Who are some of the most famous or infamous Christian characters on TV/Movies?
Here the first two that come to my mind.
Angela from The Office
Ned Flanders from The Simpsons
Who else is there and what would be one word to describe them? Ned ("I just got back from a Christian camp, where I learned how to be more judgmental") and Angela ("Yeah I watch 'Will and Grace' and almost throw up.") can both be described as judgmental, especially Angela.
Posts
9 comments:
Here's what me & my buddy could think of...
* Puddy from Seinfeld: "What do you care? You're already going to hell..."
"High Five"
* Dana Carvey's "The Church Lady" from SNL
* There's a prominent character on FX's "The Shield" who is a black cop. His name is Julian. He's a Christian with deep spirituality, struggled with homosexuality, and overcame homosexuality with sexual reorientation therapy, and is currently (within the timeline of the show) married & adopted his wife's kid. Within the TV show, he is a paragon of virtue & doing his job the right way, but also struggles with & has a lot of pent-up angst concerning his sexual history, his faith, and his race.
* Mr. Eko from "LOST"
How about all the token Christians on any given reality show-Amazing Race, Big Brother, Survivor....
Here's a question-which gives us a bad rap more, reality tv or sitcoms?
Hoosier asks a really good question. I can't think of any more fictional Christian characters on shows. iii pretty much nailed it.
I can think of multiple guys/girls on reality tv shows that proclaimed their faith. I am a closet MTV's REAL WORLD fan and they have casted people who claim Christianity. Of course, they don't cast the cool, down-to-earth, balanced Christian. They cast one of two people: (1) the over-the-top, judgmental, condemning, "you're wrong" Christians or (2) the "I claim Christ but I still get hammered and laid every night just like all the other people while having to bleep out half of my language because of cursing", have a 5 minute God-moment on TV simply edited to look like the biggest hypocrite. Either way, it isn't the prettiest of portrayals of Christianity.
Hoosier, I would have to go Reality TV for your question.
brian,
So art (ned) mimics real life. sad state of affairs....I agree with you, reality tv takes the bigger toll on the christian faith. albeit, I have to believe the clips and out-takes are created to add to the negative perceptions.
time to change the perception guys.
by the way, the name is kurt...or hoosier, I answered to that in college.
Kurt,
I believe some of that negative perceptions have to come from how they edit those shows. On the other hand, they do get the extremist wacko Christians that are really good at finger pointing. The thing that drives me crazy the most about how Christians are portrayed on tv (reality and fiction) is that Christians are boring, life-less personalities who are miserable pointing out the mistakes of everybody around them. That is not the John 10:10 life I try to live.
I seriously considered at one point trying as hard as I could to get on one of those shows (which would require lying like crazy to get on there because they would never pick a guy like me) just so I could change the perception of Christians. Never had the guts to try though. Now I am too old.
Good thoughts though.
III- Julian from the Shield (never watched it) seems to be a quality representation.
Kurt- I agree reality TV does a good job of scripting each character to be trite. I had a friend from college on a stupid reality show as the token Christian and it was so obvious the story they were trying to tell
Cromer- You aren't too old for the Real World, but I bet Heather wouldn't be too happy with that.
I agree that art has been shaped by reality and we have a responsibility to change that.
Cromer-
Since you are being honest about Real World- I saw a clip recently from an episode where a cast member's dad tells her to be loving and forgiving to her immoral roommate. He even responded to her comment about him impossible it would be to do that to someone so immoral, that it wasn't easy for JC to say "Forgiven for they know not what they do." I was proud of him.
Luke,
thanks for letting me crash your blog group-happened to find it once because of a mutual book we read-Myth of a C.... I find your faith posts to be relevant and not too heavy, kinda like discussions with my buddies.
I'm an architect & politician (frmr politician-why I use the pseudonym with my blog)...wife is CE director at our church and my brother's a sr pastor-I guess that makes me the black sheep of the fam.
Congrats on your new family member-exciting stuff and life will never be the same. My son is 7 and daughter 5. and we are very done.
looking forward to more entries.
Kurt
Kurt-
Glad that you have joined this little virtual community. I appreciate your comments.
Any politician, or former politician, who has read and like's Myth of an Xian nation is a good one in my book.
We are looking at either two or three kids. I bet we will have a better idea about how many we can survive in a few months.
Post a Comment