We don’t have television, but lately we’ve been watching old shows on our computer. Among our favorites are “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Night Gallery,” and “The Outer Limits.” We’re always surprised and delighted by the high quality of the acting, the writing, and everything else about these shows: not like today’s reality shows starring nobody.
In wandering up and down the various eras of television, it seems to me that by the 1970s TV had become, at least for practical purposes, a province of atheism. Not that I expect long scenes of people praying, reading the Bible, or going to church. But the characters in these shows, with more and more uniformity, live lives untouched by God. Granted, they are fictional lives: but the shows were expected to be convincingly realistic.
I remember a “Millenium” episode in which the hero consulted a priest and his superiors held a special meeting to discuss whether he was going off the deep end. They called in his partner, and she let them have it with both barrels. “Of course he talked to a priest! He’s Catholic! Is that supposed to make him unreliable?” And she walked out in a huff.
That was a great scene! Yes, I know Chris Carter, the creator of “Millenium,” had a lot of New Age ca-ca floating around in his mind. I don’t offer him up as someone who understands Christianity.
So where is God in all these fictional people’s lives?
And where is God in real people’s lives? I think the condition of our country today answers that question for us.
Who needs God when we can be our own god?
It’s sad, but sadly true. People see to hat even the concept of God these days. In some cases, it may be due to failings of organized religions, but in at least some cases, it’s due to more than that. Many people today don’t want to have any moral authority over their lives and I think this is the root of much God-hatred.
And yet at the same time, they accept an *unlimited* degree of state authority!
If they acknowledge God they must acknowledge their sinful lives.
Which is not always easy, even if one is only acknowledging one’s own sin secretly, to oneself. But it’s even harder to pretend one has no sin. It takes a lot of fat between the ears, to get away with that.