Last week I was watching a favorite TV show of mine and was struck again at the poor representation God was getting from the “Christian” character on the show. It happens so often when I watch TV shows where one character is meant to have faith – or when characters interact with an unknown God. There have been few times when I’ve seen a character talk about God that I could see myself in.
Don’t get me wrong, some shows/movies do an excellent job of portraying faith issues or asking hard questions for us to wrestle with. But when it comes to portraying what it looks like to follow Christ, it’s mostly a miss in my opinion.
Then I think, no wonder there are so many people who misunderstand those who categorize themselves as Christ followers. Between pop culture’s version of us, celebrity pastors in the news fighting all the time, and the misconception that everyone who follows Christ looks exactly the same – there is little interaction with the actual Creator of the universe.
I remember saying to my friend as we watched this particular show – when will hollywood get it right? But the question on my mind actually is – why are we waiting for hollywood to get it right? Why do we sit back and simply roll our eyes at these portrayals of our faith? Of the one we follow?
Why are we walking away from the Church? Why are we letting political views and musical styles choose where and how we worship the Lord? Why are we watering down our belief systems to draw people in and then setting a list of impossible standards for them to meet?
There are real problems facing the Church. Real debates to be had about how we interact with the world around us. But walking away from the Church, rejecting the religion because its flawed – it’s not the answer. The less we work together, the more divisive the Church becomes. No wonder we are being misrepresented, we are misrepresenting the one who has called us. It’s time to re-engage. Time to stick around for the fight. It’s time for us to stay and disprove the image we have been given.
adventures in living an abundant life