\u201cLaw & Order: Criminal Intent\u201d is not a regular show for me, but when Michael Kress, our Idol Chatter editor, told me about the \u201cBrother\u2019s Keeper\u201d episode last night, I was inclined to watch, even though the “televangelist has secret life and people close to him get hurt but his handlers look the other way while the money rolls in” storyline sounded old to me. I tuned in hoping for something deeper and more meaningful than the kind of caricatures that have fueled entertaining parodies from Leno to Letterman to (going back a bit here) SNL to Fletch to Phil Collins\/Genesis.<\/p>\n
I was hoping for a show that could portray something new and interesting about evangelical Christians and their leaders, a group that makes up 25 to 45 percent of our nation\u2019s people (depending on which study you use and whose theology you trust). I think it would be awesomely wonderful if primetime shows could show and reveal more about the real Christian faith and sincere attempts to live it out among the millions of people who are serious about it.<\/p>\n
So I was willing to endure the tired (if not trite) themes rolled out early in the show, with Tom Arnold playing <\/span>television preacher Calvin Riggins (and he tried to do it with a straight face!) and belting out the need to \u201caccept the Lllllooohhhhrrrrdd\u201d and \u201csubmit to Ggggaaawwwwwwdddd\u2019s will.\u201d Pastor Cal is a clueless guy who somehow has risen to pastoral fame while discussing his wife in terms like \u201cshe\u2019d rather be dizzy than stupid.\u201d After her death, Pastor Cal\u2019s handlers posed her hands in prayer for the post-mortem photos. A main character debated \u201cCreationism v. Evolution.\u201d Riggins was called by opponents \u201cjust another big phony.\u201d He pursued a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, had a $100 million evangelical institute called the Light of Heaven Evangelical Institute, and convinced his staff that his credit card bills at massage parlors were the work of old imps (devils) who were cloning his identity.<\/p>\n His closest attempt at fake repentance sounded something like \u201cI knew that God was going to punish me for what I was doing because I knew that it was wrong, but I couldn\u2019t stop.\u201d I don\u2019t know of a single Christian or church that would indulge that kind of thinking.<\/p>\n The most interesting stuff came from the intelligent questions of the decidedly non-believers in the show:<\/p>\n In the end, I fear that too many people have been given the wrong impression about what Jesus said and what Christianity is all about. In this show, the detectives were smart, warm and compassionate, while the Christians were goofy, lazy, and whimsical, not to mention immoral.<\/p>\n But in the scriptures, it\u2019s Jesus who told the parable of The Good Samaritan, and it was he who said \u201ccome unto Me all who are weary, and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.\u201d<\/p>\n I hope more shows will show that side of evangelical Christianity in the future. It\u2019s more the norm, notwithstanding the missteps of a handful of high profile leaders and the stereotypes sustained by the news media and entertainment world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cLaw & Order: Criminal Intent\u201d is not a regular show for me, but when Michael Kress, our Idol Chatter editor, told me about the \u201cBrother\u2019s Keeper\u201d episode last night, I was inclined to watch, even though the “televangelist has secret life and people close to him get hurt but his handlers look the other way…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/p>\n