TV religion

For a long time, the church and pop culture have been at odds with one another. Actually, that might be understating the situation. They have been at war. Over the last few decades, the church has accused pop culture of being rooted in evil, ignoring the value system our nation had supposedly been founded on. It has suggested that pop culture has moved decidedly away from Christian morality so as to promote a more carnal and self-promoting lifestyle. On the other hand, pop culture has accused the church of being stuck in a value system that is out of touch with reality and suggests that it seeks control rather than transformation. It says that the church is obsolete as an institution of spiritual guidance and offers to take its place.

However, are the two truly at odds? Are the church and pop culture so far divided from one another? Though I might have said so a few years ago, a number of recent movies and TV shows have changed my opinion. Take The DaVinci Code as an example. Though the movie portrayed an image of Jesus that some consider incorrect, and maybe even heretical, the movie dove into an exploration of the fuller life of Jesus. It speculated as to the other parts of Jesus' life where Scripture remained silent. While the suggestion is far from academic, it initiated a debate in both the Christian and secular communities. Many who had never been to church were invited into its doors via a pop cultural suggestion. Still more movies wrestle with the nature of and our relation to God (Stigmata, What Dreams May Come?, Constantine, Boondock Siants, etc.). In any number of TV shows, at least one character struggles with issues of faith. On House, Dr. House, though a professed atheist, is often left wondering about the existence of God. On Bones, the main characters constantly jab at each other over the idea of religion/God. Faith is a significant part of the lives of several characters on the crime shows I watch, and often they struggle with how their lives it into that faith.

A couple of TV shows come to mind as I consider pop culture's relation to spirituality. The first is Life. Life tells the story of Detective Charlie Crews who had been imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. After 13 years, Crews was finally exonerated and set free. Though he received a large settlement for his time lost (50 million), he returns to the force. One would guess that he'd be vindictive after such an experience. However, Crews had turned to Zen Buddhism as a source of strength and stability. When released, Crews held no grudges and expressed no resentment. Rather, he understood life as a gift and sought to pursue the rest of his days with hope and expectation. Through a spiritual search, Charlie Crews had the ability to overcome a difficulty no one else could. This show exemplifies an unnatural sense of forgiveness for debts owed. From a Christian perspective, the connection is easy. When Jesus spoke of retaliation, he commanded that one should turn the other cheek. But this didn't stop as a command. Jesus exemplified this with his life. When humanity struck his cheek in sinful rebellion, he did not strike back in judgment. Rather, he turned the other cheek, and in doing so brought forth redemption.

The second show is Bones. A specific episode is of interest (The He in the She). While fishing at the shore in the morning, two pot heads inadvertently discover half of a corpse. Bones, a brilliant anthropologist, and Booth, a daring FBI agent, seek out the whole truth concerning the half crime. Identifying the upper half of the body as a woman pastor of a local community church, Booth and Bones seek out her followers for information. The story gets tricky when the lower half of the pastor's body is found. Upon examining the skeleton, a fellow anthropologist discovers that the pelvic bone is that of a man. This leads them to the disappearance of a male televangelist 6 years earlier. They surmise that the man had not been killed on a preaching tour of Southeast Asia as originally thought but had planned his disappearance form the world. Feeling regret for his corrupt ministry, the pastor endured a gender reassignment surgery and started his life anew. Rather than preaching to the wealthy, the man, now woman, pastor took ex convivts and druggies as her new sheep. Making a long story short...the search for a killer led Booth and Bones to the woman's son. They discovered that after taking over his father's ministry, he too repented and moved on. The son now worked at a drug rehab center as a counselor. When confronted with the news of his father's new life and death, the son regretted having lost his father and having never known who his father became. At the end, the killer is caught and the son takes over his father's church, Inclusion.

While this is a poor description of the episode (I recommend watching it at www.sidereel.com/Bones), you can see the story of redemption throughout. A man and his son both repent of their former selves to be made anew. The father became a woman. The son changed from a dogmatic moralist to an inclusive relationalist. The son demonstrates forgiveness and acceptance for his father's new person. And the son is restored to ministry.

Though pop culture is flawed, it does offer up powerful glimpses of spiritual content that connect with humanity in their contexts and emotional struggles. It begs that we ask certain questions of ourselves and our beliefs. And it offers up perspectives from which we can make choices. While pop culture and spirituality/religion may not be aligned, I don't think they walk entirely separate paths. It seems that both are searching for the same things...just in different ways.