"The Book of Daniel" and the loss of the Sacred
I hope your Christmas, Epiphany, and New Year's holidays were enjoyable. Mine were very much so!
Now to the subject at hand. I took the time to watch "The Book of Daniel" on NBC last night. I watched both episodes in order to form a judgement for myself. I understood what the American Family Association, Focus on the Family, etc. felt about the programming, but I didn't want to hold to their second hand opinion. I needed to see it and form my own opinion. Below are just a few of my thoughts off the cuff. So here's my main thought...as one sees the world, so one sees Jesus.
It would be rare to find such a disfunctional situation represented in the Webster household. It was way over the top disfuntional. Besides having both sides of homosexualism in full regalia, I see a huge lack of anything sacred other than the primacy of the individual. This is supported mainly by the Jesus character, who is less concerned about the antics and "sins" of the children than their formation into adulthood, their "finding" themselves. Case in point, the adopted son is going to his girlfriend's house for a little nookie and the Dad expresses his concern about him and where he'll end up. Jesus gives "precious consolation" that Dad shouldn't worry, "he's just a boy." Jesus lack of concern for the life choices of any of the family members other than their freedom to develop shows that the Jesus of the scriptwriter is permissive and without any judgement, except when it comes to being judgmental.
This concern to keep from judging behavior as right or wrong is hallmark of the relativism that prevails in our culture. Hence, to preserve this as a plausible viewpoint, just re-invent Jesus to support your belief. This show is a prime example of this type of re-invention, which shouldn't be a shock to anyone who understands the spirit of Hollywood. The sad thing I found myself thinking about is that many people think that Christianity, Christ, even life itself is similar to what "The Book of Daniel" depicts. We are a culture that has lost the sense of the sacred for we do not know the true and sacred Jesus. Christians, let's not just protest this act of NBC, let's do our best to be witnesses of the real Jesus. Let the "Lion" out of the cage and let Him do his work. Let's restore the sense of the sacred.
My next post: "Are we living in the New Dark Ages?
posted by Underground Logician @ 8:23 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
"...as one sees the world, so one sees Jesus."
so true. i would rephrase your statement to make it even more broad, yet just as true: "As one sees the world, so one sees God." thus, you have hoaky people with hoaky gods, vengeful people with vengeful gods, and so forth.
I agree, TS. By the way, Happy New Year, Bro!
If people love relativism, they create a God who says "yes" to anything other than self-denial.
You like to be judgemental? Didn't Jesus say,
1 "Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
2 For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
3 Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye?
5 You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye.
Maybe the screen writer read Matthew 7 for research...
just saying...
re: cranky yankee
cranky seems to be a very nice, non-judgemental guy, which is great. honestly. but stop projecting your own non-judgement onto God, cranky. after all, if there's anybody in the universe who ought to be judging us, it's God, right?
also, matthew 7 certainly did not mean everything goes. rather, it meant people should live up to their own standards first in order to help others. "... as one sees the world, so one reads scripture."
Who ever said I wasn't judgemental? I try not to be, but I am aware that I am at times and Will admit it.
Believe it or not I watched the first hour or so of the Daniel show. I only watched it because some of the evango-fascists out there tried to get local stations to cancel it. I assumed it was a full on assault on American Christianity. It wasn't.
If you saw the show, it was pretty obvious that the "Jesus" character was not Jesus Christ at all, but rather a mix between Daniel's conscience and his rationalization. The fact that Daniel depicted this to himself as "Jesus" showed how people use their religious crutches, positively and negatively.
In this case I read it as Daniel being in the "pilot" stages of adjusting his life to fall more in line with what he thought he was and what he taught people. The show will be his journey through these adjustments.
I won't be watching. I thought they were going to be ripping at the evangos more. I like episcopalians. They are much more low key than the rest of the protestants out there.
i haven't watched the show at all, so should shut up.
sorry, and thanks for explaining yourself.
Interesting post. I did not see the show but saw plenty of previews.
Interesting, I have never heard of a Baptist turned Catholic before. (particularly a pastor)
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