Faith on television

By Rob Hurtgen

I don't watch much TV. That's more a confession than boasting. Most of the time I would rather be doing something else. Recently though I have been watching more TV, and I've noticed how matters of faith are front and center on the small screen. Perhaps, though, issues of faith being on the small screen is not an exception. As I said, I don't watch much TV. Matters of faith being presented through television sitcoms and dramas speaks to at least three issues about our culture at large.

First, what we believe, or don't, is very complicated. Some of us see faith, life, work, hobbies as segmented pieces of life separated from each other. Never touching. Like a divided plate where the food never touches each other. Others are undivided. Faith, life, work, play, all aspects of life are more of a mosaic. Individual pieces but all intertwined together. As a culture what we believe, or don't, and how we express it, or don't, is very complicated.

Second, these shows highlight an undercurrent in our culture that we are longing for more than what our contemporary society is providing. We live in the golden age of information and global connectivity. Yet our modern era is making many of us feel overburdened, overwhelmed, unappreciated and alone. We possess the ability to connect to anyone across the entire world in an instant but we are incapable of talking with the person across the barista table from us. These shows demonstrate that while we have much, we are longing for something, or someone, that matters.

Third, these shows remind us that we long for something beyond this life. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God, "has planted eternity in the human heart" (NLT). Implanted deep within each of us is a longing for that which lasts forever. Maybe that is why we are always drawn to the stories that end "happily ever after."

I don't expect anyone to who did not believe in God to believe in him as a result of these shows. In fact, I expect that these shows will mock traditional faith and the church while elevating some form of spirituality sans religion. My hope is, my prayer is, that they will be used to trigger in someone somewhere a deeper longing for God. A longing that drives them to pursue him authentically. The book of James gives this promise; "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you" (James 4:8, CSB).