When it comes to movies and television, I like to preach watchful discernment versus totally boycotting the boob tube. After all, the absence of sex and violence does not necessarily make a show “safe.” The slow and steady bombardment of secularism is just as deadly (if not more) to the Christian mind. However, I have been struggling lately with the dangerous game of knowing when to draw the line.
As I watched Desperate Housewives tonight I kept having to remind myself about what God says about relationships (even during the commercials about other shows and especially as Grey’s Anatomy played in the background while I wrote this post). For example, the world would have us believe that love is about doing what feels right, what we want, what makes us happy; and that we should be able to do so without any guilt or consequences. Pretty soon that kind of attitude finds its way into how we view God, such that we start saying things like, “God will forgive me,” “God understands how I feel,” “God wants me to be happy” and so forth. Pretty soon God’s true desire for us is out of the picture. We forget that Christianity starts with a holy God followed by sinful man.
And then at the end of the show, just when I was about to give up on the series (like I have already done so with Alias), there comes a common grace insight. As they panned away from Bree sitting over a dying George and flashed up scenes from the three other sub-plots, the show’s narrator (Mary Alice) said the following:
No one wants to admit that compassion and cruelty can live side by side in one heart…and that anyone is capable of doing anything.
We were just talking about this in Berean Group tonight. I do not want you to know how sinful I am; you likewise do not want me to know the full extent of your sinfulness. As much as we do not like to admit it, even to ourselves, our hearts are capable of the worst of sins. Of course, the show ended and did not tell the rest of the story–that by God’s grace there is victory over sin. We are being made new again in Christ. From what I have heard about the show’s producers, I seriously doubt that any such revelation will ever come. Any remedy (if offered) is likely to be built on works suffering, self-actualization and the supremacy of man.
I long for a show like Desperate Housewives that has intriguing plot lines, good acting and offers the insight of a Christian worldview on the human condition without the sanitization that is so typical of “Christian TV.”
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Yeah, I have to admit, I was thinking a lot about our conversation last night as I watched Grey’s Anatomy. I caught the last 5 min of Desperate Housewives, and was thinking, “At least there is some redeeming ‘thought factor’ in DH”. I don’t watch DH anymore, but I certainly can’t brag about it because Grey’s Anatomy has even less, if any, redeeming value. I could make an argument about the value of looking at the photo negative version of reality in order to understand the real picture better, which is a totally valid argument in some cases, but I think I would be grasping at straws in this instance. I am forced to admit that Grey’s is nothing more than meaningless, worldly entertainment with little to no redeeming value. (Though I did appreciate George’s expression of true friendship last night in the midst of so many shallow relationships, George is the one beacon of something deeper.)
Scott, wait as sec… I need your email before I can send you the Larsens’. I thought I had yours, but I can’t find it.
Something I thought of after the post is that when these guys say that compassion and cruelty live side by side in the heart, they probably are not grasping the concept of total human depravity. What they are saying is that we are both good and evil, when in fact we can do no good apart from God. They see man as semi-corrupted by the world, but not 100% to the core.
Yes, exactly…they probably aren’t grasping the concept of total human depravity. You don’t want to read too much into that stuff.
It’s the same thing as with certain guys that we know who seem to think that Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is onto similar Christian concepts with his music. I don’t think that’s the case at all. In contrast, I think he revels in the depravity theme – he’s not going anywhere with it.
I could also extend this to certain horror movies but, not today…
Not to sound defensive, but I hope it did not seem like I all of a sudden thought the show was quasi-Christian or somehow redeemed (re: “You don’t want to read too much into that stuff.”). Hopefully the subtitle and tone of the post convey that I think they’re onto something but falling short.
You are right that as one discerns pop culture you don’t want to read to much into it. I have had many conversations with people where we wondered if an artist was a Christian–not so much because we cared about the person–but rather because we really liked the music and wanted to somehow claim Christ in all of it.
The point that I do not want to be lost in all of this is that the concept of depravity that we are talking about–the depravity exhibited in Desperate Housewives–is pretty much how we all tend to operate. That is, as good five point Calvinists we believe in the T in TULIP, but in practice we are closet Arminians.
Unless we are reminding ourselves daily of the truth of the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, we fall into a performance mentality. Instead of being wholly depended on God’s grace and recognizing that there is nothing in ourselves that can save us, we instead start thinking that we are not all that bad. Like the show we may admit that we are capable of great cruelty, but on the flip side we do good most of the time and so the scales are tipped in our favor.
I guess that was a little sharp. Shows like that make me mad. Not so much the content as how the characters rationalize their actions – and then, Christianity is sort of thrown in at points as something to fall back on. Well, I’ve only watched it a couple of times and not for long…it is probably pretty indicative of the kind of middle-class, culturally christian behavior that goes on in America all the time. That probably accounts for the popularity.
But, to be true to facts, I’ve paid to watch stuff that was far worse. I’ve felt horrible about it and that God should strike me dead – not only for the content of what I’ve watched but, also the fact that I wasted money in doing so – and then, I turn around and tithe other parts of the money and expect God to honor that.
I am no example. But, the show still makes me sick. It probably reminds me of myself.
You are right by saying people like the show because it reminds them of themselves. People want to see reality in television and for Christians I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. Choosing when to draw the line is something that I’m working on and discernment is something that has to be worked at constantly. Screwing up is part of that process, too. We should talk about this offline sometime.
I think that Christians thinking of writing or producing shows similar to Desperate Housewives ought not shy away from the reality the ABC drama captures. What matters is 1) not what you show but how you choose to portray it (not glorifying sex or violence for its own sake); and 2) infusing a Christian worldview into the storyline such that it points to Christ.
Way to bring that around. I’m not too good at that because I get hung up on stuff.
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