I’ve been thinking about character (the person you are when no one’s looking) while preparing for next Sunday’s talk. I watch a couple of reality shows: “Apprentice” and Hell’s Kitchen. They both have one thing in common. Whenever someone gets caught on camera doing something that makes them look like a big jerk, they all say the same thing. “I’m not normally like this…”
On Celebrity Apprentice this week, Dennis Rodman said after yet another angry confrontation, “I don’t have a hateful bone in my body…I can get along with anyone.” On Hells Kitchen this week one of the Chef’s blubbered into the obligatory “confessional” camera, “I’m being made out to be the b*tch of the kitchen…In real life I’m a very cool, nice, person. Really? I wonder if the people that actually know them would agree?
Thank God we don’t all have “celebreality” cameras following us. (yet) I’m sure that all of us would have moments we would be ashamed of if we did. But when we say “I’m never like this…”, “I never do this…” is it true? The answer to that question is our character.
“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.: Abraham Lincoln
I saw these dudes (link to God’s Pottery website) on Last Comic Standing last night. I laughed, I cried…I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit. They have captured everything “cheezy“, “too nice”, “preachy”, and just over-the-top-annoying about “Christians” and turned it into a comedy act. Their “act” is funny,and “true”…but sad when you think about the “caricature” that Christians have become in our society…yikes.
I read a report this week that listed Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as two of the most powerful political pundits in America. How did these two very funny wing nuts make it on the list with so many other seriously powerful and “powerfully serious” talking heads? How did their shows on the little watched Comedy Central become such opinion leaders?
I think the answer is comedy… they make the jokes that so many others in America are “thinking”. They poke fun at a political process that so many are cynical and weary of… They are actually gaining credibility by pointing out the absurdity of “the system”…
How does that relate to religion in America? I think the parallels are becoming clearer every day. So many people are cynical and jaded with “the system” but (just like in politics) they are still looking for a “savior”… So how can we introduce them to “the Savior”? I think we have to be willing to poke fun at ourselves and our “religious system”. Put the most serious subjects in the funniest settings… Make laughing together a bridge to understanding and belief. Who knows…maybe someday they will have comedy courses at seminary…it certainly couldn’t hurt.
