Team Pyro has an interesting article on a recent episode of E.R.
Key quote:
As I've often observed and remarked: the most gifted screenwriters can concoct believable monsters, deviants, heroes, regular-joes, atheists, agnostics, all sorts of characters. But the believable depiction of a full-orbed Christian character is simply beyond them. Evidently they have never known (much less understood nor liked) even one credible, practicing, Biblically-faithful Christian. It's the one color missing from their palate — as starved for ideas as they are.
1 comment:
Thanks for the link; I was unaware of this episode. I’ll have to watch the entirety at a later time.
I think this episode (what I've seen of it) in particular teaches us something about our culture--some of the real questions that are asked--and how we as Christians need to respond.
The scene with the chaplain and the old doctor portrays the inadequacy of liberal “Christianity” and pluralism to answer fundamental, soul piercing questions. Indeed, when in crisis, people want absolute answers.
“Will my child live?”
“Is she going to be ok?”
“Am I going to walk again?”
These are all real questions that demand absolute answers (whether or not they can be given). Hollywood also portrays our understanding of life after death and judgment. Romans 1:32 says that we [know] “the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death.” The old doctor certainly hits the nail on the head: “I want a chaplain who believes in a real God and a real hell.”
Most importantly, the episode blows apart the “one size fits all” religion. The chaplain said in the end of her conversation with the treating doctor, “People in crisis want rules. They want structure, something to lean on. I get that. But it’s not me.”
Blaise Pascal wrote, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.” (Paul speaking in Athens supports this-Acts 17). This is key. Hollywood is telling us that liberal Christianity is not enough. It doesn’t answer the question—nor can it for only Christ fits into that God-shaped hole.
We need Christians today who believe in a real God and a real hell. This is a wake up call to Christians in this country to get real, to stop playing with Christianity and live a consistent gospel. Forget that Hollywood can’t get an accurate portrayal of genuine Christians or answer the questions they pose with anything substantial. They’re depicting what modern-day religion has done in our country. It’s a health, wealth, and prosperity ‘gospel’ that only works when everything is going great. It doesn’t work when you’re dying of terminal cancer and you have the weight of sin on your shoulders. It doesn’t work when you’re staring eternity in the face with no hope of escape. Friends, these are real questions that demand real answers. We can’t play games and fiddle with the gospel to make it fit a culture that abominates confrontation.
I don’t have time to go into the rest of the storyline. However, I believe that part of being in the world (and not of the world) is taking tidbits like these that we see in pop culture, interpreting them with gospel centered purposes and going out into the world to live lives that answer these questions with the light of the gospel. It’s not about Hollywood or screen-writer bashing as I believe Teampyro has done. It’s about loving a lost Hollywood (and a dying world) just as Christ loved you when you were lost and without hope in this world.
Post a Comment