Pie in the Sky on TV's “Firefly”

Promotional cast photo of Firefly

“Burn the land and boil the sea, you can’t take the sky from me.” Bluesman Sonny Rhodes’ theme-tune performance nailed the tone of TV’s Firefly. The nine crewmembers of the bucket freighter Serenity have, for individual reasons, abandoned life on terra firma and elected to live in the vacuum between planets. Over fourteen episodes and one feature film, those individual reasons dribble out slowly, equating to various forms of injustice.

American theologian Howard Thurman insists we understand Jesus best by understanding historical context. Jesus’ message of humble resistance makes most sense amid Roman occupation and Jewish subjection. Before Jesus, Jews had three responses. “What must be the attitude toward the rulers,” Thurman asks, “the controllers of political, social, and economic life?” Some, like the Sadducees, adopted Greco-Roman styles, while others, like the nonviolent Pharisees and violent Zealots, doubled down on Jewish identity.

Thurman’s third option is simply absenting oneself from society. This was the option favored by the Essenes at Qumran. Rather than submit to Rome’s bootheel, the Essenes fled Judea altogether, tended flocks among the caves, and refused to participate in society. This allowed the Essenes to maintain Levitical purity by simply not having their practices challenged. The empire can’t threaten us if we simply walk away from the empire.

This third option seems appealing when the empire’s yoke is intolerable, but also inescapable. Religions in particular, but also certain philosophies, urge True Believers to leave the empire. From ancient Essenes and Benedictines to modern hippies and Maharishi followers, morally pure people often yearn to rebuild society. The simple fact that these communities seldom outlive their founders doesn’t dissuade True Believers from trying again.

Nathan Fillion as Captain Malcolm Reynolds

Captain Mal, commanding the Serenity, takes this impulse to an uncommonly literal level. Saint Benedict promised believers they could, by following simple rules, reject the empire and live in the Heavenly City now. Captain Mal literally lives in the sky. Because his empire, yclept the Alliance, controls every planet in the ’Verse, he simply rejects the empire, leaves the planets, and—despite being outspokenly atheist—tries to go to Heaven.

I’m reminded of Swedish-American labor activist Joe Hill, who wrote folksongs to unify the labor movement. Among his most famous, his song “The Preacher and the Slave” coined the phrase “Pie in the Sky When You Die” to mock conservative Christians’ belief that passive compliance with unjust laws guaranteed a beneficent afterlife. Going to Heaven, in Hill’s view, seemingly meant selling out to unjust authorities here on Earth.

Both Captain Mal and his creator, Joss Whedon, would seemingly agree there. Whedon, like Mal, has nothing generous to say about Christianity. Yet throughout his works, characters continue believing in capital-T Truth, which is found through first leaving human society, then returning to it. Many Joss Whedon narratives, like Buffy or The Avengers, have a contemporary setting that, while altered, reflect our world. Firefly uniquely leaves Earth altogether.

This lets the protagonists do something seen frequently in other Whedon properties: go to Heaven now, before they’re dead. Captain Mal makes explicit something only lurking tacitly behind Buffy or Captain America. Whether fighting the Alliance, vampires, or Chitauri, Whedon’s protagonists must first leave this plane, often multiple times, then return armed to fight this world’s battles.

Joss Whedon

(As an aside, Captain Mal provides a perturbing metaphor. Whedon modeled Mal on ex-confederates who refused to surrender, like Frank and Jesse James, and headed West as outlaws. This seems like Lost Cause apologia, and former fans have turned against Firefly for this. But the episode “Shindig” specifies that the victorious Alliance, not the defeated Independents, practice slavery. Historically, this makes sense. As James McPherson writes, the Confederacy lost the war, but arguably won the peace.)

Unfortunately, fleeing the world never works. The world eventually barges in. Throughout history, peoples have used the cloak of religion to seek solace in isolated locations like Qumran, Monte Cassino, or Canyon de Chelly. The empire eventually overrun and destroyed all these locations. Each one is now a national park or historical center, demonstrating the ultimate fate of those who flee: their lives are frozen in time, as artifacts.

Like the Essenes at Qumran, or the Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee, the Serenity crew attempts to disavow participation in the empire. But the empire keeps dragging them back in. That’s because, as Joe Hill realized, Heaven isn’t a place to camp during this life. Capital-T Truth will only be found by facing the empire on the ground. Because eventually, they will take the sky from you.