Archive for the ‘TV and Movies’ Category

“The Bible” running commentary

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Millions of people have tuned into the History Channel these past couple weeks to check out “The Bible,” a 10-part drama airing over 5 weeks, culminating on Easter Sunday.  Producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey (husband and wife) desire to “tell a metanarrative, a grand sweeping love story from Genesis to Revelation.”  They also see their film as striking a blow against “biblical illiteracy” in a culture increasingly ignorant of and unaffected by the Bible.  In my experience, biblical illiteracy is a problem in the culture, but–more disturbingly–in the Church, and among all generations.  Even while many people who have spend their whole lives in church vaguely remember individual Bible stories from Sunday School classes, very few have any clarity about how the whole Story of the Bible flows and connects, how key threads weave their way through, and most specifically, how the Old and New Testaments have everything to do with each other.

I have watched the first 2 weeks of “The Bible” and spoken with people both inside and outside of my congregation who have also watched it.  Tough crowd.  So far, the reviews I’ve heard have been tepid.  In part, I think this has been the result of over-inflated expectations.  These expectations could come from two sources: 1) big-time marketing, which always over-inflates a new product and/or 2) our persistent search for some all-encompassing resource or program that will magically take care of discipleship and evangelism for us.  So is “The Bible” a success or failure?  Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Here’s the plan.  I’m going to sacrifice all of my St. Patrick’s Day celebration plans (none) and blog through Episode 3 of “The Bible” to offer you my perspective as a pastor.

8:00pm: Ok, so I didn’t forego all my St. Patty’s Day plans.  I’m sitting here, thoroughly enjoying my Shamrock Shake.  Let’s do this.

8:02pm.  To set the scene, so far we’ve we’ve gone from Genesis 1 through the kingship of David (the end of 2 Samuel).  Obviously, a lot has been left out or breezed over.  Some would argue with how Genesis 1-11 (Creation, Fall, Cain/Abel, Noah, Tower of Babel) was treated as mere introduction.  However, that’s exactly what it is in the Bible, a kind of scene-setting for the main storyline of the Bible: Abraham’s family and God’s fulfillment of his promises to Abraham in Gen. 12:1-3.  So I think this was actually an astute interpretive decision (though why they chose to abridge those 3 all-important verses is confusing to me).  Also minimized were the Jacob, Isaac, and Joseph stories.  All amazing stories, but something had to be left out.  I’m ok with the focus on Abraham, the Exodus story, and the use of Samson as a representative example of the Judges cycle (the same pattern is repeated over and over in the book of Judges).  These are key to understanding the overarching narrative, and the time given to each allowed the viewers to connect with the characters and get involved with the human dimension to these stories.  More stories = Less depth when you’re trying to do the Bible in 10 hours.

8:03pm: Wow.  We just skipped all the kings from Solomon to Zedekiah.  This includes the major division of the Israelite kingdom between North (Israel/Ephraim) and South (Judah with Jerusalem, the Temple, and the line of davidic kings).  It also includes the fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria in 722bc, multiple reforms (Josiah and Hezekiah), and the entire ministry of Isaiah.  That’s a lot.  The producers chose to divide the 10-part series equally into 5 Old Testament and 5 New.  This, of course, is not proportionate to the Bible itself and is why this episode feels quite rushed.

8:08pm: They haven’t shied away from the gritty humanity of the Bible.  Lots of violence, blood (both in battle and sacrificial scenes), dirt, and sweat.  Good for them. I’m surprised a bit, because our culture is very sensitive to religious violence and the harming of animals.  On the other hand, this is faithful to the reality of the Bible and makes for great trailers.  Apparently, they’re not afraid to tell it like it is.

8:18pm: Burnett and Downey have done a lot of reading between the lines: Daniel’s capture scene is not in the Bible and the scene in which Zedekiah’s sons are killed takes up all of 4 verses.  I don’t think they’ve stepped out-of-bounds, though.  They have tried to connect the dots in ways that are as historically likely as possible.

8:34pm: The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.  Here is one of the few biblical stories made for tv drama, with a ready-made script.  In this case, I think Burnett and Downey could have stuck directly to the text of Daniel 3 and had themselves a far more compelling scene.  Oh well.

