Will and Grace Update

According to the website of the American Family Association, producers of Will and Grace have elected to pull the show featuring Britney Federline's "conservative Christian" character due to pressure placed on them by the viewing public.

Some have asked, "Why do you care? Shouldn't we expect unbelievers to act like unbelievers? What good does it do to boycott programs because of their moral content?"

The answer is, as a Christian, I understand that unbelievers won't conform to the moral standard of Christianity, because they can't. But as an American, I have the ability and privilege in a free-market society to affect change in culture through my vote.

While the fact that NBC has taken this offensive episode off the air doesn't get them a step closer to Christ, their real need, it does prevent NBC from further murking up already muddy waters by propogating stereotypes of Christianity that are an unfair characteristic of the belief-system I follow. The more often secular television unfairly presents a stereotype of what Christianity is about, the more baggage we have to fight through to reveal the Truth behind Christianity.

I'm between classes right now, but wanted to post this while I had a chance. Maybe I'll further clarify my thoughts on this issue later.

Failure is not an option... or is it?

I'd love to be a weatherman. If God ever calls me out of the ministry, and closes my second dream of being a Major League Baseball umpire, the third choice is meteorology. Think about it. The weatherman has the most cush job in the world - show up to work, gain celebrity status, point to a couple of maps... and oh, by the way, you can be wrong ninety percent of the time and nobody cares. As long as you mention high pressure systems, hot and cold fronts, and barometric pressure somewhere in your presentation, the world is generally happy. Oh, they joke about you behind the scenes, but you laugh about it all the way to the bank. I could live that kind of life.

Isn't it ironic, then, that I've chosen a career in which people have historically given themselves absolutely zero margin for error? Ministry is a career that deals with the most important issues in the lives of people during the most significant times in their lives. We are present to kiss babies, are used to lead those children to faith in Christ, baptize them, marry them, and sometimes bury them. Name a truly significant life event, and the chances are the pastor will be there. So our demand of ourselves for success is in some senses understandable.

But it's also driving us nuts.

A Major League baseball player who fails to hit six out of ten times will make it to the hall of fame. But we don't have a philosophy that allows us to fail, so we hide our faults and hate ourselves. We're an insecure bunch, which casts us into a dangerous tailspin of failure, hiding, hating ourselves, which leads to more failure, hiding, and hating.

How do we get out? By changing our perspective. Most pastors think their drive towards one-hundred percent success is a product of their high view of God. It isn't. Instead, it's a product of the opposite: a low view of God the believes success is (1) something that is commanded of us, and/or (2) something that is attainable.

God has not called us to be successful; He has called us to be faithful. Accordingly, He has not given us the tools to be successful. Success in ministry is entirely connected to the hearts of people - something over which I have no influence as an individual. Thankfully, God uses me from time to time as His instrument in affecting the heart, but heart-change is not my responsibility.

When I understand that success is not my responsibility or God's goal for me, I'm free to serve without fear. I will fail, but I pray to God I won't quit. And that is success.

Tolerance?

This just in from Fox News

NEW YORK — Britney Spears will guest star on an episode of "Will & Grace," NBC announced Tuesday. The pop star will appear as a Christian conservative sidekick to Sean Hayes' character, Jack, who hosts his own talk show, on the April 13 episode, the network said.
Jack's fictional network, Out TV, is bought by a Christian TV network, leading to Spears contributing a cooking segment called "Cruci-fixin's." As a young girl, the 24-year-old Spears was a regular on "The Mickey Mouse Club." After becoming a pop singer, she starred in the critically panned 2002 film "Crossroads."Last September, Spears gave birth to her first child, son Sean Preston, with husband Kevin Federline. "Will & Grace," which also stars Eric McCormack, Debra Messing and Megan Mullally, is in its eighth and final season. It airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. (EST).

This is probably not the best place for this public confession, but I watch Will and Grace fairly regularly. I don't agree with the agenda behind the show, and I certainly don't care for the casual way the cast members deal with serious issues. But dang it, the show is funny.

This episode might spell the end of my toleration.

I'm confident the writers of Will and Grace will present a fair portrayal of conservative Christians. I'm sure Britney Spears (ahem... Federline) will present an intellectual, caring, loving, Christlike portrayal of Christianity. Yeah right.

I could be wrong, but isn't this head-on attack of other ideals the exact same intolerance that has been the rallying cry for the homosexual agenda over the past ten or so years? When we do it, it's intolerance - hate speech. When they do it, it's activism.

Honestly, I wouldn't have a problem with Will and Grace promoting whatever agenda they want to promote; I can change the channel if it offends me. But if they're going to dish it out, they had better be ready to take it. The tolerance argument wins no sympathy from me if it isn't going to go both ways.