Devil in the Details...

I'm going to go a little of script on this one simply because it kind of blends into my other blog where in I talk about modern media.  I don't normally discuss television in this blog, but I felt this time I had to address something important.

Watching causal television for a Christian, and especially for a Catholic can be a mine field of temptation and depravity.  Without a doubt if you start scrolling through your channel listings you will find something that celebrates moral ambiguity, hedonism, any one of the seven deadly sins (probably all of them).  Prime time programing is a veritable kaleidoscope of everything to avoid as a devout follower of Christ and his church.

In a separate post I talked about the show “Preacher”, and now I want to look the broader spectrum of supernatural-faith based media.  Now a healthy portion of the spiritual elite will decry the show “Lucifer” as being poison for your spirit, and maybe they aren’t wrong.  Depending on how you take the show.

If you approach shows like “Preacher”, “Lucifer”, “Supernatural”, and many others like them for what they are; escapist entertainment, you should be fine.  Obviously these aren’t shows that you should let young children watch (Supernatural being the marginally safest of the programs), but adults and Christians need to approach them with a grain of salt.

Season 2 of “Lucifer” and Season 11 of “Supernatural” introduce a similar character into both of their respective self-contained mythologies; God’s female counterpart.

The concept isn’t that great of a leap from an Eastern religion point of view.  Many faiths around the world recognize a binary creation system, a balance of equal and opposite forces.  Good and evil, light and dark, above and below, and male and female.   This faith system stems from observing biology in the world as most creatures (humans included) require both male and female contributions to create life.  “Supernatural” introduces this system with presenting to the audience “God’s sister” who was presumably locked up at the start of creation because she was too powerful of an opposing force.  The angels in that series even acknowledge her, with one calling her “Aunty Amara”, clearing spelling out her sibling relationship to God.

“Lucifer” Season 2 spins it a different way, presenting the female counterpart as “God’s ex-wife.”  There is a basis for the female counterpart in ancient texts, going back before the split between Israel and Islam, but even still modern interpretations of both faiths exclude the “God’s wife” part.

Further confounding the concepts (setting aside briefly a binary god) is the fact that Christ is nowhere to be found in either show.  “Supernatural” makes the occasional reference to Christ, “Preacher” despite being centered around a Christian community never talks about Christ, and “Lucifer” never mentions him either.  These two concepts, the inclusion of an all but forgotten Eastern concept of a binary deity and the exclusion of Christ is extremely important for the Christian viewer because it sets down one basic rule you should remember before going into these shows…

These shows do not exist in your reality.

While that should be the “no-brainer” of no brainers, it’s important to establish that because too many people don’t take the time to study their own faith.  American culture is very much “spoon fed” when it comes to broader concepts of faith and history.  We know what we are told, but don’t bother to dig any deeper, and every body of faith is guilty of this.  The risk here isn’t that these shows will present the world with an alternative view of God or question God’s supreme divine authority over the universe.  The risk is that the average person will take fiction as fact. 

Both “Lucifer” and “Supernatural” pull heavily from Jewish lore, Islam, and a bevy of other religions, but tend to shy away from Christianity.  This explains Christ’s reduced or omitted influence in the storylines.  If Christ were to show up in either one in all his glory or actually be acknowledged as the way, the truth, and the light, it would up end the basis for the shows.  For “Supernatural” the whole point is that humans have to do everything, and there is no talk of salvation.  For “Lucifer” it would upset the whole dynamic and bring out the major question “If Lucifer didn’t like Hell, why not just ask Christ for redemption?”

Further, you have to look at the way they portray God in these shows.  He’s presented as absent and manipulative as opposed to a loving Father of creation, far from the omniscient and omnipresent deity Christians have faith in.  Essentially these shows do to God, what ancient Greek’s and Romans did to their deities…they made him human.  Human based deities are, just easier to write stories about.  They have faults, failings, desires, and make mistakes.  At one point in “Supernatural” God looks like he’s going to die.  The shows apply human rules to celestial figures because that’s easier for an audience to grab on to mentally, but that is not what Christians and Catholics believe.

As I said earlier these programs will pull from any random faith they can find to fill out their internal mythology and that’s important to remember, because they are cherry picking their background.  If you want to find out more about your faith, don’t tune into prime time television unless it’s EWTN.  Dig into scholarly works; talk with priests and deacons and RCIA instructors.  These shows are works of fiction and only serve the devil if you forget that specific point.