9:06pm: One critique I’ve heard is that there is lots in the movie that isn’t in the Bible.  For instance, the big fight scene in the synagogue on the day Mary finds out she is pregnant.  This is not in the gospel accounts, nor is much of the interaction between Joseph and Mary.  But we must remember, the Bible itself would make for a poor movie script.  Burnett and Downey had to use some artistic imagination 1) to make a watchable movie with an engaging script, 2) to allow us to connect with the characters, and 3) to make up for their lack of time.  So, perhaps there wasn’t a fight on the exact day that Mary encountered the angel, but these 2 images were put together to allow the producers to give the reader a feel for Jewish life under Roman occupation without adding a bunch of extra scenes.  To me, this is valid use of artistic license.  It is also faithful to the concept of the story genre.  Stories draw us in and invite us to engage imaginatively with the characters and scenes.  So are these scenes necessarily exactly how they played out historically?  No.  But do they give us images to help us get into the story?  Very much so.  And I think this is a good thing.

9:20pm: I loved the back-and-forth scenes of Herod’s anxious anger and the grateful and joyful nativity scenes.  This is a contrast–Empire vs. God’s Kingdom–that we see throughout the gospels.

9:24pm: From Lauren (my wife), “Maybe they could’ve fit more in if they didn’t have so many commercials.”  True.  This isn’t the Bible in 10 hours; it’s the Bible in 8.  In addition, the targeted marketing of Christian Mingle and Jeff Foxworthy’s Bible Challenge are kind of embarrassing.   Oh, and is it weird that all the Viking commercials are so easily confused with The Bible movie?  Enough about commercials.

9:35pm: This episode included a lot of extra-biblical events.  For instance, the story of Herod’s eagle on the temple is only found in other ancient sources.  The image of  the child Jesus returning to Galilee and witnessing the crucified man beside the road is another extra-biblical insertion.*  These events either actually happened or were very possible, and they provide important context for us about Jesus’ time.  But there have been other key things left out (Notably, the Ezra/Nehemiah stories including the return to Jerusalem, rebuilding of its walls, recovery of the Torah, and rebuilding of the Temple).  In fact, the Temple–a central piece to the Story–has been pretty much neglected.  This is a tough one, but in a movie called “The Bible,” when so must has to be cut already, I don’t know if these choices make sense to me.  As I said earlier, I think they made a lot of good choices in the first four hours, but am not as sure about this episode.

9:47pm: Great scene–Jesus’ temptation, especially the last part where Jesus pictures Satan’s promise to give him an easy road to a comfortable kingship versus the way of suffering to true Kingship.  This was artistic license at its best.  It conveys the exact thrust of the gospel accounts while imaginatively taking us into Jesus’ mind.  This is what any sermon on Jesus’ temptation could only attempt to convey with mere words.

9:59pm: Loved the scene with Jesus and Peter.  If you read the gospels, you know Jesus had flair, and it looks like this movie is picking up on that.  ”What are we going to do?”  ”We’re going to change the world.”  Good stuff.

One quick story.  Every other week, I meet with 6th-8th graders who are preparing for Confirmation.  We have been going through the Bible’s Story since October, focusing on the key movements (and skipping a lot).  Each week, we recap where we’ve been from the beginning, and each week, the recap goes slowly.  This past week, we flew through it.  Why?  They had watched the first episodes of “The Bible.”  They had pictures in their heads now of Abraham and Moses and the Red Sea, and had connected with the characters in new ways.  People in our culture are used to receiving stories visually, whether via tv or movies more than via reading.  That’s the reality.  And that means, we tend to be able to process and digest visual stories more easily than we do written ones.   So will “The Bible” disciple and evangelize people for us?  No.  But might it be a helpful tool to help people grasp the major movements of the biblical Story, and help people know what’s going on when they land somewhere in the Bible?  It certainly can.  And hopefully, “The Bible” might lead to more modern, artistic, historically accurate, and–dare I say–non-cheesy efforts of conveying the Story of the Bible to people in our image-saturated culture.  All of these are good things.  Not the magic bullet.  But good things.  And for that, I am thankful.

Have you been watching “The Bible”?  What are your thoughts so far?  Feel free to add to the discussion by commenting below!

*For a really engaging reconstruction of Jesus’ return to Galilee from the family’s time of refuge in Egypt, check out Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.

