heresy is necessary

[We] must move from the idea that there is an Orthodox Christian stance and a heretical positioning that transgresses it, to the point in which we see Orthodoxy itself as heretical...[T]here is no absolute foundation to orthodoxy, that it was formed contingently over time through debate, discussion and argument and that its necessity was then retroactively constructed and maintained by the victor. A point that almost any non-partisan historian of religion will attest to.
--Pete Rollins

god on the small screen

One of the most popular sitcoms on television is Two and a Half Men. It's a show about two brothers and one's son who live together in a fabulous house, make poor life choices, and hijinks ensue. My husband notes, "they're horrible empty people living horrible empty lives with no glimmer of hope and nothing ever changes." Certainly it's fiction, but fiction tells us a lot about ourselves. The show fills me with despair because the emptiness never changes--it's the definition of nihilism.

A lot of folks wouldn't watch the reboot of the show Battlestar Galactica because it was too dark. Dark it is, but never empty. The decisions people face are difficult, ethically and emotionally. People learn and change. And they care about their learning and changing--they are real people living complex, full lives whose choices, while often ridiculously impossible offer hope. These people make the best choices they can given the situation, not the choice that garners the most canned laughter.

Maybe Battlestar Galactica isn't your cup of tea, but I challenge you to consider what you watch with an eye for God's presence in it. We are given both comfort (escapism?) and challenge in the gospel--how does what you watch embody those gifts?