Television Christianity

Ugh.

Television used to represent a sort of alternate reality in which Christians were never seen or heard.  I didn’t have too much of a problem with that.  But now days it seems increasingly popular to feature guest characters who portray Christians as disingenuous, ignorant, or intolerant.

For example, a recent episode of E.R. one of the characters – a lesbian – was reunited with her mother after having been given up for adoption as a child.  Her mother was touring with a Christian singing group and stopped by to meet her.  When the mother discovered her daughter was a lesbian, she was appalled.  Later in the episode she attempted to reconcile with the daughter by saying that she loved her anyway.  The daughter threw it back in her face, saying, “I don’t want your love without your acceptance”. 

Think about what she is saying for a moment.  The daughter didn’t want her mother’s love unless she would also accept her choice to live a homosexual lifestyle.  However, the daughter was equally unable to accept her mother for her beliefs, which told her that homosexuality was a sin that cannot be condoned.

So, who’s the hypocrite here?  Of course, we are expected to side with the daughter, and the lesson learned is supposed to be that we should not only love everyone but embrace everyone for their beliefs, no matter how much we personally disagree with them.  Instead, a viewer paying attention will merely learn that people are quick to dismiss Christians as “a bunch of hypocrites,” not realizing that in saying so they are merely revealing the hypocrisy in themselves.

Another example was on an episode of "Bones."  A DJ was found dead and appeared to have overdosed on methamphetamines.  As it turns out, he had been framed, and was a Christian DJ.  His father, defending his son, says something along the lines of, “My son didn’t do drugs.  He was a good kid.  I taught him to have a personal relationship with Jesus.  Do you understand what I’m saying?  A personal relationship!  Look at this plaster cast of his hands he made as a boy.  When he was young, I took this to a palm reader, and she said she didn’t see any evil in these hands.  So please, find the killer.”

What?  In one breath you talk about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and about consulting a palm reader?  Who writes this stuff?

The father also makes some cheesy comment about “iniquity” being a “Bible word”.  Uhhh…actually, it’s just an archaic English word.  Unless you believe the Bible to have been originally written in King James English.

But the latest and most annoying example of Christian portrayal on Television was this past week on “Lost”.  The character Eko is a Catholic priest.  He tells the character Claire that her baby needs to be baptized.  He says, “Do you know what baptism means?” to which she replies, “It makes it so you get into heaven”.  He smiles in response.  I expected him to correct her, pointing out that no just God would send someone to hell for not having water ritualistically dumped on their head.  But instead, he validates her statement.

Then he says this, “When John baptized Jesus, it is said that the heavens opened up and a dove came down.  This told John something.  It told him that he had just cleansed this man of all his sins.”  After this he baptized both the mother and the baby.

Now, I don’t care what denomination a Christian comes from:  No Christian believes that Christ was baptized in order to be forgiven of his sins.  Christ was equally God and man.  He committed no sin.  These are basic and essential tenets of Christianity.  Besides, when Jesus approaches John for baptism, John says, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”, says that he isn’t even fit to untie Jesus’ sandal, and that Jesus should instead be baptizing him.  And even when John is baptising others, he makes it clear that baptism is a sign of repentance, not an act that grants salvation from sin.

So I wonder:  Is it that hard for the script writers on these shows to find somebody in Hollywood to consult with who has at least opened the Bible before having characters pretend to share what it says?  Could be.  But I’d rather Christians not be represented on television at all than be portrayed as a pack of hypocrites and superstitious fools.

Comments

[Jay]

David, you need to write more. Between this kind of crossed with game reviews, I enjoy it greatly.
I too have often dreaded seeing Christians protrayed as one-track minded simpletons. Teetotalling, anti-fun, starchy phonies with deep skeletons in the closet. I know Hollywood likes conflict in people, but this is just horribly over-done, cliche'd and just plain silly. If they made "Lair Lair" with a lawyer that could tell no lie and actually have a heart of gold, why can't they do the same with an honest Christian? It's not as if we're all on a crusade to kill the gays, shut down dance halls and bring back black and white television. Some of us are actually cool to hang out with. We have gay friends, we know they're going to hell, but we can still love them. We can still show compassion.

