A Good Thing About "The Good Place"

My wife and I have extremely different tastes in film and television, so it’s rare that we’d find something we both enjoy. Once she suggested a show called “The Good Place.” Once I heard the premise, I brushed off the idea. A year later, after hearing some good reviews from Christians I respect, I thought I’d give it a try. My wife and I just finished watching the first two seasons together.

My early assessment: The Good Place isn’t Christian, but it sure isn’t relativist, either.

In the first few minutes, you see the main character Eleanor (played by Kristen Bell) waking up in the afterlife. Michael (played by Ted Danson) is a seeming mayor and architect of a village in “The Good Place” (the Heaven equivalent) and he welcomes Eleanor and explains to her the truths of afterlife. This explanation clarifies that none of the earthly religions got things correct, but her humanitarian work earned Eleanor her spot in “The Good Place” and not in “The Bad Place.” Eleanor seems overall relieved, but is worried, because she quietly recounts that she actually led a selfish life and was not charitable. Whoever or whatever arranged her spot in “The Good Place” made a mistake, but what should Eleanor do?

No, of course this TV show isn’t Christian. It doesn’t adhere to really any of the biblical characteristics of the afterlife, not even as much as C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce. In the afterlife, according to the Bible, there are no misplacements, misunderstandings or unexpected disruption in Heaven. We’re two seasons into the show, and we haven’t even seen the producers’ interpretation of Hell (from the tormented’s perspective). If we take the theology of The Good Place literally, it’s a “works-based salvation” type of universalism. So, of course, we’re not going to hear about the transcendent veracity and authority of Bible and the Penal Substitution view of the Doctrine of Atonement in this TV series. This is a show that doesn’t take its own theological interpretation of the afterlife seriously. It’s not The DaVinci Code.

However, this TV show is not, however, a politically-correct shrug to moral relativism. In this show, as Eleanor juggles her aforementioned dilemma, morals matter. There actually is a good place and a bad place. There actually are good things to do and bad things to do. What you do in your life on earth matters. The level of selflessness matters. Underlying motivations matter. Being selfish and striving for whatever is one’s fulfillment is certainly frowned upon. We should do good, not for its rewards, even though it is difficult. These are the kinds of themes one might hope to see deep didactic dramas like West Wing or any recent movie with Captain America, not a 25-minute comedy show. Sometimes it kinda feels like a very light-hearted version of LOST (and sometimes the light-heartedness feels strange when eternity is at stake). And the show is really funny, largely without being raunchy or profane.

The violence, sex, and language of The Good Place have it rattling between TV-PG and TV-14 (leaning much more toward the former). The Good Place is certainly not a show you show your friends just before you read the the “Romans road. However, it’s a very funny show that regularly tells viewers that selfishness is bad. That there is a such thing as universal right and wrong. And that life is not all about individual fulfillment.

So, no, The Good Place doesn’t teach biblical doctrine. But, to our pluralist, selfish and confused world, it tells viewers that there are right and selfless things to do, even if they are costly. And that’s a good thing.

Disappointment in the NFL

I’m not a die-hard NFL guy, but I really enjoy the unfolding drama of each season, as teams struggle to get the coveted Lombardi Trophy. It’s one of the main things that helps me say goodbye to the warm weather of summer each year. And last season was fun. The NFC Championship was heartbreaking to me as a Vikings fan, but it was good to see the Eagles, led by a Christian coach and a Christian quarterback, at least interrupt the annoying Patriots dynasty and get some new blood on the Lombardi Trophy.

But I’ve become really disappointed in the NFL the past couple of years. At first, there was the issue of concussions and other medical conditions that occur to players because of what happens on the field (I was told as a kid that football players don’t live nearly as long). People should really read or watch League of Denial, appropriately titled because it seems the NFL’s main PR machine has downplayed, given lip service, or downright denied the medical impacts of football on their main money-makers (the players), even as research stacks up. Despite an ethical cost, this helps them make more money.

And there’s also the whole issue of kneeling at the flag. The silence and seeming confusion in the NFL authorities’ response is telling. Now, I’m not going to take a political side here, but it should be pointed out that the national anthem protests (begun by Colin Kaepernick), did cause a serious drop in the NFL’s TV ratings in 2016. The NFL authorities and the team owners had more than ample opportunity to make a statement that might even start a crucial conversation about race issues, free speech, respect and accountability for police officers, etc. in a country so divided that you can’t even eat a chicken sandwich without being political. Such conversations are difficult but very rewarding, but the NFL leadership didn’t pursue them. Not a single coach or team owner sought out Colin Kaepernick (while other players without his charity, integrity and football skills play in his stead), and the NFL leaders have implemented a new policy that forbids kneeling during the national anthem, punishable by fine. Perhaps, in their view, this new policy will brush the issue under the proverbial rug and restore TV ratings. Despite an ethical cost, this helps them make more money. 

I’m detecting a theme, here.

I have several friends who are boycotting the NFL, and I totally understand. I’m willing to boycott the NFL, but what change would it bring? I don’t think it’s right that the NFL makes the money it does with the methods it employs, but it’s such a massive entity with such a following. 

