Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation

1 Comment July 16, 2019 Steve Wiggins

One of the iconic moments in all of cinema, known well beyond the confines of sci-fi and horror fans, is the alien bursting out of Executive Officer Kane’s chest. The movie, of course, is Alien. The screenwriter, Dan O’Bannon, was also known for contributing to Star Wars, Total Recall, and Return of the Living Dead. Alien is one of those horror films I was too afraid to watch when it came out in 1979. I was sixteen at the time, and had been primed by commercials that still haunt me. I would eventually, in seminary, see Aliens and prompted by curiosity, eventually went back to watch the original. It has since become one of my favorites, and analysts of genre fiction and religion quite often point to the iconic role of Ridley as worthy of theological mention. Her self-sacrifice in the third installment has been heralded as one of the many cinematic messianic moments.

Science fiction and horror are closely related genres. They can be teased apart in Alien only with extreme finesse. Consider the most famous scene again. Kane, while on the derelict alien vessel on LV-426, has the unfortunate experience of an alien larva sealing itself to his face. The crew of the Nostromo can’t get the creature off—whenever they provoke it, it wraps its tail more tightly around Kane’s throat or leaks acid. Then it falls off and dies. Everyone, not least Kane, is relieved. He joins the rest of the crew for a meal, but then shows signs of distress. Something is eating him from inside. The alien rips out and the line from sci-fi to horror is irrevocably crossed. That unforgettable scene immediately became a classic of the genre.

Dan O’Bannon, the screenwriter, suffered from Crohn’s Disease. He attributed the alien-bursting scene to his own experience with the condition, which eventually took his life. Someone in my family was recently diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, a disease similar to Crohn’s. In response I did something I’d never done before; I started a fundraiser on Facebook. The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation is a non-profit organization funding research into these debilitating illnesses. It offers support to those who suffer with the diseases, the incidence of which is on the rise. I once told my family member about O’Bannon’s use of his own suffering as the inspiration for that cinematic moment. It brought a rare smile in the midst of a flare, a smile with a little too much understanding for a young person. If only Ripley were here to take control of a menace far too human.

1 Comment July 10, 2019 Steve Wiggins

Most people, I suspect, don’t think about diseases until someone they know is afflicted. It’s natural enough to try to avoid thinking of the negative, and I know that I’ve always felt overwhelmed when it came to worthy causes seeking donations. I surprised myself, therefore, but putting up a Facebook fundraiser for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Someone close to me was diagnosed with the disease, and seeing suffering first-hand has a way of changing your perspective. You want to do whatever you can to help. Instead of feeling completely at the mercy of chance, I put my fundraiser online and I’m hoping for the best. A doctor I know informed me that foundations for diseases are among the most helpful websites for those with the condition.

In my mind, as in that of many others, disease is intricately tied in with theodicy—the problem of innocent suffering in the presence of a God supposed to be good. Theodicy is frequently the first stop on the road to non-belief, as a careful reading of many of the “new atheists” reveals. No theologian has devised a satisfying theodicy. The question always comes down to the fact that a universe without debilitating diseases can be imagined by those of us with feeble human abilities, so why not by an almighty being with no limitations? Human evil can be attributed to free will. Natural evil, such as diseases not keyed to behaviors that lead to them, is a different matter. Often we’re left to our own human devices against conditions we don’t fully understand.

Facebook may not be the best place to post a fundraiser, however, it has a reach far greater than this simple blog, and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation page helps to get such fundraisers set up. For all of its problems, Facebook does provide a way to bring people together for common causes. Seeing someone we know suffering is never easy. And there are so many worthy causes out there. The situation naturally reminds me of the book of Job. People who turn to it looking for an answer to why innocent people suffer (Job is presented as perfect in the prologue to the story) come away disappointed. No reason is given and the question of theodicy is left unanswered beyond the claim that human understanding is limited. God may ask how Job has the boldness to question divine action, but there’s no suggestion that he shouldn’t try to find relief with his broken potshard. My Facebook fundraiser is my potshard, I guess, although the larger questions still remain.