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Religious types objected strongly to some of Jesus' habits. He hung around prostitutes. He befriended tax collectors. He
ate with non-religious outsiders and touched untouchable lepers. He was more likely to be found with the unclean and broken
than with the respectable good people. He caught a lot of grief about that. Still does, it would appear.
Television is full of sex and naughtiness. I don't watch enough to be a good chronicler of television outrage, but there
are plenty of salacious shows. Desperate Housewives, "reality series", soap operas of various kinds appear on all
of the entertainment channels. Many of the plots include struggling families trying to cope with heartache, scandal and real
bad behavior. Dysfunction makes for good entertainment, it seems.
But one show actually brought Jesus into the mix. The Book of Daniel has as its main character an Episcopal priest.
He's a good guy trying the best he can in trying circumstances. VERY trying circumstances. And part of his coping is regular
conversations with Jesus. In the show Jesus appears to Daniel (and only to Daniel). They talk in an intimate and personal
way. Daniel shares his troubles with Jesus. Jesus helps. Sometimes with a word; sometimes just by being present. Daniel
has chronic back pain, and he's addicted to Vicodin. Nearly every time he reaches for his bottle, Jesus appears. Once with
"Lifesavers."
The show invites a good conversation starter. How much of Jesus is a projection of Daniel's thoughts about Jesus, and
how much is Jesus truly present and addressing Daniel? That's a good question for all of us who talk and listen to Jesus.
How much of that voice is us? How much is from God? I hear a lot of stuff from TV preachers about what Jesus is saying,
and I'm sure a lot of it is pure projection from their own prejudices. I wonder about my own conversations with Jesus. And
yours. It's worth thinking about.
I watched the first episode of The Book of Daniel, and I liked seeing a character on TV trying to talk with Jesus about
his troubles. That doesn't happen on Desperate Housewives.
But Jesus has been silenced in Fayetteville. And it was the good religious types who did it. (Again.) An organized
campaign from Christians pressured the local NBC affiliate to take The Book of Daniel off. So sex, drugs, murder, betrayal,
wickedness, and dysfunction remain. But Jesus has been censored off the TV screen.
What was everyone so upset about? Well, the show had a lot of naughty stuff in it. Maybe they tried to pack too many
scandals in one episode. But there was nothing there that doesn't happen on other shows or in real life. (I do have my doubts
that there has ever been a real affair between a female bishop and a male bishop.) There was nothing in the story that doesn't
happen in good families -- good Christian families.
Christian families have parents who are addicted to pain killers or martinis. They have kids who are gay or deal drugs,
and kids who are promiscuous or desperately artistic. Churches have funds embezzled and strained relationships among authorities.
If some Christians are upset that these things were on TV, I would ask them if they are a bit too attached to an image of
the perfect Christian family or the perfect church. Denial of the reality of dysfunction in a Christian environment only
compounds the sickness. Yes, these things can happen -- in your church; to your pastor; in your family.
But this was TV. It is fiction. It is about as accurate a picture of a typical church as Desperate Housewives is a description
of your suburban street. The Book of Daniel is just another naughty TV soap opera. Its one distinction was that all of the
naughtiness had a chance to be in conversation with Jesus and in relationship with faith. Some of these characters were trying
to live faithfully in troubled circumstances. Jesus was present in the midst of it all, found once more with the unclean
and broken. Jesus was part of the conversation.
But once again religious people, meaning well, have removed Jesus from where he most prefers to be. He's safely hidden
away again, protected behind the stained glass and tucked in politely among the well-mannered clean folks. The TV characters
will just have to get through their scandals without his help.
But I do worry about the real people who have troubles like those TV characters and think Jesus couldn't dare to be part
of their conversation either.
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Published in the Northwest Arkansas Times, 1-23-06
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