ENGAGING CULTURE

Does it seem like no one is ever really honest? Everyone puts on masks to make themselves more digestable to those around them. I think we do this because most people who are truly and brutally honest are considered jerks. I thought about this while watching two of my favorite shows on T.V. last night; House and Boston Legal.

Dr. Gregory House is predictably considered rude and mean by some of his associates. However, he abnormally brilliant and amazingly honest. He is an evolutionary atheist, and he speaks and acts true to his beliefs. For this I cannot find blame in him. On several occasions the abortion issue has come up and when people call this unborn life a baby he pipes in with “fetus.”

Alan Shore is my favorite character on Boston Legal, not because of his sexual exploits or his liberal political views. I love him because he is painfully honest. He doesn’t beat around the bush or sugar-coat the facts to make them easier to swallow. As a lawyer, he doesn’t always try cases with which he agrees. In fact it seems that he is continuously put in more turmoil than all the other characters. But I believe the reason he is able to succeed in all of his cases is not because he is a tremendous spin artist. Rather, he knows juries and he knows his client and he can speak the truth of their point of view (even especially when it conflicts with his own).

I believe the reason that I adore these two characters is that I want desperately to have this quality of honesty. I want to speak the truth and I want to be able to say it in such a way that they agree with me. However, I am too laden with sin to speak the truth and too filled with cowardice to say it eloquently. God give me the strength to speak the unadulterated truth of your word with a sincere love and concern that only you can provide.

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