 

Posted in Religion in the news, TV and Movies | No Comments »

Cringe-Factor: watching what’s wrong with our world (and ourselves)

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Ever since Lauren (my wife) and I got a DVR a month ago (yes, we VHS-recorded shows up until 2012), I’ve become obsessive about not watching commercials.  I come up with elaborate schemes by which we can watch the shows we want while never having to channel surf or watch a commercial.  You need to know this about me.  You also need to know this about Lauren: Lauren enjoys watching The Bachelor.  (Sorry honey, I typed it.)  Usually, as proof of her love for me, she indulges in this guilty pleasure when I’m not around.   But on Monday, when it was time for House, in order to avoid watching commercials, I told Lauren I would watch The Bachelor with her for an hour (only half the show–seriously, two hours might have melted my brain).  But here’s the thing: when I watch The Bachelor, I get hooked.  Part of it is that this season’s bachelor is a dead ringer for tennis star Rafael Nadal.  But generally, I think it’s more the car-wreck syndrome, where I’m encountering something so grotesque and disturbing, I just can’t look away!

As we watched, I got to thinking, “The Bachelor is like a window into what’s wrong with our culture.”  That’s good blog material.  Hence, the following “Cringe-Factor” list of shows.  If you watch these shows, I think you will pretty vividly witness some of our culture’s underlying “sin-themes”: threads of beliefs and behaviors woven through our culture that draw us away from God and the Good News.  To be clear: I don’t think these shows are the primary problem.  They are simply visible illustrations of how some of these deeply-embedded sin-themes are worked out uniquely in our 2012 American culture.  As we read in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

Before we get to the list, a few ground rules for this and potential future “Cringe Factor” posts: 1) This list is not comprehensive, nor will I describe the shows, so if you are unfamiliar with a show, go ahead and look it up, 2) Yes, I am biased and some of those biases will be evident, 3) This is not a “worst shows” list, but shows that I believe provide clear illustrations of common “sin-themes” in our surrounding culture, 4) This is not a command not to watch these shows (that would make me a hypocrite), 5) I’ve chosen some of these shows as representatives for a category, not because that show is particularly worse than others of its kind, 6) These are not the only shows that have “sin issues” (and some have redemptive value), but ones I find most clearly illustrate the sin-theme, 7) While the shows themselves may be trivial, I believe the cultural realities that  make these shows attractive to viewers are anything but trivial and have a wide range of effects on people’s lives and spiritual well-being.  So without further ado, in no particular order, here is my first “Cringe-Factor” list:

1) The Bachelor(ette): No surprise here.  Let’s just look at the stats (feel free to fact check): after 22 seasons, 1 current marriage (season 1), 1 current engagement, 6 break-ups after the show, 12 broken engagements, 2 no-decisions, and lots of public controversy (don’t get me started on Bachelor Pad).  Sin-theme 1: the perception that more options = freedom/happiness.  From Starbucks to dating shows, we assume that having lots of options (and testing out all those options) will lead to happiness.  Obviously, this hasn’t worked so well in the case of this show.  Contrasting our glorification of options, the Gospel asks us to commit to one God, one Way, one Life, where we find eternal joy.  Sin-theme 2: complete butchering of the term “love.”  The show is a picture of how different our culture’s use of the word “love” has strayed from the covenantal, agape love of God described in the Scriptures.  The show claims to be an environment for love, which, judging by statistics, it is not.  Rather, it is a hot-bed for lust, superficiality, and rivalry.  In fact, the show is actually more “successful” (profitable) when there is controversy, fighting, and heartbreak.  ABC is more invested in these ratings-grabbers than in promoting lasting commitments.  Let’s just say it’s no 1 Corinthians 13.

2) Celebrity Apprentice: I watched a couple seasons of this show, until it lost my interest.  But in that time, I considered teaching the Gospel straight from the boardroom scenes (aka, the “You’re fired” scenes).  Donald Trump makes clear that what is most valuable on this show is power, self-justification, arrogance, and manipulation–a “win at all costs” attitude.  Sin-theme 1: confessing to or taking responsibility for an error is  a sign of weakness.  This plays out in many more significant areas of our culture, namely politics.  Admitting a mistake is political suicide as it will be aired without context over and over, and drudged up time and again by opponents.  The Gospel requires us to confess our weakness and sin and seek God’s strength and mercy–in other words, to be honest and humble.  Sin-theme 2: results are all that matters; the ends justify the means.  The Scriptures tell us to leave the results up to God, and how we play the game is more important than whether we “win” or “lose” in the immediate circumstance.

