The Tale of the Wearied Defense Attorney

As a few of you have noticed (if you still check this blog, which has been stagnant for a month), I took a leave of absence from blogging. Wedding plans kicked in at high gear and have not slowed down, and that, along with coordinating the next six months of student ministry at the church, have kept my fingers from the keys and my mouse cursor from the PUBLISH button. However, I do find some time to get some thoughts down, and I figured I would share some of that until I can get back to my normal routine on here.

The following is an e-mail letter I wrote to a magazine called Plugged In, which is published monthly by Focus on the Family as a resource for parents, ministers, and teens. It claims to review pop culture in a "Christian" light. The more I peruse the publication, the more I loathe their close-minded reviews. Perhaps I am just cynical, but in case you would like to get a taste for yourself, visit their online version here. The reviews of Aaron Sorkin's work did not necessarily push me over the edge into writing a letter, but I did choose to use the reviews as an example, since their opinions of The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip I could not have found less objective.


Dear Plugged In:

As the student minister at my church, working with middle school, high school, and college students, I am growing extremely weary of standing between two opposing sides who are becoming, whether they claim to be or not, increasingly hostile toward each other. It is getting more and more difficult to serve solely as an ambassador of Christ, as Scripture calls all Christians to do. Lately I feel instead like a defense attorney for American conservative Christianity. The backbiting, name-calling, and exclusivist attitudes of our "Christian culture" are creating rifts between the Church and young people of this country and it is only getting worse. This magazine is a prime example. How? Because you uphold only that which is white-washed and pristine, and any piece of pop culture that contains a noticeable shred of darkness, disagreement, confusion, or angst, you lambaste as being that which is leading the youth of America astray. Take, for instance, your Nov. 2006 review of the engagingly intelligent and entertaining NBC show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. You may argue a fairness of writing style, but the article's tone is most certainly biased against the show. Anyone who closely watches Studio 60 (as all reviewers should) will recognize that the Christian character, Harriet Hayes, is never humiliated for the values she upholds, nor do the characters who disagree with her find their views and ideologies triumphing hers. The show is simply not about jabbing back at evangelical America. Quite the contrary, it is a picture of how different views clash and function together in a very real entertainment environment - an environment that plays before the eyes of people, young and old, day after day. Why must everything that does not wave a Christian flag proudly and claim allegiance to the "morals" of Scripture be written off as inappropriate for viewers - even teenage viewers? Do we actually believe that we are helping our young people adapt to this ever-changing society by shielding them from every little piece of rebellion and unchristian view? We are so afraid any kind of exposure might shatter them as if they are made of glass.

In reality, pop culture does not have to be the enemy, even when pieces of it might contain lostness and rebellion. Scripture is certainly not without darkness, sin, and confusion. You knock The West Wing's President Bartlett for wrestling with God to the point of cursing him, but would praise many of the psalms that do pretty much the same thing. I would rather show that particular West Wing episode to my youth group than any number of Christianized films with cookie-cutter storylines and lame moments of conversion devoid of any real human pain and struggle. Why? Because the former is real! It is tangible; an image that does not make living the Christian life, or believing in God, or seeking to do the right thing, seem like an easy option.

Still, our Christian culture piles up more and more sterilized alternatives that are declared uplifting and edifying for followers of Christ, and those who do not buy into this candy-coated fluff are seen as desensitized compromisers, rather than what they are, believers who are unafraid of the culture, and ready to walk confidently into the buzzing mainstream. Christians who can locate Truth even in dark places, places not empty of all crudeness and pain. Christians who wholeheartedly agree with the words of Madeleine L'Engle, that "there is nothing so secular that it cannot be made sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation." At first, I thought this is what Plugged In was about, but over the years I see little in your magazine that does not uphold this cultural Christian battle-line.

And so I feel like a wearied defense attorney. Constantly wishing my client would just settle down and shut up, I struggle to save Christianity from so many of its close-minded followers, while I seek to present its deep Truth, that of fallenness, pain, confusion, mercy, grace, beauty, laughter, and an ultimate redemption.

Please don't be so quick to neatly divide light and darkness, the good from the bad. Look deeper. For the sake of this culture and the young people who will inherit it, look deeper.