Yes, I watch GCB!

I spent some time poking around the internet, looking at how people have been responding to ABC's new break-out show "GCB".  Most of the sites you find are less than favorable.  They are also written by Christians.  Big suprise there.  There are actually a multitude of people from the US who are calling for boycotts and protests over the airing of this show. They argue that this show unduly shows Christians in a negative or abusive light; that airing the program breaks anti-discimination and anti-hate laws; and that public scrutiny would never stand for a show entitled 'GMB', where the M stands for 'Muslim'.  (Although, a reference to Canadian hit 'Little Mosque on the Prairie" may provide an interesting retort.)

Let's be clear:  GCB is not a Christian show.  Its purpose is not to put forward Biblical truth or display what authentic Christian community is to look like.  It has no evangelistic mission whereby it subversly attempts to introduce millions of viewers to the truth of Jesus.  If you watch the show hoping for these things, you will be hoplessly dissapointed.

However, this does not make GCB an 'anti-Christian' show by any means. GCB is a secular show.  It is a show designed to make money for the networks.  It depicts over the top, often campy characters, living in a fairy-tale universe, who often find themselves in situations written specificlly for the unrealistic GCB world.  It just happens to center around a community of people who call themselves 'Christians'.  Frankly I see no difference that television program that contains over the top Doctors, living in a fairy-tale universe who find themselves in unreaslistic situations written specifically life at 'Seattle Grace' (Grey's Anatomy).

So why watch GCB?  Good question.  Amidst the over-the-top characters and unrealistic situations, GCB depicts individuals who struggle with issues of faith, spirituality, and modern life.  Here is the place where GCB touches real life, and it is here where, I believe, we Christians need to pay attention.  The spirituality of GCB is a confusing spirituality.  The 'belles' (that's what the 'b' is supposed to stand for right?) are people who struggle with Christian living.  Faith, life, spirituality, and religious observance are shown in a complex manner.  What it means to be a Christian in the GCB world is just as murky as what it means to be a Christian in our ever-secularzed world.  It is a truth we all know yet seldom voice: issues of faith and life are rarely strait forward.  The interplay between what it means to be a 'Good Christian Belle (or Beau)' amidst the complex and multifaceted nature of life is seldom easy to discern.  The life of faith can be confussing, filled with questions and doubts, sins and struggles.  Even the most religiously pure and spiritually minded person is aware of this dynamic.  Watching the characters of GCB struggle with their own issues of faith and Chrisitan living can help us look at ourselves in the same manner.   Who knows, we may even be able to see some light of the gospel shine through.

What will follow in these blog posts will be my own reflections, as a Christian Priest, about the spiritual issues that GCB raises.  I hope to look at the positive places where faith, God, prayer, and the Church are shown, while also taking seriuosly the challenges and critiques when they are not shown as positively.

I hope you enjoy these posts, and join me in thinking of these things along the way.