3) Jersey Shore/Real Housewives: Rarely do I criticize something I have not personally experienced.  In this case, I have not seen the shows, but have seen how they are publicized in other television contexts.  Sin-theme 1: judgmentalism and self-justification.  I believe one of the central reasons we watch certain “reality” shows is so we can feel better about our own lives.  ”At least I’m not as dumb, ugly, mean, messed-up… as him/her/them!”  We sit back content that we’re “not that bad.”  The Gospel calls us away from looking down on others, and to see ourselves as co-participants in sin and co-needers of grace.  This is what draws us into humility and purpose.  We see that we have our issues too and are able to–in God’s grace–pursue a better vision.  Sin-theme 2: de-humanization and exploitation.  While “reality” shows might seem to humanize characters, these shows create a zoo-like feel with people in the cage of the television screen.  Sure, these people have a choice and get paid, but whatever they receive is never enough to compensate for the dignity they have lost in becoming a cash-cow for some network and a laughingstock for a culture’s enjoyment.

4) Entertainment Tonight: our culture is obsessed with celebrities and their lives.  Sin-theme 1: vicarious living.  Many of us live vicariously through celebrities because we think our lives are dull and insignificant and because we assume that fame, money, physical beauty, travels, and parties are what make for interesting, signficant lives.  Perhaps the way we are living, our lives are dull and insignificant.  But the Gospel tells us that we are created in God’s image and can become masterpieces, new creations in Christ’s image.  Living the Gospel makes our lives interesting and significant.  While we are living our lives vicariously through celebrities, we are missing out on the Gospel’s offer that Jesus’ life can be lived out vicariously through us, the Body of Christ.  Sin-theme 2: artificial community.  Artificial community happens when we know someone else but they do not know us.  We get caught up in events and story lines that, in fact, have no relevance to our lives.  All this investment in artificial relationships detracts from real relationships in real community with God and one another.  We are called into relationships in which we know and are known, in which we are healed and agents of healing.

5) Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: Yeah, I said it.  Again, these are not shows without redeeming value.  There’s nothing wrong with getting a little emotional and feeling happy for these families.  Just let me point out one theme.  Sin-theme 1: marketing love (an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one).  Let me put it this way: if ABC weren’t profiting from this show, it would be off the air.  Some of these families and communities featured on the show are filled with genuine love.  But upstaging those families are a group who is there because they get paid to be there.  Ty Pennington and company may be wonderful people, but this show is weak evidence in making that case.  More and more, companies are capitalizing on the discovery that charity is marketable.  Yet, the Gospel puts self-sacrifice at the heart of love.  And Jesus tells us to do our giving in secret without fanfare.  Love happens when we are acting out God’s love for us no matter the cost to us and regardless of who is or isn’t watching.

6) Toddlers in Tiaras: I’m just afraid of what would happen if I get going on this one.

Maybe I’m being a curmudgeon.  It wouldn’t be the first time.  Still, I believe tv can be dangerous.  It invites us to passively and uncritically let messages and images soak into our brains and imaginations.  I’m not saying “don’t watch these shows” (though it might not be a bad idea).  I am urging you to be aware of the themes that your brain is soaking in when you watch.  James says one mark of true religion is “to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  This doesn’t necessarily mean avoidance of the world, but it does require awareness of these sin-themes.  In that sense, some of these shows may actually be helpful in bringing to light some of the underlying forces that keep us and our culture from receiving the full blessing of the Gospel.  So when you watch a show with the “Cringe Factor,” humbly pray for God to show you how that sin-theme might have worked its way into your life, and ask how you can be a shining light for others who are struggling in the dark places of our world.

But seriously, 2 hours of The Bachelor might melt your brain ;)

Posted in Cultural Trends, TV and Movies | 5 Comments »

Harry Potter: Anti-Christ or Christ-figure?

