How pop culture heroes like Spider-Man and Hawkeye can help you talk about God in everyday life  

Twenty or so years ago, if anyone had a question about Christianity, it would be about the truth of God and His Word.

“They didn’t usually doubt their faith until they got to college. And when they started doubting, they were doubting the miracles of Christianity: Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Did God really create the world? Is the Bible really inspired? Did the miracles in the Bible really happen?

“Now the doubt begins with morality, not with miracles. People still doubt the miracles, but that’s not where the doubts are beginning. It has moved from ‘Is God’s Word true?’ to a focus on ‘Is God’s way good?,” said Dr Timothy Paul Jones.

Dr Jones was speaking at D6 Singapore Family Conference 2025 (July 25-26) which was attended by over 400 people from more than 50 churches. This year’s theme was “As We Go”.

A  Professor of Christian Family Ministry at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he is also Vice President, Dr Jones is also a Pastor at Sojourn Church Midtown, and an author and cohost of The Apologetics Podcast.

At the session on the afternoon of the first day of the Conference where participants learn to live out Deuteronomy 6 at home and in the community, Dr Jones shared how to do “Everyday Apologetics”.

What is apologetics?

“One time I was speaking on apologetics and I overheard somebody say, ‘He’s going to do a whole session teaching people how to apologise’,” said Dr Jones with a smile.

“But that’s not what apologetics is actually about. Apologetics is about defending your faith.”

While apologetics is not new, how it can be done has changed over time.

“It says in Numbers 23:19 that God is not a mortal that He should change His mind. God’s truth never changes.

“But the challenges to God’s truth do change, and therefore our strategies for defending God’s truth have to change.”

Dr Jones shared about a woman who went to see him after attending a session he taught about God’s perspective on human sexuality. She had also attended an earlier session he had conducted about the resurrection.

“This young woman said, ‘I think the resurrection probably happened. I think there’s good evidence for the resurrection.’

“But then she said immediately after that, ‘But I’m not going to become a Christian because according to what you said, God wants me to live the gender I was born with.

“But I think I may actually be a guy and I want to be able to have the capacity to choose whatever gender I want. Because I can’t do that and be a Christian, I’m not going to be a Christian even though I think the resurrection actually happened.’”

To defend the faith in the face of these new challenges and “raise a generation of children and young adults who do not follow the gods of other people” (Deuteronomy 6:14), Dr Jones shared tips on how to do apologetics in the everyday.

How to do everyday apologetics with your kids and other youths

1. Leverage movies and TV shows to

a) Show God’s good design

While watching a movie or TV show together, you can ask your children: “What in this movie points to the goodness of God’s design in His creation?”

Said Dr Jones: “Sometimes a movie is visually stunning. Do you realise that that points to the beauty of God and the fact that God created us as creative beings?”

Sharing about his favourite movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse where Miles Morales, who is Spider-Man in one universe, travels to alternate universes and meets other versions of Spider-Man, Dr Jones said that God could have “created a black and white world or a world that’s flat and ugly”. Instead, He created a “visually stunning world and human beings so that they can create beautiful things”. This points to God’s good design.

In Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Avengers sought refuge at Hawkeye’s home as the world fell apart around them. The home as a sanctuary speaks of “the beauty of the relationship of a husband and a wife, and their children”, said Dr Jones.

Clint Barton aka Hawkeye may be an Avenger but he is also a loving father and husband whose home is a safe place. Screengrab from The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Nature documentaries is another great way to bring in God’s design. Theoretical physicists and Nobel laureate, the late Steven Weinberg, who despite being a firm atheist, once said: “Nature is more beautiful than is strictly necessary.”

“That’s a way you can do everyday apologetics. You’re watching TV shows, you’re watching movies, watch them together and talk about how God made the world good. What in this movie pointed to God’s good design?”

b) Ask how sin is portrayed

Another question you can ask your children is: “What lies does this movie try to tell us about God?”

For example when watching Star Wars movies, parents can discuss the difference between God and the Force. When viewing Marvel movies, the talk can be about who really gets to decide what is right and wrong, and what makes something right or wrong.

“Do you realise that every great movie and TV show you watch, at some point, somebody will have to make a sacrifice to make things right? Do you know why that is?

“It’s because of the fact that we all know deep inside we need a sacrifice. We need it. And every show that you watch will eventually point to that because we are designed knowing deep inside that we need a sacrifice.”

That presents the perfect opportunity to talk about the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made dying on the cross for man’s sin.

c) Question the need for hope

God is making the world new. How is hope shown in what you watch?

“Very few movies leave you with no hope at all. Why do we have that hope? Because we know deep inside it’s real, that God will make the world right and new.”

Then point to the cross of Jesus ad how God is making things news.

2. Teach gratitude for God-created sexuality

How do we stand against the false ideas of sex and gender in our world and help our children do the same? Teach them to be grateful for the gender in which God created them.

In Romans 1:21, Paul talks about how people, though they knew God, did not honour Him or give thanks, and because of that, there was confusion.

“What Paul is saying is that before someone rejects God’s design, they aren’t thankful for God’s design,” said Dr Jones.

Following Deuteronomy 6:7 that speaks of talking about the faith “when you lie down and when you get up”, Dr Jones urged the participants to work gender affirmation into bedtime routines.

“Say something like, ‘I’m so glad God made you a girl. I’m so glad that God gave me a young man in my life to be my child.’

“Never mock your children on the basis of cultural gender stereotypes. Sometimes it’s easy for us to say, ‘Boys are so rambunctious, drives me crazy. Girls are so emotional, drives me crazy.’

“You are implicitly communicating to your child that your gender, your sexuality is not something to rejoice in, but something that’s a problem, something that’s a pain.”

3. Help them balance truth and love

God wants us to have truth and love. But sometimes to love we think we have to compromise the truth, and to support the truth we need to be unloving.

“When you encounter somebody who is clearly trying to live outside God’s good design, what do you do?

“You either ignore it because maybe your children won’t notice it. Wrong answer because they noticed it. Or you say, ‘That was disgusting. That’s just gross.’ Neither of those are the right answers.

“Let me encourage you to do two simple things: Explain God’s design and pray with compassion.”

For example, when encountering someone struggling with gender issues, parents can help children understand the inner turmoil the person might be feeling and encourage discussions on God’s design for gender and sexuality. Then stop and pray for the person.

“This will help your children develop an attitude of, yes, this is God’s truth and God’s standard. We’re not going to compromise that. But to have compassion.”

In this way, you demonstrate for your children the “intrinsic value of human life”. This is also a great way to bring in God because the world wants everyone to be treated with compassion and kindness, but there is no reason for that except for the fact that we are all created in God’s image.

“Help your children to recognise that they are borrowing something from the Christian faith even though they may not even believe in God’s image.”   

4. Don’t shun popular culture

Traditional Christianity tends to avoid or criticise popular culture. But Dr Jones points out that instead of opposing, parents can choose to engage their children on the shows that all their friends are watching.

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse reflects how God created a visually stunning world and human beings so that they can create beautiful things, said Dr Jones. Screengrab from Netflix.

“You need to be watching it and reading it, and you need to be engaging with it. Your kids should not be watching a TV show that you’re not also watching or reading books that you’re not also reading because you don’t know what’s going into their mind.”

For more details about next year’s conference, do head over to biblesociety.sg/registration, which is now taking early bird registrations.  

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