For more of my thoughts on "Preacher" click here.

http://michaelbauchbrainwaves.blogspot.com/2017/07/season-1-round-up-preacher.html  

Thanks for reading.

Three Good Moments...

I was sitting at home last night, reflecting on my day.  I began to wonder…if I were to meet Christ himself right now and he said “I’m going to select three random moments from your day and we’re going to see how you showed the world my love.” what were the odds that he’d find three good moments?

Admittedly for everyone some days are better than others.  I mean I know what moments I’d want Christ to review with me…but what are the odds that out of 24 hours, those would be the moment’s he’d randomly select?  Not really in my favor.  We have great moments, each and every one of us.  We really do, and we can compare those great moments, measure them as great, because we have a lot of not so great moments.  Would He pick the times I was kind and generous to my fellow man, to my spouse, or to my children, or would he happen upon a time when I was short with them, where my frustration ran rough shot over me.

It’s a sobering thought, to be sure.  If you put every single moment of your day on a dial and spun it, where would that little arrow likely land?  Would your ratio be in favor of good moments?  If the idea of such a thing sends a chill down your spine, then you probably already have your answer.  If I were to look to the sky and say “Create in me a clean heart, oh God.” Or “Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice.” Would my next moment show that I was truly willing to accept that clean heart or show that I took that sacrifice seriously?  Accepting Jesus is not a casual thing, it is a day to day responsibility.  We are asked, through accepting Him, to show the world around us, starting in our homes, His love.

This past week we had an issue at home where in one of the children had a school project due.  It was due, the next day.  It had been assigned to him three weeks prior.  There was plenty of time between its assignment and its due date to complete it, but the child in question failed to tell us about it until the day before it was due.  Most, if not all parents know this scenario far too well.  The slapped together science fair project, the tri fold display board with whatever you could find plastered on there at the 11^th hour, and the late trip to the library praying that the research gets done before they close and politely tell you to leave.  I recall a heavy as all get out volcano I smashed together the night before when I was in grade school. 

The thing is it’s amazing what we can do when we are under pressure, but imagine if we had more time to do it?  Imagine if we had taken the responsibility seriously and used the time we were given to our advantage.  Imagine what those projects would look like.

From the moment you accept Christ as your savior, regardless of your faith or denomination, your clock is starting.  You are given an assignment, and for the due date you have a question mark.  It could be due tomorrow, it could be due in 30 years, and it could be due in a hundred.  You will never know.  But if you take that responsibility seriously, just imagine what you could do in a day.  Just imagine what you could do in 30 years if you lived every single day like Christ was going to do a spot check on how you are doing.

Now I am going to clarify here because I am certain that somewhere out there someone will read this and say “You don’t do good works for brownie points with Christ.” And they would be right to say so.  We don’t do good works for brownie points with Christ, but as Christ is our example to emulate, we should value his standard.  If I had it in my head every day that Christ would be the one reviewing this work, not just some outsider looking in with no concept of where I am at in my life or where my head is at, but Christ the King of Salvation who knows what weighs on my heart, then I would want it mirror Him.  I would want His approval over my work.  “Lord, does this please you?”  Christ gave us a measuring tool.  “Love the Lord your God with all your mind, with all your heart, and with all your soul.  Love your neighbor as yourself.”

That is your assignment, whether it be given to you at Baptism, at Confirmation, at RCIA or your rededication to the church, that is your assignment.

Over the past few weeks I have seen some glowing examples of “Loving your neighbors as you love yourself.”  In the wake of Hurricane Harvey body checking the Gulf Coast of Texas, I have seen an amazing outpouring of love in my community and in communities from around the state and from around the country.  There is no purer form of love then asking “What can I do to help?”  “What do you need?”  People have opened their homes and kitchens to those devastated by this storm.  When it looked like entire communities were crippled by this hurricane, surrounding communities opened up and said “It’s alright.  We’ve got you.”

There are some in my community right now that if Christ came to them and said “Let’s review three random moments…” the would have nothing to worry about because they took that call seriously, because every day those followers of Christ looked at the world they woke up in and said “How can I do better?”

It starts at home.  It starts by tending your spiritual garden by weeding out the garbage and sin and temptation that threaten to drag you down.  It grows in your home, where what once were daunting tasks now seem joyful sacrifices because you are tending to the things important to your family.  Then you carry that out into the world around you.  If you woke up today, it’s not too late to begin your assignment from God.  If you start right now, you will have way more than 3 good moments to look back on.

 

Thanks for reading.