Sunday, July 17, 2011

The City of God.  Christ and Culture.  There are more.  But these two books, one from the 4th century and one from the 20th, illustrate the point: Christians have been thinking about how Christ and culture relate since…well…since Christ entered culture on that first Christmas.  As usual, our ancestors in the faith have come to many bona fide (some not so bona fide) ways to live out this relationship.  And every so often, some cultural phenomenon breathes fresh oxygen onto the embers of this debate.

On a related note, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 2) came out at midnight this past Friday morning.  Some of the numbers surrounding these books and movies are truly staggering.  Much has been made of Christians who have shunned the whole Harry Potter empire as satanic or a glorification of witchcraft.  And while we can always count on getting a good laugh at those silly “fundamentalists,” let me suggest that their position at least shows some degree of thoughtfulness about how Christians live out their faith in a culture has the potential to both reflect God and undermine genuine Christianity.  Let’s look quickly at a spectrum of how Christians might relate to culture:

1. Crusades to Conquistadors.  Christians have at times believed their mission to be a conquering of cultures (whether spiritually or politically) in the name of Christ.  In this view, Christianity (often closely intertwined with one’s own culture of origin) sees other cultures as completely blind and without God and in need of a total overhaul.  Here is where Harry-Potter-haters come into play.  They see one hint of sin (witchcraft, in this case) in a cultural product and see that as reason enough to reject or seek to destroy it.  We’ll call this group “Purists.”

2. “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?”  So asked Tertullian way back in the 3rd century.  His implication was that our culture has one way of doing things and Christianity has a whole other way of doing things.  Christians don’t need to interact with or learn from culture at all since we have a whole other Kingdom to guide us.  In this case, culture is not as much a threat or enemy as it is a completely worthless entity to the Christian (not that we could actually live completely unaffected by our culture).  This approach to Harry Potter might be Christians who say, “I just read the Bible and don’t have time for such secular reading.”  Our Amish/Mennonite siblings (for whom I have much respect) have predominantly taken this approach to culture.  We’ll call this group “Separatists.”  (You’ll see that there might be some overlap in these camps.)

3. “God is everywhere!”  This phrase has the potential to be theologically accurate, but this extreme basically provides a rubber-stamp to everything.  It’s all good.  This group may have certain things they don’t think have any redeeming value whatsoever.  But where the Purists reject based on one hint of sin, this group accepts based on one hint of godliness.  This approach would look at some of the themes running through the Harry Potter books and declare it a good Christian series.  We’ll call this group “Accepters.”  (OK, I ran out of good names.)

I don’t find any of these approaches to be particularly useful in actually following Jesus’ call to love God and love our neighbors.  Why?  Because I think the Christian Story is a bit deeper than any one of these approaches (especially my over-simplifications of them).

1. Imago Dei (Image of God).  In Genesis 1:28, we are told that the woman and man were created “in God’s image.”  In function, essence, and relational bent, humans were created as representatives for God to care and cultivate his creation who reflect something of the Creator to the creation.  Even after the Fall, we see humans described as having God’s image.  As we approach culture, I think this means that we should expect to see glimpses of God’s image in every person or culture.  Even including those who know nothing of Jesus or the Gospel, we have been wired to cultivate, care, influence, create, and relate.  In my opinion, the Purist, in rejecting all things that don’t have the label “Christian,” is missing out on a huge way God is revealing himself in this world: in his creatures and in the work that those image-bearing creatures do.  As the Harry Potter series has gone on, Christians have increasingly recognized wonderful Gospel themes in the story like faithfulness, sacrificial love, integrity, good’s triumph over evil, etc.  We find these themes played out in art, philosophy, even other religions.  Far from diminishing the impact of the Gospel, I believe this shows the way the Gospel Story oozes up through our fallen world and speaks to the longings and conditions of every culture.  These stories, ideas, and creations may even “prime the pump” for people and cultures to understand Jesus and the Gospel Story when the time comes.  At the very least, Harry Potter is a good starting point for Christians to engage people in our culture, a kind of opening act for our witness to the Gospel.

