E.R.'s tired Christian stereotypes
Tonight's episode of "E.R." was entitled "Just As I Am," and it featured the first singing of that famous hymn that I've ever heard on a network TV drama. Unfortunately -- but not unsurprisingly -- it was used to set up yet another episode where an explicitly Christian character is revealed to be the usual judgmental, hypocritical bigot for not accepting a sinful lifestyle as a perfectly logical part of God's plan for creation. Imagine that.
The use of "Just As I Am" as an episode title is particularly maddening considering the full lyrics of the hymn (which, of course, were not sung) and their real message. Here's one of the unsung stanzas:
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
The E.R. writers thought it would be clever to use the hymn title as a message that God -- and by extension other humans -- should be willing to accept someone for "who they are," which is code for "the choices they've made." It doesn't matter whether those choices run counter to God's will or His holiness.
In reality, the hymn speaks of being totally broken before God, coming to Him with the full knowledge of one's sin and shortcoming, and counting on God's grace which has been promised to those who will repent of that willful sin. The use of the hymn by E.R. to put forth a message of "tolerance" was, in fact, a complete perversion of the hymnwriter's original intent.
NBC has once more shown that it not only doesn't understand Christianity, it has no desire to do so.
Technorati tag: Christianity
I'll second that.
It seems I've missed another memorable night of intelligent, thought-provoking, network programming. Oh dear.
To think, I could have spent that hour watching "evangelical Christians" being falsely stereotyped and I wasted it reading some Russian novel.
I stopped watching ER a couple of years ago. Seems I haven't missed much.
Posted by: jen at February 11, 2005 09:04 AMJen, the writers of ER had to really go out of their way to be offensive in last night's episode. They have introduced so many characters and potential plot lines that deal with actual medical situations that I have to think they've got a checklist or schedule that says "Ignore topical plots...skewer Christians."
Posted by: Eric at February 11, 2005 10:59 AMI dropped ER from my regular rotation when Carrie Weaver became militant lesbian. That was the same season of the dual Jump the Shark moments involving Rocket Romano's amputation and death - both by helicopter.
Posted by: jen at February 11, 2005 02:44 PMAlthough...you might be intrigued to learn the nature of Weaver's disability, which I never knew in all this time until last night...
Posted by: Eric at February 11, 2005 02:47 PMAbout the publisher
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Well said.
Posted by: jasmine at February 10, 2005 11:33 PM