Further consideration of the group's request for "ACTION" made me wonder what action I should undertake. Should I write what will surely be an unread letter decrying how my faith is being portrayed by a cartoon? Or should I direct my frustration towards those who are actively living their faith in a way that portrays just such a message to the world? When shows such as Family Guy put a mirror in the face of Western Christianity, why is it that our immediate reaction is to lead a boycott of show just because what we saw was ugly?? Ever stop to wonder if this ACTUALLY is what people think about Jesus and Christianity?? Have you ever shown someone the love of Jesus with no strings attached? Are you part of the problem?? Not trying to talk you into watching Family Guy, I just wonder if we ought be more outraged at how those on our team (Christianity) are portraying our faith as opposed to wasting time and effort hoping to get what is a wildly popular show off the air. Maybe our crumbling societal values are just a reflection of the church. I better stop - you are getting mad.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Family Guy Fervor
Ok - I admit it. I watch Family Guy. I can feel your piercing and holy glare as you think, "How dare you?" So now that we have that out of the way, I received an e-mail today from a family focused group that urged a boycott of the show due to what they deemed "anti-christian" content. I agree that Family Guy does toe the line and, at times, cross it, but as I considered the material in question, I couldn't help but wonder....... At the bottom of the e-mail from this group was the bold banner "TAKE ACTION! URGE THE FCC TO BAN THIS SHOW." Their bone of contention was over a line where a character states that "Jesus hates many people and especially homosexuals."
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I think shows like Family Guy and South Park are great shows, really funny and are portraits of our American life. I think its ok to be upset when ever they something or make a joke about Christianity or Jesus or Jews. Most of the time we should be mature and realize this is so low-grade humor that we should just brush it off. Now whenever we get to the fever pitch as Muslims do when ever they are insulted or Mohamed is drawn thats and they decided to threaten peoples lives is when things get too far. Christians wanting to boycott something, happens all the time. They have been trying to do that to Disney since the 80's and its never worked. But when we as a society want blood for some idiotic cartoon making Jesus look like an action hero or God as a chilled out hippie we need to realize there are more important things and I'm sure God has heard more vulgar nastier things said about him.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that Christ heard nastier and more damaging things at his trial so very long ago. I agree with Chris. It's so much easier to point a finger and yell, "You're not being nice" or "That's not fair!" They say that stereotypes are founded on at least a small amount of truth. So, when was the last time you have seen (or have I seen, for that matter) a Christian reaching out in love to a homosexual? Or are we only able to bring back images of picket lines, posters held aloft, and people shouting how homosexual marriage shouldn't be allowed? When was the last time someone on "our" side crossed the line and got to know one of those rainbow-clad persons on the other side?
ReplyDeleteRecently, I had a friend stand before a city council to speak about their vote on homosexual marriage. She had many wonderful things to say as she addressed the council and those attendees in the council chambers. However, the first thing she did was apologize to those in the room who had been hurt by the church. It was a powerful moment according to my friend. People wept. Maybe we should be more concerned with living as true disciples of Christ, thereby making the cartoon statement look foolish and less worried about what a drawn character's opinion is of us.