Monday, May 23, 2005
The rules of the game.
As many of you know, I am a reality TV junkie, and if you didn't know it before, you do now. I even did an online comic about it. Yesterday I got to watch the finale of one I have watched with interest but sporadically on PBS called Colonial House. It could have been a great show, but it just didn't work. Why didn't it work? Because it wasn't real. The object of the "game" was for people to live as they did in 1628. The problem was the people couldn't leave 2005 (or 4 or whenever it was, you can never tell with PBS).
What do I mean? You had people refusing to attend worship. In 1628, like it or not, worship was mandatory. Of course when you were fleeing for your life from religious persecution, starving and dying crying out to God is kind of important. It's kind of easy to be an atheist when you are being followed around with cameras and knowing that while it may be uncomfortable, no one is going to let you die or for that matter even become seriously ill. The "colonists" white liberal guilt, had them losing money making stupid trades with the local "native Americans." It seemed as if they thought losing money would somehow make up for shafting the Native Americans so many years ago. The people they were trying to replicate would have starved and froze to death to keep their good names in check. Speaking of the native Americans, the people in this show were so politically activist that they spent more time fueling the colonists white liberal guilt that their role in the game was totally skewed. It was as if they expected that colonists would hop back on their boats and sail back to England where they belong. By the time they got here, they didn't have enough supplies to return, they had only one choice, learn to live here.
There are two problems I can see with this. The first is you can't retell this story and leave God out of it. The people who sent the colonists may heve been profiteers, but the people came here seeking freedom to worship God. And surely God had something to do with the country coming into being. The second thing is this, you can't change the past. Do I wish people had done things differently? Absolutely, but people it was 400 years and the past is gone. Our big struggle with the past is the only way we can view it is through today's goggles and in the process we miss the point. We do the same thing with the Word of God. We either strip of its context, or we try to make it mean what we want it to mean today. Neither is the right way. The Word of God is truth we need to read what it says, try to understand the context and live out the eternal truths held within its pages.
As many of you know, I am a reality TV junkie, and if you didn't know it before, you do now. I even did an online comic about it. Yesterday I got to watch the finale of one I have watched with interest but sporadically on PBS called Colonial House. It could have been a great show, but it just didn't work. Why didn't it work? Because it wasn't real. The object of the "game" was for people to live as they did in 1628. The problem was the people couldn't leave 2005 (or 4 or whenever it was, you can never tell with PBS).
What do I mean? You had people refusing to attend worship. In 1628, like it or not, worship was mandatory. Of course when you were fleeing for your life from religious persecution, starving and dying crying out to God is kind of important. It's kind of easy to be an atheist when you are being followed around with cameras and knowing that while it may be uncomfortable, no one is going to let you die or for that matter even become seriously ill. The "colonists" white liberal guilt, had them losing money making stupid trades with the local "native Americans." It seemed as if they thought losing money would somehow make up for shafting the Native Americans so many years ago. The people they were trying to replicate would have starved and froze to death to keep their good names in check. Speaking of the native Americans, the people in this show were so politically activist that they spent more time fueling the colonists white liberal guilt that their role in the game was totally skewed. It was as if they expected that colonists would hop back on their boats and sail back to England where they belong. By the time they got here, they didn't have enough supplies to return, they had only one choice, learn to live here.
There are two problems I can see with this. The first is you can't retell this story and leave God out of it. The people who sent the colonists may heve been profiteers, but the people came here seeking freedom to worship God. And surely God had something to do with the country coming into being. The second thing is this, you can't change the past. Do I wish people had done things differently? Absolutely, but people it was 400 years and the past is gone. Our big struggle with the past is the only way we can view it is through today's goggles and in the process we miss the point. We do the same thing with the Word of God. We either strip of its context, or we try to make it mean what we want it to mean today. Neither is the right way. The Word of God is truth we need to read what it says, try to understand the context and live out the eternal truths held within its pages.
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