[toxikshark]

Whassup, Super Pope.

Man, am I GLAD to see your site is still up. I tried to access almost a month ago and the browser said the page could not be found.

I tell you, my heart just dropped about twenty feet right there. You're one of the few bloggers I greatly respect.

I myself am a Christian (although, I'm a bit more liberal when it comes to a few things, such as swearing - but that explanation will have to wait another day). And, like yourself, I have had a great many beefs with Hollywood's potrayel of Christianity for a long time.

I don't consider myself a cool guy by any stretch of the imagination, but I know I'm nothing like those idiotic fuckers they potray out there on TV and in the movies.

I can't BEGIN to describe how utterly insane it drives me to see us (and God for that matter) disgraced day after day after day. Just about every show seems only to exist to eviscerate the image of God and the Church nowadays.

Yes, I'll concede, many of us really ARE as superficial and judgemental and moronic as the stereotypes convey. Of course, there are fools and hypocrites in EVERY crowd. But the media NEVER conveys Chistianity in a good light. EVER!! Whenever a Xian character appears, I just know that he/she's gonna be the bad guy or some stupid fool who knows nothing about the word "joy" or "pleasure" or even "sex". And if he IS cool, he always turns out to be the villain!

I AM SICK OF IT!!!!! Dude, I don't know how in the world you manage to be so calm, cool and collected to write such a composed articulate article. Sometimes, when I think of it, I am overcome by an irresistable urge to smash shit up.

Anyhow, I'm glad you're still here because God knows we need guys like you. Keep rockin'!

[H.M. Stryx]

It's almost worthless to even watch anything that doesn't proclaim itself metaphorical fiction (read: science fiction) in the current day and age. I'm down to cartoons and friday night aliens now, casting aside the rest as made-for-television domestic violence. It's not just a Christian issue, but how television has shaped the perception of society to such a radical degree while supporting stereotypes just to draw viewers. Like hate speech, apathy and ignorance have an audience that needs the emotional support ideaology like that offers. Something to rail about, to put the world in the background and look away from their own frustration at the static nature of real life.

You should come down to the coffee shop some time and hang out. Or jump on a forum. Some variety (family oriented, community oriented) would be a great break from my usual frustrated observations on media, business, and politics.

[Cindy]

It's all very silly, if you ask me. The fact that people buy into that kind of image fed to them by their tvs is proof enough that people are pretty gullible--certainly AS gullible and closed-minded as they pass Christians off to be. And oddly, those who criticize us act like they won't let us change. Like, they call us hypocritical, and if we're not, then we must not be true Christians and we're living a lie. It boggles the mind.

While yeah, a good deal of the more vocal Christians are judgmental and closed-minded, that's only because they're the vocal ones. The cool Christians are comfortable with their religious standings, and therefore can allow others the freedom to run their own lives. Of course, there are exceptions both ways, but that's the general thing I've found.

I'm glad that other people are speaking out. I've ranted about it so much in the past that I burned myself out. It's good to see others likeminded individuals who are still driven to speak their minds.

[Ron King]

Man, this is smartly written. Having not watched TV in the last 6 years (can't take it...way too stupid...), this essay speaks EXACTLY to the sort of general dumbness society has fallen into when being told what to think. Hollywood is full of paper-thin ploys and see through agendas. Can't say I'm a church going man, but I do believe in common sense and not leading people by the nose, and further more, Hollywood rarely even bothers to research basic history (they are busy re-writting that as fast as possible), so why should they bother getting anything else right that people hold dear to them as an important aspect to living. Stick around, bud...it'll get worse! You remain one of the "sharpest knives in the drawer" as far as I'm concerned. You and I know about this one: maybe you should have a topic on the hypocricy of art. Or maybe you already have covered that one.