Tonight I watched the seminal documentary The Captains with my brother and sister, and I was massively burdened by something.
The Captains is a documentary by William Shatner on the personal and professional backgrounds of the six people who have acted as captains of the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek franchise. It was terribly interesting to see all the different actors' approaches to Star Trek and to hear what they took from the show; epic as always to see the self-important Shatner in action; but all of the fun and geeking out left of my brain in a second when I heard one of Mr. Shatner's final interview segments.
I had read before that William Shatner is afraid of death. In an interview that he did last year with Piers Morgan, he said this:
"I'm -- I'm -- I'm -- I have palpitations about wondering what the mystery -- why are -- what's happening? What's going to happen? What is going to happen when we die? ... I'm in torment. I'm in terror. I'm terrified. I envy the people who say, oh, well, I've got my name in the golden book and I'm going to be entered into the pearly gates."*
He repeated the same sentiments in The Captains, even going so far as to include a whole segment of the video in which he asked each of the other actors what they thought would happen after death. No one was able to offer a satisfactory answer, and his concern was visibly not lessened.
Mr. Shatner is 83 years old. Even though he is in very good health for someone his age, he is inevitably nearing the end of his life. And in his present state, living as an unbeliever without Christ, very soon his deepest fear will come to pass: he will leave this life and be faced with an eternity in which all of his life and work mean nothing. Not one of his millions of fans will be able to grab his soul and pull him out of the torment into which he is slipping.
Now, as is painfully evident from my blog design, I am a Trekkie. Like any Trekkie worth her salt, I love William Shatner. He is my one and only beloved Enterprise captain, and despite his unpredictable mouth and enormous ego, I'm not un-fond of him as a person either. And for all of these reasons, my heart breaks to think of him facing eternity with consternation and terror. Because he can have his name in the book of life. He can accept Christ as his Savior and walk through the gates of heaven with joy. Why not? As long as he's alive, it will never be too late; and I believe that God loves him and wants to adopt him into His family as much as He wants to adopt any other person.I am going to be adding Mr. Shatner to my list of celebrities whom I pray for regularly. Maybe a little prayer support would give him the boost he needs to find God and His peace before it's too late!!
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* Piers Morgan Tonight, 11/20/2011, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1111/20/pmt.01.html
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