Chosen One Fiction

This is from my old website. My August 8, 2007 entry:

My comments today refer to a recent article published in The New Republic:
The Secret to Selling Sci-Fi. Fantasy Land
by Jane Espenson Only at TNR Online Post date 08.07.07
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w070806&s=espenson080706
The author is no stranger to SF/F -- and publishing in general -- either: "Jane Espenson is a former writer for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and has written episodes for shows including "Angel," "Firefly," "Gilmore Girls," and others. She's currently under a development deal with NBC Universal television while working as Co-Executive Producer on "Battlestar Galactica." She blogs at janeespenson.com. "
In an on-line writer's group I frequent, one of the writers posited that this kind of SF/F might be called "Chosen One" fiction. I agree, and it plays into my belief about SF/F or what some people call "spec-fic". [Short for "speculative fiction", this genre title can cover everything from Robert L. Forward's DRAGON'S EGG to Terry Brook's first book, THE SWORD OF SHANARA to Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake vampire mysteries as well as anything else that spends time speculating on the "not-of-this-mundane-world".]
So, here's my possibly irritating suggestion: being that most people have rejected traditional Christianity, [DEFINED by the Apostle's and Nicene Creeds (and more extensively, the Athanasian Creed. To refresh your memory -- or for a succinct presentation of Christian beliefs, see: http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html ) If a person does not agree with ANY part of these Creeds, then they are not, by definition, a Christian.] they need to believe in SOMETHING. Most people have rejected Jesus Christ as the Chosen One because they: a) don't believe in sin, b) don't believe THEY'VE sinned, or c) they believe that sin is relative and whatever a person believes is sinful can be taken care of by enough good works to balance the sin.
I believe that the human psyche is evolved/made to have some portion of it hope outside of itself -- we have a "god-shaped hole in our hearts" if you will. If God doesn't fill it, it seeks to be filled with something besides God. It hopes that the next subway platform we step onto will be numbered 9 3/4 or that the next glowing light we see in the sky will be saucer-shaped. It desperately seeks to be taken out of this mundane life and be declared SPECIAL.
Science Fiction and Fantasy allows people to fill their "god shaped holes" with magic or aliens, so that we can believe that WE are a Chosen One and are, by definition, SPECIAL (because we have magic); or we believe that the Chosen Ones are coming and that they will choose us as their First Contact because we are in some way ready which also makes us SPECIAL.
The thing is, is that God made us to be Chosen People -- Special -- already: Romans 8:29-30 "For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory."
We don't have to look to Hogwarts or Trantor to find out if we are chosen or not. We have been chosen, by God, for Himself.
I just pray that those who fill their "god shaped holes" with the promises of Rowling and Herbert will come to fill their "god shaped holes" with the one true Son of God...