{"id":396,"date":"2018-11-27T12:18:38","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T17:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=396"},"modified":"2018-11-27T12:18:38","modified_gmt":"2018-11-27T17:18:38","slug":"396","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2018\/11\/396.html","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Colbert and Rev. James Martin Put God Back in the Spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"David
David Shankbone | Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most Americans struggle to talk about God at all today, much less describe in detail who or what they picture when they think about God. That, however, is exactly what Stephen Colbert and Reverend James Martin attempted to do on the Jesuit-run show \u201cFaith in Focus.\u201d On a recent episode, Colbert proved that, despite being described as \u201cone of the most mouthy Americans on TV,\u201d he was not immune from the difficulties that come with attempting to define God.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m embarrassed by the limitations of my ability to talk [about who or what God is to me,]\u201d Colbert said.<\/p>\n

Colbert, however, did not try to use his struggles as a cop-out. Instead, he attempted to put God Himself into words. Colbert explained that God is, to him, something mystical that Colbert tries to shift from the material to the supernatural realm. He said that trying to acknowledge another level of existence and that what humans see is a limited part of a wider world is a longtime practice of his. Part of Colbert\u2019s way of doing that was to play a \u201cstrange trick\u201d on himself to see if he could \u201cconvince [himself] that the world is different than it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s say I\u2019m at a cafeteria in college. I\u2019d pick up a piece of broccoli and hold it up, and then I would look at it, and I would suspend my knowledge that if I let go it would go [down],\u201d Colbert said. \u201c[I would see if I could convince myself that] I don\u2019t know which way it would [fall]. That maybe I could convince myself it would go [up or sideways.] And I would let go, and it would fall down, and if I thought it was funny that it went down, I would say \u2018I did it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The example may seem a bit strange, but Colbert and Martin used the show to encourage Americans to begin discussing God once more. If it succeeds in doing that, then there are likely to be a great deal more odd stories floating around about how people try to relate to and understand God. If it takes ignoring gravity, contemplating broccoli and Colbert\u2019s inevitable sci-fi and fantasy references to get America talking about God again, hopefully people will brush up on their \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d trivia and head out to haunt the produce section of the grocery store because it is about time people began discussing faith in public settings once more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most Americans struggle to talk about God at all today, much less describe in detail who or what they picture when they think about God. That, however, is exactly what Stephen Colbert and Reverend James Martin attempted to do on the Jesuit-run show \u201cFaith in Focus.\u201d On a recent episode, Colbert proved that, despite being…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[141,2],"tags":[73,257,256,258],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-catholic","tag-catholic","tag-faith-in-focus","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-tv"],"yoast_head":"\nStephen Colbert and Rev. 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