Surprised by the Truth
I have become quite taken by the show 'Blacklist.' I think it is a compelling, well crafted and well written show that weaves itself into a great story. What I have found quite surprising in the show, though, is how often I am surprised when a character tells the truth.
For example, when Redding is asked directly if he killed someone, he hesitates. I remember thinking, "He's going to say no," even though we (the audience) knew that he had. But then he answers "yes." I was stunned.
I suppose part of that is conditioning. Television shows, dramas, movies have conditioned us to expect people to obfuscate. That's why I am so amazed at just how surprised I am when characters actually tell the truth. It's sadly unique.
And I suppose that goes for society as well. In a world of false online personas we seem to have gotten all to used to disbelieving people - no matter what it is they say. Yet when truth is told, it shocks us and, also sadly, we find ourselves not entirely sure if the truth is the truth.
When the DaVinci Code came out as a book. the church had some difficult questions to answer - and some really silly ones to overlook. But more often than not the church did its usual side step and shied away from answering the more difficult questions about Christian history, development of the creeds and the canon, and some of the more disturbing elements of our own zealous fanaticism that we try our best to downplay and ignore. We don't always tell the truth. We may not lie, but we dodge.
Yet I have to admit my own complacency. I have not told the truth to church members concerning particular points of view in the Bible. Instead of rolling out the challenges I faced in seminary and the facts I learned, I roll with the punches and have tried to appease people by letting their opinions, no matter how fraught with uniformed televagelistic opinions they are, stand with more scholarly approaches. It isn't to validate their particular idea so much as it is to lessen the blow of a difference of opinion. Some people cannot and will not allow any idea other than their own to influence their understandings - especially of the Bible.
Perhaps as a pastor I have to try and be sensitive to it. Maybe telling the truth is dangerous because so many can't (as the famous quote says) handle the truth. But perhaps the more dangerous is not allowing them to face the truth and really have to come to terms with the facts at hand.
For example, when Redding is asked directly if he killed someone, he hesitates. I remember thinking, "He's going to say no," even though we (the audience) knew that he had. But then he answers "yes." I was stunned.
I suppose part of that is conditioning. Television shows, dramas, movies have conditioned us to expect people to obfuscate. That's why I am so amazed at just how surprised I am when characters actually tell the truth. It's sadly unique.
And I suppose that goes for society as well. In a world of false online personas we seem to have gotten all to used to disbelieving people - no matter what it is they say. Yet when truth is told, it shocks us and, also sadly, we find ourselves not entirely sure if the truth is the truth.
When the DaVinci Code came out as a book. the church had some difficult questions to answer - and some really silly ones to overlook. But more often than not the church did its usual side step and shied away from answering the more difficult questions about Christian history, development of the creeds and the canon, and some of the more disturbing elements of our own zealous fanaticism that we try our best to downplay and ignore. We don't always tell the truth. We may not lie, but we dodge.
Yet I have to admit my own complacency. I have not told the truth to church members concerning particular points of view in the Bible. Instead of rolling out the challenges I faced in seminary and the facts I learned, I roll with the punches and have tried to appease people by letting their opinions, no matter how fraught with uniformed televagelistic opinions they are, stand with more scholarly approaches. It isn't to validate their particular idea so much as it is to lessen the blow of a difference of opinion. Some people cannot and will not allow any idea other than their own to influence their understandings - especially of the Bible.
Perhaps as a pastor I have to try and be sensitive to it. Maybe telling the truth is dangerous because so many can't (as the famous quote says) handle the truth. But perhaps the more dangerous is not allowing them to face the truth and really have to come to terms with the facts at hand.
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