Television, awards should include religion

"Karl Marx was wrong. Religion isn't the opiate of the people; it's the placebo."

-- Dr. Gregory House

House is the lead character on the eponymously named TV drama "House" on Fox. He plays the brilliant chief of diagnostic medicine at a fictional New Jersey hospital. Despite a withering disposition and an acerbic and sardonic approach to nearly every human encounter, Dr. House is almost always right in a diagnosis. But, as is made clear in most episodes, House is contemptuous of religion. He believes it to be a fairy tale worthy of Aesop or Chaucer.

Because of my vocation, I've had the opportunity to know, at least on a casual basis, a number of physicians. A few behave like House -- terrible with people but apparently quite skillful. They are, after all, working.

A fairly large swath, in my estimation, seem to view clergy attending to a patient as harmless but largely superfluous. As long as we don't get in their way, then it's OK for clerics to be present.

But there are some -- and more than a few in Cape Girardeau -- who seem to believe that faith is a critical component in patient recovery. Call this category the "anti-House" faction. One surgeon actually asked me to pray with a patient on whom he was about to perform a major back operation. The physician took my hand and together we asked God to guide his hands and to focus all his God-given ability on what was about to occur in the operating room. I struggle to remember that particular doc on those infrequent occasions whenever a House-like physician crosses my path.

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We are fully into silly season now. In the dead of winter, the film industry does not seem to allow a week to go by without giving itself awards. The People's Choice Awards on Jan. 7; Golden Globes on Jan. 11; Screen Actors Guild Awards on Jan. 25; the NAACP Image Awards on Feb. 12; Spirit Awards (indie films) today; the Academy Awards on Sunday. The sheer number of award shows is so disproportionate that it raises the most basic of all existential questions: Why?

Perhaps people in the film business are so insecure that only trophies can quell the deep-down feeling that they are all involved in nonessential make-believe. On the other hand, it could be that our culture is so celebrity-obsessed that we demand frequent sightings of our favorite actors and actresses in unscripted settings.

Although I don't pay any attention to the Oscars these days, there was a time in which it was of real interest. I simply don't care anymore.

When Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross, the most significant single event in all of human history, only a handful of people saw it.

We ought to care about that. And by the way, on that particular afternoon, Jesus was not receiving an award. Far from it. He had been abandoned by nearly all of his friends. Even God the Father turned his back, prompting Jesus to quote Psalm 22: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Despite this moment of desertion, Jesus was doing an unprecedented thing. He was giving the gift of forgiveness by death on a cross. That's something to remember in silly season.

As film people collect their baubles, recall that Jesus -- who deserved all accolades and got none -- gave the most priceless of gifts. Silly meets substance, and substance always triumphs.

Jeff Long is pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. Married with two daughters, he is of Scots and Swedish descent, loves movies and is a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.