2. Missio Dei (Mission of God).  What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?  In full Jesus-mode, I answer this question with a question: “What has heaven to do with earth?”  If Imago Dei challenges the Purist approach to culture, I believe the Incarnation and Pentecost challenge the Separatist approach.  As we find in Isaiah, Revelation, and some of our great hymns (see v. 3), the ultimate hope of our Faith is the reunion of heaven and earth, of Creator with his creation.  And just as the heavenly Word of God engaged earthly people, the Christian call to follow Christ demands that we engage our culture.  The great missionary Paul engages the Athenian culture, pointing out where their philosophers have glimpsed the Gospel and where they have come up short.  We cannot afford to separate from our culture.  It doesn’t mean we have to read every bestseller or watch every movie (especially to the total neglect of the Scriptures or Christian community).  It doesn’t mean we have to like every pop musician.  Being a student of culture, however, is a necessary part of relevant Gospel storytelling.  Watch Harry Potter and The Breakfast Club.  Read the newspaper and popular books by atheists.  Listen to Lady Gaga and a political pundit you disagree with, because listening to understand is part of loving.  And loving our neighbors is the second greatest commandment.

3. Sin.  As we engage our culture, mining it for glimpses of God’s image and listening to its voices, we must not neglect that reality of sin in ourselves and our culture.  While I’m quite confident that the witchcraft of Harry Potter little resembles real witchcraft, the Old Testament and New Testament both warn that dabbling in the occult is spiritually dangerous if we do believe the spiritual realm exists (which the Bible assumes).  But it may be equally dangerous to engage culture thoughtlessly.  As much as God’s Image pervades all areas of culture, so do the twisting, deceptive, life-taking forces of sin and evil.  The “Imago Dei” and “Missio Dei” points above can be easily used to justify indulgence in cultural products that really are stumbling blocks to our faith.  For instance, as much as I would encourage some Christians to consider a calling to minister in bars (because that’s where people are), I would not encourage a recovering alcoholic Christian who still struggles with that temptation to pursue such a ministry.  Or, the video game world might be a really valid place to meet people and witness a different way of doing virtual life, but not when the video game starts to take over the disciple’s life.  There may be some movies that are so saturated in sin that the tiny glimpse of redemptive themes hardly make them worth viewing.  As much as witchcraft may be a genuine concern for some Christians, I think that far more concerning are the subtle ways sin lurks to subvert the Gospel in generally accepted, everyday cultural products.  Focusing so much energy on overt “sins” like Harry Potter’s witchcraft (again, it is more fantasy than witchcraft) distracts us and makes us vulnerable to the stronger cultural forces that subtly subvert the Gospel.  When we do engage, we must pay attention to where the glimpse of God ends, and when it is time to get (back) to the real thing: God revealed to us in Jesus.

The Christian Purist, Separatist, and Accepter attempt to let rules drive their life of faith.  As much as we may say we hate rules, we are drawn to them from childhood because they are simple, black-and-white, and thoughtless: easy.  The Gospel exposes rules as incomplete ways of doing life.  Sure there are some behaviors that are always wrong, but the Grace and Mission lift us to a more excellent way: the messy, complicated, life-changing, and ultimately fulfilling Way of Love.  Jesus lived by engaging the culture, breaking the rules that discouraged love, and offering a wonderful alternative to both the way of exclusionary rules and of thoughtless standardlessness: the Kingdom of God.

Oh, so is Harry Potter more antichrist or Christ-figure?  I would suggest we see him as a classic Christ-figure.  Every Christ-figure comes up short of the real thing, but helps us to see the beauty and love of Jesus from a new perspective.  So go ahead, watch and read, and then praise God for the Christ who is the Beginning and End of all that is truly love, the Author and Perfector of every good and true story.

 

For a brief intro to some of Richard Niebuhr’s conclusions on the topic: http://www.ericfarkas.com/richard-neihburs-christ-and-culture-spectrum

Posted in Books, Cultural Trends, TV and Movies | 2 Comments »

Court of Appeal: why America watched the Casey Anthony trial

Friday, July 8, 2011

Full disclosure: I did not watch one minute of the Casey Anthony trial and I have no opinion on whether the jury was right or wrong.  I do know that since the “not guilty” verdict was issued, there has been plenty of blaming going on: blaming an acquitted Casey Anthony for the murder of her daughter, blaming the jury for not convicting her, blaming the media for creating such a hoopla and possibly enabling Anthony to secure better legal counsel, blaming prosecutors, and even blaming the legal system itself.  Yet, the question that got me thinking wasn’t the trial itself, but the buzz it created.  As I’ve written before, it’s easy to blame the media, but the media really just gives the public what they want.  Television channels air what gets ratings.  So, I would suggest that the air time the trial received is less a commentary on the media and more a commentary on ourselves.  What is that commentary?  Here are some of my own interpretations:

