Digital Evangelism Issues

Last known photo of Titanic, leaving Queenstown (now Cobh) 11 April 1912

April 2012 was 100 years since the sinking of the Titanic. There was a big upsurge in books and movies, TV miniseries and documentaries, articles, blogs and social network postings, giving enhanced awareness of this iconic world-changing tragedy, already arguably the best-known accidental disaster of all time.

Cameron’s 1997 film was be re-released in 3D. Two TV drama series screened: Titanic: Blood & Steel from the BBC focusing on the build-time and launch; and Julian Fellowes’ Titanic for ITV looked at the story of the crew and passengers.

If it were a fictional narrative, we would judge it to be hugely well-crafted, a dramatic arc of the highest order. And yet, like so many movie scripts, we’d see it as implausible or way too formulaic for a true drama: “you couldn’t make it up.” (Reasons for this story’s resonance: 1 | 2)

This single-page article (free to reproduce or adapt) suggests ways to use the Titanic story as a starting point for the good news.

Article sections:
Pictures & films | Books | Spiritual parallels | Fact-check & ideas

Pictures and films

Here are evocative and haunting pictures, the only pre-sinking moving film, and survivor interviews:

Still photos, artists’ impressions, video of rescued survivors, 2007 movie stills

Only known moving film of Titanic (plus few cut-in underwater shots)

Fascinating survivor interviews

Watch Part 2, and other survivor interviews. The last survivor of Titanic, Millvina Dean (interview), only died in 2009. See also more stills | underwater wreck film | more underwater.

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Top books

For a superbly-written and gripping human account of the Titanic story, Walter Lord’s A Night to Remember (and sequel The Night Lives On) will surely never be matched, because Lord wrote at a time when he was able to interview many of the survivors. He also provides wise analysis of controversial questions such as which tune the band may have played as the ship went down and the disputed position and inaction of the nearest ship Californian (he was no relation of her Captain Lord).

Lord first caught the Titanic bug in 1926 as a child when his family sailed on the almost identical sister-ship Olympic , which remained in service till 1935. (Incidentally, an account by a crew member of Olympic’s near wrecking when she was off-course in fog and nearly ploughed into the rocky Irish coastline, was published as a letter in The Daily Telegraph some years ago. I have never seen it republished or corroborated. The third sister ship, Britannic, was sunk by a mine off the Greek coast during WW1.)

As a wider encyclopedic handbook, Titanic – An Illustrated History remains one of the best, available very cheap second-hand.

Christian popular-culture writer Steve Turner has written a new book The Band That Played On, the compelling story of the Titanic band members. (You may have read Turner’s excellent biography of Johnny Cash, or his other music/religion related books.)

Also recently published, a biography of White Star chairman Bruce Ismay giving new insights into the life of a frequently reviled and major player in the story: review.

For more background and research, many other booksare available in bookstores and libraries. Some out-of-copyright Titanic books are available free online at Google Books, such as survivor Laurence Beesley’s The Loss of the S.S. Titanic: Its Story and Its Lessons and other free ebooks including a fictional account of a ship called Titan written some years before Titanic. Many survivor stories are available online in past magazine articles.

There is an encyclopedia-style website with exhaustive coverage of topics at Encylopedia Titanica.

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Spiritual parallels

The Titanic story is full of redemptive parallels for conversation starting face-to-face or on Facebook, or to use in articles, webpages, blogs, video shorts, or sermons and talks. Now is the time to start planning them!

Down the years, Christians have found ways to reflect on truths from the story – examples: Wisconsin Christian News | Sermon Central. Although a valuable starting point for evangelism, it must use a sensitive outsider-friendly jargon-free tone.

It was, of course, a metaphorical ‘perfect storm’, with a large number of factors contributing to the disaster. Had even one of them been different, tragedy might have been averted: no binoculars for the lookouts, no moon, abnormally windless calm sea gave no visible white water at the base of the iceberg, minimal crew training, inattention to six clear ice warnings that day, disregard by the nearby Californian of rocket signals. Plus the design: watertight compartments not high enough, only a single-skin hull below water level, and insufficient lifeboats. (Structural modifications were made to the part-built Britannic as a result of the sinking, and retro-fitted to Olympic, which within two weeks sailed with enough lifeboats and rafts for all.) Each of these elements can illustrate aspects of Christian truth: living in the light, being aware of spiritual dangers and their subtle invisibility, being teachable rather than self-sufficient, etc.

The rescue of the survivors by Cunard’s Carpathia, captained by Captain Rostrom (a Jesus-follower), was by contrast a masterclass in good emergency planning, execution and seamanship.

Many parts of this epic resonate with spiritual parallels. The overweening pride and lax corporate culture of White Star Line and its executives in pursuit of ‘gold and glory’ (matched by much of Edwardian high society of the time), its attitude to third-class passengers and mean-spirited treatment of the crew even by the standards of the time (for example their pay was, incredibly, stopped from 2.20am on 15 April, the precise time she sank), design compromises to increase payload or passenger convenience, the oblivious passengers sailing to disaster, the many acts of sheer stupidity or naivety, selfishness or quiet heroism. It could also be said to prefigure the collision course that the smug European nations had set themselves, entering just two years later into a war of unbelievable horror; and of course every other national and international mess that mankind has inflicted on itself before and since.

Perhaps the most resonant parallel is for the individual person – the folly of sailing through life, trusting in the wrong things, ignoring warnings, with mistaken me-centered priorities, unprepared and ill-equipped for tragedy or death: lives built on sand. SermonCentral draws together the many biblical passages and themes that reflect this.

The actions of Christians such as passenger John Harper, band member Bob Bateman, and rescuer Captain Rostrom are also inspiring examples of selfless behavior motivated by faith.

In the fictional 1997 film, we see the clear spiritual parallels of Jack laying down his life for Rose, who also thereby escapes permanently from the unwanted entrapment of the caddish and narcissistic Cal. With a new name, she has effectively died to her old life. Not, maybe, that she deserves it, but that’s what grace means!

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Fact check and more ideas

Be careful not to quote exaggerated supposed facts or urban legend (or even a bizarre conspiracy theory or two) in relation to Titanic. Fact-check everything! It is not true, for instance, that she was officially claimed by the makers to be ‘unsinkable’. Neither was she dramatically larger than any other ship – her sister Olympic was already in service, virtually identical in length, size and design. Titanic’s gross tonnage was only slightly higher, and she had several enhancements in luxury. However both ships were indeed 50% larger than any other ship in service, and built to a new level of sheer luxury.

Nor is the tragedy now the highest maritime loss of life, either in peace-time (4,386: Doña Paz) or war-time (9,300: Wilhelm Gustloff). As for cumulative maritime Atlantic losses, remember with horror, shame or perhaps forgiveness (depending on your ancestry), the most shocking casualty list of all – the estimated 2.2 million abducted Africans traveling the slavers’ euphemistically-named ‘Middle Passage’, who died en route or were dumped alive over the side because of poor health.

Could you use the Titanic story? Articles, blogs, youth groups, services? Post a video clip on your Facebook page and start a discussion? How about a whole themed Titanic meeting for outsiders, with film extracts, videos, poems, music, and more?

“Titanic is not just a cautionary tale – a myth, a parable, a metaphor for the ills of mankind. It is also a story of faith, courage, sacrifice, and above all else, love.”
- James Cameron

Please share other redemptive parallels, online resources, or other comments, using the ‘Comment’ link below.

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