Theological Thoughts for Thursday

I imagine you've never heard of OZ, and if you have heard about it you probably never watched it. Oz is a weird show - it was HBOs first drama and they were a little too happy to push the envelope with the content they were allowed to show. There are many stabbings and not a few rape scenes - and the show is nothing if not crude. But the show is set in a prison, and is nothing if not real - and this incredible sense of reality lends itself well to deep theological discussions. With more frequency and greater depth than any other commercially viable show.

The prison employs a priest, Father Ray Mukada, and a nun, Sister Peter Marie Reimondo. Sister Pete is a psychiatrist - she counsels drug addicts and arranges conjugal visits for the married inmates. Both characters are liberal. They fight against the death penalty, and for social justice issues. They also struggle through the issues of their own personal faith. Neither one lives in a bubble or keeps a tab of pat answers to shell out to the inmates when they ask questions.

Too often Christians live in a sterile environment. When the realities of living out the Christian life start messing up our clean environments we become uncomfortable. This is the reason that most "Christian" movies seem silly - they present a clean, sterile canvas and then proceed to paint a quiet, serene Christ. And ultimately both the canvas and the Christ end up distant and unrealistic.

In Facing the Giants the football team wins states because they all accept Christ. This is a great way to end an uplifting, feel-good movie; but it lacks all credibility as an illustration of the Christian life and every Christian viewer knew that.

A young Latino inmate asks the priest, "Where was God when my son died?" and the priest replied, "The same place He was when His son died." The conversations these two Christian workers have with the inmates hold true to the reality of life. Some days their work is vindicated and others days, not so much.

These two give great witness to the reality of God in the everyday nitty-gritty realities of life.