1) The popularity of the trial might be traced to a God-given desire for justice.  Even though we live in a topsy-turvy world where we know “life isn’t fair,” we can’t seem to shake this idea that things should be orderly.  If there were no original order or standard, no original intention for our lives, I find it difficult to explain this human sense of justice.  In N.T. Wright’s words, the yearning for justice is an “echo of the voice,” one clue that there is a Creator behind this world, in this case, a Creator who cares about justice.  And when we see a small child murdered, there is something in us that wants to join in on that voice for justice.

2) There are still some boundaries around humor.  One of the most interesting moments of the saga for me was watching Jay Leno bomb as he tried to joke about the trial.  Call me a curmudgeon, but I think humor is one of our cultural idols.  It’s not that I don’t like to laugh.  I do, and I laugh a lot.  But we are willing to sacrifice almost every bit of compassion, humility, and reverence on the altar of humor.  I found the Leno crowd’s silence surprising and refreshing.

3) To balance out my first point, I think for many of us, the Anthony trial was simply the next level in our addiction to “reality” television.  Yes, people were engaged in the trial and outraged at the conclusion.  But people were engaged and outraged about the last episode of LOST too.  I wonder if we were to perform one of those brain scans that show what area of the brain lights up during certain activities, if viewers of the Casey Anthony trial’s brains wouldn’t look much the same as those of people watching other reality tv shows.  This is my opinion, but I think the trial fit the category of entertainment for the average viewer as much or more than the passion-for-justice category.

4) The trial indicated some of our culture’s racial biases.  Perhaps we don’t realize how often mothers kill their children, but tragically,  it happens all the time.  Most of these stories will make local news for a short time period because they do rightly stir our hearts.  But consider the two most recognizable infanticide victims for most people in our culture: Jon-Benet Ramsey, Little Miss Colorado from a wealthy family and Caylee Anthony, a cute white girl from a middle-class background allegedly murdered by a young, attractive white woman.  This is one of the factors that actually leads me to the prior observation about the trial as entertainment more than justice.  Maybe we expect crime out of the black community, or expect goodness out of attractive white people.  Maybe it’s the “maybe it could happen in my neighborhood” fear-factor for white, middle-class viewers.  Or maybe we believe that Caylee and Jon-Benet were more likely to “succeed” and thus their lives were more valuable and their deaths more tragic.  I find it difficult to think of one reason for the demographically disproportionate interest in the case that does not fly in the face of Jesus’ particular compassion for the “last, lost, and least.”

5) The limits of our justice system point us to the perfect justice of God.  What seems lost in the outrage over the verdict–no matter whom you blame–is the fact that our justice system assumes that mistakes will be made.  In our system, it is axiomatic that a guilty person acquitted is preferable to an innocent person convicted.  We will not always get justice right, because even if our intentions are good and our system is fair (which may be huge leaps in themselves), we do not have the knowledge required to always get it right.  While this is no excuse for turning a blind eye to injustices and corruption that God has given us the opportunity to address, it is ultimately God, in perfect knowledge, for whom darkness is as light and before whom one day all will be brought to light.  While God’s ultimate judgment and the Cross as a sacrificial payment for sin may be unpalatable to many in this particular time and place, it is these parts of the Bible’s Story that allow us to refrain from vigilante justice and to have “the serenity to accept the things we cannot change.”  We can trust that the crimes  not paid for in this life either will be paid for in the life to come or have already been paid for  by Jesus on the Cross.  Justice is satisfied either way.  Yale theologian Miroslav Volf suggests, “the practice of nonviolence requires a belief in Divine vengeance.”  In other words, we send our God-given–though sin-twisted–yearnings for justice to God, trusting that he is a perfect Judge who can better deal with sin and injustice than we can; and God returns to us hearts free from vengeance to promote “just peace” and grace in the world.  This is why I believe the Christian Story is diluted without a Christ that absorbs the punishment for sin and a final Judgment.  Both moments show a God who–even at his own expense–deals with sin, hatred, injustice, violence and all that destroys his creation and dehumanizes his children, and doesn’t turn the other way and leave us to deal with them in all our imperfect ways.  They allow us to seek justice in love and wisdom on behalf of the oppressed, not in hatred and revenge to satisfy ourselves.

