagement or at last resorting to turn the disobedient into mindless society serving machines.
Superman For All Seasons
How would Superman turn out if he grew up in a small town in Kansas under humble, loving and morally sound parents?
Wouldn’t Clark be able to attend school, fall in love, receive pastoral advice and dream big in the pursuit of happiness?
The creative team of Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale and Bjarne Henson bring us THE Superman aka Clark Kent, who was free to make his own decisions and pursue his dreams with truth, justice and the American way.
Roy Schwartz, author of ‘Is Superman Circumcised?’ explains the American Way best with:
“But what is the American Way if democracy, freedom, pluralism and coexistence?”
Different doctrines lead to beliefs with Different outcomes
Like the different Supermen above, our lives bend towards the doctrines that form our worldview. Better said: Our lives bend towards the doctrines we choose to believe in.
The Doctrine used in creating the original Superman of Action Comics
According to Roy Schwartz, author of ‘Is Superman Circumcised?”, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shushter grew up on Glenville, a Yiddish speaking neighborhood in Cleveland with Siegel’s mother being an active participant in the affairs of the Jewish community. Therefore the ‘Superman’ who fights for truth, justice and peace probably sprang out from Jewish Biblical doctrines the boys grew up with.
Early stories of Superman and what he stood for uncannily reflected many Jewish beliefs, legends and folklore. For one, everyone knows Kal-El’s origin story is a mirror of the origin story of the greatest Prophet to the Hebrews (Jews today), Moses.
What Doctrine developed the Morality of the West?
The West, was built on the morality of Judeo-Christian beliefs, according to British Journalist for The Times and author, Melanie Philips. She goes on to explain the breakdown of this morality and the roots of it in the video above.
Late Timothy Keller, Founder of Redeemer City Presbyterian Church, in his 2017 talk at Google explained that Friederich Nietzsche affirmed that even if we had no belief in God but believe in human dignity, care for the poor and equal rights, we are still Christian whether we like it or not.
Even Richard Dawkins, the author of ‘The God Delusion’ identifies himself as a cultural Christian even though he doesn’t agree with the Christian faith!
Examples of Doctrines that destroy people and communities
Radical Islamic Ideology
Elliot Abram, the senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) wrote in a post on 31 March 2025:
“As the report says,
blackboard notations, classroom posters, and graffiti openly glorify terrorism, celebrate the October 2023 massacres and honour Hamas terrorist figures killed in the war. Documented evidence from these classrooms confirms that incitement remains a core pillar of Palestinian education in Gaza, despite the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis.
It’s worth noting a few examples:
A Grade 11 lesson within the History package implies that Jews control the world, using classic antisemitic iconography of a hand bearing a Star of David gripping a globe….An Islamic Education textbook further reinforces antisemitic tropes, portraying Jews as deceitful manipulators who attempted to lead the Prophet Muhammad away from his faith….Jihad, terrorism and martyrdom are romanticized and encouraged…”
Imagine how children imbued with terrorist ideology will grow up to be like?
Black Lives Matter (Marxist)
In a commentary by Mike Gonzalez and Andrew Olivastro:
“Just ask BLM leaders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal TometiIn a revealing 2015 interview, Cullors said, “Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists.” That same year, Tometi was hobnobbing with Venezuela’s Marxist dictator Nicolás Maduro, of whose regime she wrote: “In these last 17 years, we have witnessed the Bolivarian Revolution champion participatory democracy and construct a fair, transparent election system recognized as among the best in the world.”
Millions of Venezuelans suffering under Maduro’s murderous misrule presumably couldn’t be reached for comment.“
Gender Ideology
A commentary on radical gender ideology by Jonathan Pidluzny and Alexandra Caro Campana:
“Why are huge numbers of young people, for the first time in recorded history, suddenly demanding radical pharmaceutical and medical interventions so that they can present themselves as members of the opposite sex? A leading theory that a social contagion has taken hold posits similarities between skyrocketing rates of trans-identification today and previous instances of peer contagion like anorexia (Littman, 2018). If friend groups are responding to the anxieties that inevitably come with puberty by adopting new gender identities (strongly encouraged by social media influencers during a period of the online immersion wrought by COVID-19 lockdowns), our Nation has every reason to fear many will face terrible pain, sadness, and regret in the years to come.”
