If I ever ended up on a reality TV show, one where they had me living in a house with people of opposing beliefs and lifestyles and habits, I’m not sure there would be enough drama from me to make the episode controversial enough to be considered modern entertainment.
There are 2 main reasons for this:
Here’s the 1st reason.
Despite me being concrete on what I believe in and stand for, as my Christian faith is the basis of my existence, my role is not to “convert” anyone who is close-minded to what I believe.
I will gladly share my faith with anyone who I believe is searching for hope; which is what I believe Jesus and His followers demonstrated in the New Testament.
But Jesus didn’t seem to argue with nonbelievers and skeptics.
The people He seemed to really have an issue with were the people of His day who believed they already had their golden ticket into Heaven, but who weren’t willing to truly surrender their hearts to God’s will for their lives; which typically involved simply loving their neighbors as themselves.
(Apparently though, it’s not that simple; otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this today.)
Therefore, I feel I have no business in arguing with a “non-believer” of Christ, the Messiah; whether it’s a person of a different religion, or a skeptic of religion, or someone who simply doesn’t participate in religion whatsoever.
I feel that if my faith is not evident through my attitude and actions, words alone definitely won’t help the situation.
From a secular (and marketing) perspective, what good is a professing Christian on a reality TV show if he or she isn’t willing to argue, lose their cool, and demonstrate the opposite of Jesus’s mentality? The hypocrisy of Christians sells.
But if a Christian is actually helping others overseas to get access to clean water, that’s apparently not worth prime time advertising dollars.
I feel the media is quick to give pedestals to the most opinionated and argumentative professing Christians, which helps make the rest of us appear as fools.
Please don’t misunderstand me, I fully accept my title as “fool for Christ’s sake,” as the Apostle Paul puts it.
But what if there were more examples of… I guess I could simply say… level-headed, nonjudgmental Christians in the media?
I don’t think America is really accustomed to that.
Here’s the 2nd reason I don’t think I would make for a controversial enough episode in a reality TV show:
I would quickly and openly admit I am not perfect.
There’s a stereotype that Christians are the most judgmental people; that they think they are “holier than thou.”
If I was on a reality TV show, the 1st thing I would proclaim to the other people in the house was that I definitely, absolutely do not believe I am better than anyone else.
I would share with them that my understanding of the Christian faith is not that we are people who think we are perfect.
It’s quite the opposite. I know for a fact I am far from perfect and therefore have no right to judge anyone else. Instead, I depend on God’s grace not only for eternal salvation from my imperfect state of being, but also for constant salvation from my greedy, selfish mindset.
I believe we are all sinners in need of God’s grace. I’m simply in the same depraved state as everyone else.
Our society (on both sides of the fence) places so much value on the morality/immorality of homosexuality, as the controversial topic only further divides America in its own civil culture war.
I remain publicly mute on the topic, because I’d rather focus on the things listed in the Bible that I personally struggle with every day:
Like pride.
And greed.
And gossip.
(Those are items people tend to overlook in the New Testament the moment they see a reference of homosexuality; even when those things are listed together with homosexuality in the same verse.)
Our society actually places a high value on gossip, in case you haven’t noticed.
What should be a shameful thing is instead worshiped.
Let me be clear: While our society is divided on homosexuality, we love gossip.
In actuality, gossip is condemned in the Bible; the whole way throughout the book.
But it’s easier for us to question the things in the Bible that only some people relate to, like homosexuality… while the more identifiable issues to the mainstream, like pride and greed and gossip, are virtually excused.
So if I was in a reality TV show, my role would be to help other people alongside me. For example, if I was placed in a house with self-proclaimed slobs, I would help them do their dishes every day before I would allow myself to lose my temper with them.
Granted, I would still fear my scenes could be edited to be taken out of context, packaged into bite-size morsels, so convenient to be blasted all over Twitter- making me out to be the judgmental character I most wished to disassociate myself from.
After all, I fear that in some regards, as we live in a time when the Internet has become the modern day Tower of Babel, we have learned to fear social media (and its potential backlash) more than God Himself.
At the same time, isn’t it safe to say that we as a culture even worship social media, as well?
It’s sad, but that concept helps me better understand the concept of both worshiping and fearing God; though at first it seems like a paradox.
In a reality TV show setting, I would consider myself as a “competitor” in a contest, whose agenda was to prove that Christianity is serving others; not judging them.
Christianity is about demonstrating love, by being patient and kind and understanding and forgiving.
If we dumb down Christianity to “heaven or hell” or “traditional marriage or gay marriage” or “Republican or Democrat”, then I feel we’re not talking about the same faith Jesus taught His followers.
It seems that would be a compromised and ultimately misleading version of the very Gospel we are called to share with our “neighbors”…
Now, the question is, would an American audience buy into a concept so revolutionary… that serving others, not judging them, is what faith in Jesus is all about?