I don’t know if Casey Anthony was truly guilty or innocent.  A jury has spoken, and now the question is in God’s hands.  What remains is the Story that we are invited to live out and the culture that made Casey Anthony a household name.  This is the culture in which we are called to live, love, and proclaim Good News Story.  And only in knowing our Story and understanding our culture will we be able to grow as disciples and be fruitful in our calling.

Posted in Cultural Trends, TV and Movies | 2 Comments »

See No Evil: stories that don’t make news

Friday, June 10, 2011

I hope all my faithful readers (ok fine, both of them) don’t think I’m trying to get an early start on my vacation, but I came to a sudden realization this week, and decided to write a different kind of blog.  I’m not focusing on any one current event, but rather making a commitment to myself and anyone who might read this blog: By God’s grace, I will not allow the media to set the agenda for my blog.

This blog’s concept can easily slide into a media-driven agenda.  I want to address current events in our culture- the kinds of things “everyone” in our culture is hearing and reading and thinking about- and wrestle with how we think through these things with the mind of Christ.  One cultural reality that this commitment demands us to question, however, is the very criteria for what makes something newsworthy! We need to ask ourselves, “Who sets my mind’s agenda?”  Is our perception of reality that which we receive from television shows, news channels, movies, and music?  Or are they secondary sources for how we view the world?

The Bible is concerned with our thought life, not just our actions. Often, it seems as though we don’t really have any control over what passes through our minds.  You may have experienced this feeling when you sit down for some time of quiet reading, reflection, or prayer.  In the moment, we may not have control  But that doesn’t mean we can’t have our minds retrained.  And part of this retraining, I believe, comes from taking back control of our mind’s agenda and who shows us reality.

The next time you watch any kind of news show, try to take a step back from focusing on the stories themselves, and look at the big picture of what kinds of stories are being told and what impression those selections give of what the world is like.  Is it a world where the bad news is killings, corruption, and natural disasters and the good news is the latest cute, feel-good story?  Does it spend 15 minutes on celebrity relationships and 5 on an important political issue?  Does it seem to be one-sided, trivial, or exaggerated?

Don’t get me wrong, I think we can learn valuable lessons from fallen football coaches, popular musicians, misguided “prophets,” and the like.  How we think about these events gives us an invaluable glimpse into what our worldview (view of the world) actually is, not just what we claim it to be.  But are we hearing the whole story?

This is not a rant against news media, just a reminder that the stories we read/see/hear on it are an incomplete, narrow, oftentimes trivial, and sometimes just plain bizarre picture of reality.  Why?  Well, at the risk of over-generalizing, my best explanation is: News shows tend to be far more interested in getting viewers than in showing us reality.  What we see on tv or read in the newspaper is as much a reflection on the public’s desires as it is on the network or publisher.  They give us what we want to see (deep down) and withhold what we don’t want to see (deep down).  And what we want to see doesn’t necessarily have much to do with reality.  If we want to transcend merely consuming information, we have to work to see the world more and more the way it is by engaging reality thoughtfully, prayerfully, faithfully, and actively.  It’s not that news shows don’t ever address important issues, it’s just that ongoing issues—often the systems behind the stories—get disproportionately neglected in favor of the latest event.  Event-based news stories invite us to blame, demonize, or idolize without helping us to see our part in the story.

And even when deeper, more ongoing stories do get airtime, the format of the media tends to undermine the message.  No sooner do stories move us to compassion, celebration, or lament than our thoughts are interrupted by a chihuahua trying to sell us tacos or the juicy details about a celebrity affair, and the moment has passed.  Like the seed that grows at first, but is choked down by weeds, our response to real news is short-circuited by the vessel in which we receive it.

So yes, I will continue to address current events and what makes news. They are in the cultural air we breathe; the Gospel permeates how we think about every area of life; and we must not become some sect that loses the ability to interact with the “outside world.”  But I will also address issues like sex trafficking, educational inequality, the global Church and religious persecution, and other ongoing, but neglected stories about reality.  I hope you will bring issues to me that you think warrant attention and be willing to move past information-receiving into engagement in conversation and action.

Posted in About the blog, TV and Movies | 2 Comments »