Notice the term: Gender Ideology.
Gender ‘Ideology‘ – an ideology is a form of teaching, a doctrine.
What we believe to be true and act out as a result of that believe is a result of the narrative given to us.
Why are conservative Christians against gender ideology? Because they base their belief on the Bible, based on Judeo-Christian moral standards, that if God created you male or female, then you are male or female without a shadow of a doubt.
What Jesus said about Doctrines
The last book of the Christian Bible, the book of Revelation, was written by Jesus’ last surviving disciple, John or as tradition calls him, St John the Apostle. Fun fact: St John was the only Apostle to die of old age while exiled on the island of Patmos.
It was there on Patmos, that the risen and had already ascended into heaven Jesus the Messiah (still well and alive) spoke to St John and commanded him to write to seven churches in Asia Minor, two of which were in Pergamum and Thyatira.
St John wrote his letter to the seven churches in about AD 95, but what’s astonishing is that Jesus explicitly mentions two historical figures who were super villains of the Jewish scripture, Balaam (~1400 BCE) and Jezebel (~843 BCE).
According to Jesus, the doctrines of these super villains invaded the churches in Pergamum and Thyatira respectively, causing believers to commit extreme sexual immorality and offering foods sacrificed to other gods. Any believer of Jesus the Messiah who obeyed those super villain doctrines resulted in judgement, and for the followers of the false Prophetess ‘Jezebel’, the judgement is death.
Let us ponder on the mind-blowing facts above:
Jesus is saying that doctrines are deep rooted into history, all the way down to their very first inception.
The worldview we form according to the doctrines we learn, the teachings that we hold on to will show up in the decisions we make and manifest in behavior.
Wouldn’t it be wise for us to examine the doctrines we belief?
The Words of Jesus the Messiah to Jews and Gentiles:
Revelation 2:14-16 New King James Version
But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.
Revelation 2:20-25 New King James Version
Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.“Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come.
We Can Repent, Change our Minds
The trajectory of our lives is very much similar to Kal-El who crashed landed in the land of the free, in Kansas of the United States of America instead of Soviet Union ruled Ukraine. Because the ideas we choose to believe will ultimately set the course of our lives to be saviors or slaves.
Doctrines define our lives to stand for truth, justice and peace or conformity to lies, confusion and enslavement.
Fortunately, we have the freedom of choice, we have FREEWILL to make informed decisions based on truth. Yes! Truth.
We gotta be more like Lois Lane, reporter for the Daily Planet who will not stop the pursuit of truth until she hits ‘Jackpot!’ and exposes all of Lex Luthor’s lunacy.
There are doctrines that destroy life and there are doctrines that lead to life. Chances are that the doctrines that lead to life preserve love, justice, truth and peace.
Personally, I believe truth is found in the Jewish Bible and by extension, the New Testament of the Christian Bible (which is primarily Jewish too.)
Above all, we need a hunger for truth and not settle for everything we are fed with either in the world of news media or entertainment media.
What is one truth we need to equip ourselves with today in my opinion?
We gotta know the truth about Antisemitism and the contribution of Jews and Israel to the world instead of following the mass rhetoric who either back terrorist ideologies without much insight or don’t dare speak against the terrors of terrorism and terrorist ideologies that destroy the freedom of people.
The Pursuit of Truth
Singapore’s National Library Board launched its S.U.R.E programme in 2013 to encourage Singaporeans to discern truth from fake news.
S: Source
U: Understand
R: Research
E: Evaluate
I love this simple framework. I’ll use it as a guide to seek out the truth in my own words below.
With voices from all over the internet telling us what to believe, we need to draw back and ask:
- Who/Where is the Source of the information/news from? Is it biased? Is it reliable? Who is the source of the source?
- Do we Understand what we read/consume/watch? Do we need to check out multiple Sources to understand what we are consuming?
- Have we done enough Research to Understand the nature of the content we consume?
- After we have found the Source(s), Understood the material(s) and did our Research, we should Evaluate our position on the matter and respond accordingly.
Prayer for you
Father, I pray that You’ll provide wisdom and knowledge to the reader to seek truth and have a renewed mind to inquire and uncover truth in every matter. In Jesus name, Amen!