Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Dear Anonymous…

I got this comment on my post about Top Ten Favorite TV Couples:

Your choice of shows as a Christian are a little quetionable. "How I Met your Mother" a show that glorifies premarital sex and "Modern Family" that shows that their is nothing wrong with homosexualality

It is a little ironic that "anonymous" criticizes me for being questionable on a post where I'm sifting through the moral decay of our culture looking for specks of gold to celebrate.  It's also ironic that the show that supposedly glorifies premarital sex is one of the only shows where the two most promiscuous characters are getting married to each other, suffering (some) consequences for their immorality, and also regularly pale in comparison to the steadfast happiness and satisfaction of the monogamous couple in that show.  "How I Met Your Mother" is a surprisingly convincing argument for finding the love of your life as soon as possible, which is the very theme of the show.

And, yes, "Modern Family" makes me cringe in disgust sometimes but I started watching the show because I'm acquainted with the parents of one of the main actors on the show.  I also believe that "Modern Family" is on the cutting edge of normalizing homosexuality in our culture and I find it incredibly useful to be familiar with the show and its themes.

I realize when I write about our culture that it's going to make some people uncomfortable.  Perhaps if I pretended to be above it all it would be more reassuring.  But as a Christian I should not be above it all.  I need to seriously have a heart for promiscuous people and homosexuals and shallow potheads and bitter atheists and wounded church-goers.  It's my job to be as expert as I can be on both God's Word and this culture because I'm fighting everyday in a war of ideas.  A war that the Church is losing in this country, by the way.

God has called me to love people who live in this culture and effectively reach them.  I'm a fisherman; I occasionally smell like fish but please believe me that I don't desire to be a fish.

3 comments:

Zach Bolin said...

Preach it!

JenHaggerty said...

Yep!

Anonymous said...

Your right. we are called to be fisher of men. But that doesn't allow us to partake in the filth around us. Would you then justify people who watch shows on HBO, and Showtime that depict graphic nudity and sexaul acts looking for gold specs? Does not How I met Your Mother simply use words rather that pictues to display immorality in what was created to be God's Holy Union? I believe it is not a fish you smell like but a goat who acts and look like a goat. You seem to be a sheep in name only. You claim that you are helping individuals reach Christ? How has partaking in your favorite sitcoms helped? If you are running a race and find an individual who has lost a limb. Do you not help the individual get help either by picking them up or gtting them help. What you propose is that we lay down with the injured claiming that the lost limb still has a working toe (gold spec). At last I leave you with this thought. Would you allow children and teenagers to engage in the same conversatations and course joking involved in the sitcom? Would you allow children or teenagers to listen to explict music? Would you watch the show with your mother or elder member of the Church family?