And football is fun to watch, too. Basketball and hockey games are fast-paced and intense, and baseball and soccer games seem almost lethargic, but football games are just the right pace of watchability. This isn’t about politics or patriotism. These are questions I have about a corporation who has arguably limited free speech, perpetuated socio-political division, and sacrificed the physical health of its employees, all seemingly in the pursuit of further profit. As Christians, how do we wrestle with that?

So, what do we do?

The Complacency of White Evangelical Men?

      I’m not athletic and I never have been. Some of the best days for my social status were when I actually achieved something in an athletic competition (e.g. when I won the mini-sandbag throwing competition for my 2nd grade class, when I won an exhibition match for my school’s wrestling team in junior high, etc.). But through eighth grade, most of my involvement in sports was primarily for weight loss. I’m an artsy thinker type, so the little competitive attitude I did have I brought into the field of music. And I did this from mid-elementary school all the way through college.

      All throughout my educational years, in jazz band, show choir, singing, spelling, reading, and math events, my competition (that I mainly lost to) was dominantly women and POC. We’re talking about some talented people here. People that went on to become doctors or businessmen in the center of the Twin Cities, opera singers at the Met, producers in Hollywood, etc. all women and POC.

      So, the idea that white males, like myself, have a natural advantage or have discovered the only effective keys to success, particularly in the arts, sciences, ministry leadership, business or anything is new to me. Through God’s hand in my life, I’ve been taught to recognize giftedness, work ethic and good character when I see it. As a music composer, God has taught me to respect the dignity of His Creation, as he didn’t “spend more work” on me than anyone else.

      All the stuff I’ve seen alleged against ministry leaders over the past few years (including physical actions, circumstances and/or words), I’m still wrestling with. I’m not the perfect pastor, but in my years in full-time ministry, I always followed “The Billy Graham Rule” and have strived to avoid the temptation to abuse the privileges in my job description. And I just don’t think certain jokes, much less say them.

      A few years back, I preached on the story of King David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12), the story of a king who, while home from the war, noticed a pretty girl (the wife of one of his loyal soldiers) and slept with her. Trying to cover up her pregnancy, he first asked the soldier to temporarily abandon his brothers in arms. When that didn’t work, the king quietly asked someone from his military leadership to let him get killed in the war on the frontline. To cover that up, several soldiers were also sent to the frontline for the slaughter. King David didn’t even know of his own wrongdoing until a prophet had to do a very explanatory rebuke.

      The main application of that story, as I had been told, was to flee from sexual immorality. Just don’t do it. But as I looked into the passage and into my own life and experiences, I learned another application that could have helped David. And it was more helpful than just the instruction of controlling one’s hormones: be wary of complacency.

      The word "complacent" is defined as:

“pleased, especially with oneself or one's merits, advantages, situation, etc., often without awareness of some potential danger or defect”

      King David should have been fighting alongside his soldiers. He should have been aware of the danger in which he was putting the entire kingdom by chasing one night’s lustful desire. There are other examples how we could say King David was complacent. But I’ve been complacent, too. And I’m worried that white males of our country’s church leadership are being complacent.

-We’re too pleased with our own academic prowess and theological conservatism that we become unaware of the transcendent beauty of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit.

-We’re too pleased with our own appearance of righteousness that we’re unaware of our call to justice. (In the Bible, righteousness and justice are the same word).

-We’re too pleased with our numerically-successful ministry models in our business-loving world that we’re unaware of the spiritual and relational faults of our ministry.

      Churches led by white males have been going through a storm recently, as leaders have been stepping down in the midst of allegations of sexual misconduct, financial wrongdoing, favoritism, and/or inappropriate comments regarding race and gender. I think this is just the beginning. The Church is more and more visible to our country’s empowered populists, and anyone can know what a church’s congregation and leadership looks like, what its youth pastor eats for dinner, and its Yelp reviews. No longer can any Christian have an opaque wall between his private and public life where the “good actors” can compartmentalize their relationship with God. This is a very seeing world looking, first and foremost, for integrity, grace and compassion, and we (as white male Christians) have just shown them (often hypocritical) moral condescension and/or tried to appeal to them with what we think is snazzy advertising.

      Fellow white males in ministry leadership, hear me out. By what many of us have said and done in the past few years, we have really shot ourselves in the feet. As Bible-believing Christians, we believe that God created ALL humans and inspired ALL traditions of His worship, and that everyone has something to bring to the table where they always belonged in the first place. Our white-male-run, 50’s-inspired, conservative and personal-holiness model of ministry is failing. Judging by today’s news, it’s largely scaring women and POC, and judging by statistics, it’s not even reaching white males under the age of 40. Meanwhile, Hispanics will soon be the majority of our country's population, and African-American churches have congregants who have the most biblical beliefs by far (according to a recent report from the Pew Research Forum). Yet many white male ministry leaders still, for whatever reason(s) or lack thereof, seem to think that our modernist Western methods are the universal standard and metric for ministry to the diverse and post-modern world.

      We need to acknowledge that our God is not the “white man’s God.” He never was. And we need to, as white male leaders, show humility and respect for women and POC. Consider Philippians 2:1-4, James 1:19, and 1 Peter 2:12. Admit complacency if you need to, before it’s too late.