OVERVIEW

For four seasons of the mid-1990s, in the U.S., Australia, Norway, and Ireland, the television program "X-Files" has been popular among adults and teenagers. Sex, violence, and the probing of borders of reality (ESP, telekinetics, UFOs’ reincarnation, werewolves, and urban vampires) are certainly part of the attraction. But there seems to be more in terms of a search for truth and spirituality. "X-Files" may be one of the most discussed programs going.

Part of its appeal is arguably its provision of a spiritual aura to an age hungry for new forms of beliefs and worship. Glenn Easterly (Easterly, G. [1997, June 1]. TV’s guardian angels. Saturday Evening Post.) counted more than twenty spiritually-minded television shows of the 1997-1998 season, including "Touched by an Angel", "Promised Land," "Seventh Heaven," and "Early Edition."

In the "X-Files," FBI agent Fox Mulder, an Oxford-trained detective, is a modern objectivist. His attractive female assistant, Dana Scully, is medically trained and even more cautious in accepting the paranormal. The shows mottos are "Trust no one" and "The truth is out there."

Executive director of the program, Howard Gordon, admits that Mulder and Scully are "tour guides (through the current) chaos that we’re having to navigate." Chris Carter, creator of the "X-Files" goes further:

The ‘I Want to Believe’ poster hanging in agent Mulder’s office sums up a personal longing. ‘I’m a skeptic, and I want to be challenged. I want to believe in something.’ That’s the heart of the show and what infuses the characters.

To me, the idea of faith is really the backbone of the entire series—faith in your own beliefs, ideas about the truth, and so it has religious overtones always.

Many of the shows are far from addressing traditional Jewish, Christian, or Muslim beliefs. However, in one third-year episode entitled, "Revelations," the agents are confronted with a little boy with blood flowing from his hands and side (as in the classic Christian sign, stigmata, which appeared in saints who deeply contemplated the wounds of Christ). In this episode, Scully, a Catholic, convinces the skeptical Mulder that God may be speaking through this child. Toward the end of the program, the shaken Scully retreats, for the first time in many years, to the confessional. There she admits to the priest that she is afraid "that God really may be speaking. And no one’s listening."

In this article Clapp concludes with regrets and questions about the dark and malevolent emphases of this series:

I stand by my initial assertion. The ‘X-Files’ is television’s sharpest and most consistently rewarding exploration of epistemology. And it’s almost as much fun as reading Rorty or Plantinga…But ultimately, it seems, in the world of ‘X-Files,’ the ineffable is evil—and viciously so. The truth is out there. But it is swaddled in darkness, and it wants to destroy all thing bright and beautiful.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What statements and ideas from this article interest you?
2. How many young people you know watch the "X-Files"?
3. How do you feel about using this type of media to discuss spirituality and faith or to teach values?
4. How would you use material from this article to spark a discussion? Where do you think such discussions with teenagers might lead?

IMPLICATIONS

• There is fascination in the occult, aliens, death and reincarnation, and the supernatural in our culture. Parents, teachers, and youth workers need to accept this starting point of the cultural world view.
• While the "X-Files" remains a popular show for teenagers, youth workers ought to find ways to process it with them. Find out why it is attractive and how it makes them feel. Also encourage a discussion of their personal beliefs.
• Since this show produces some episodes on video, short clips of significant scenes may be used as discussion starts.

Michael Dahl and Dean Borgman cCYS