Watching this particular episode was all too painful for both of us. Neither of us are naive to the embarrassing way most of Christianity presents itself, yet somehow, watching this group of Christians struggle with understanding the mere concept of atheism made us both even more excruciatingly aware of the inability of many Christians to understand the Other.
As the Christians questioned the token atheist about her life and beliefs, it became clear that they could not comprehend life outside of a biblically mandated structure. They seemed baffled to understand how she could live without the guidance of some text to show her exactly what to do, how to do it and when to do. For them Christianity was a tool for creating structure in what seemed to them to be an utterly chaotic and dangerous world without the help of Divine guidance.
It seemed so shallow.
Christianity has to be more than a mere instruction book on life. If all our faith was meant to do was to teach us rules to live by, what does that say about the nature of humanity? Does God think we are too stupid to learn/evolve/grow/change/navigate the world, that we need a step by step guide? I don't think so.
I think the beauty of the Christian faith is its intentional wrestling with the complexities and ambiguities of the world in which we live. The Bible is not a step by step instruction booklet, but rather a text that teaches us how to learn. Christianity is not about giving us the answers, but rather about helping us to struggle with the questions.
Check out the episode while it is still running on cable....
Atheist/Christian [encore]
8/13/2006 at 11:59PM E/P on FX
Atheist/Christian [encore]
8/14/2006 at 11:30PM E/P on FX
Don't miss the segment on Biblically Correct Tours and Holy Land Amusement Park. It was enough to make us both sick!
8/14/2006 at 11:30PM E/P on FX
Don't miss the segment on Biblically Correct Tours and Holy Land Amusement Park. It was enough to make us both sick!
3 comments:
I love Morgan Spurlock and I so wanted to watch this but I was way too tired. My favorite 30 Days episode was the one where he and his girlfriend tried to live on minimum wage for a month. It was eye-opening, to say the least.
I need to stop hitting "Publish" before I'm done thinking.
Despite being exhausted, I was also hesitant to watch because I was afraid it would be just another show reinforcing that being a fundamentalist is the only way to be a Christian. Why can't media portray faithful Christians without making all Christians look like Bible-thumpers? I guess the answer is that that wouldn't be good TV.
Yeah....christians never come off looking good. It would be a better show to have a liberal and conservative christian change places...but I'm not sure I'd want to be that person from what I've seen. I was rooting for the atheist.
I do think that portrayal is helpful in the larger culture wars as we struggle for equal rights for women, GLBT persons, and others marginalized by the fundies. Non-christians don't want to vote like these people on the shows.
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