"Atonement"
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Trevin Wax posted this video from the popular TV show, "ER." The episode is on atonement, and a dying man confronts the platitudes of a liberal chaplain. At one point he says, "I want a real chaplain who believes in a real God and a real hell!"
HT: David Sunday
HT: David Sunday
posted by JT at Sunday, February 17, 2008
25 Comments:
Wow. That was on t.v.? Amazing.
Thanks JT.
Wow. *Interesting* that that was on TV...thank you for posting that.
I'd be interested to see the whole episode and see where this eventually lead and the context for this exchange, but for a sound bite it does a pretty good job of pointing out how insufficient an unbiblical Christianity can be.
Reminds me of what Schaeffer wrote about "real guilt" versus "psychological guilt."
Also reminds me of the Pedro the Lion song "Priests and Paramedics."
Typical Hollywood liberalism. Wait, what?
Stupdendous. I absolutely love it.
I posted on this a while back when the episode first ran. I was not something I expected on ER.
I also posted about this the day after I saw. I was not expecting to see something like this on ER. I think this is exactly what is happening with postmodernism. It is creeping in, so when someone wants real answers, they are being told a fluffy tale about love and how God is up for interpretation, instead of hearing that Christ died to forgive sin.
yowser!
I didn't see the whole episode either, so I wonder how the rest of the story turns out. But the clip is provocative. As part of my required training for the ministry I had to take a Clinical Pastoral Education class. Some are very good I'm sure, but mine was very much modeled on Rogerian therapy and judge not lest ye be judged theology. The clip seems very accurate to me. Notice how the chaplain keeps trying to practice "reflective listening" (I hear that you are frustrated, I can tell you are angry, etc.). This can be a helpful skill, but as a counseling method it leaves us with little more than the ability to help people see their own moods, when what they really need is the gospel.
So true. It seems like the rage that man had against a "one size fits all God" fractions God's anger toward plurality and lukewarmness. I love it when truth's are conveyed in the media.
Great clip! How true it is.
My only anxiety is that this clip will now appear in countless hokey sermons around the world as a substitute for actual preparation and interaction with the text. Hope you can reassure me about my fears! ;-)
Here is a great article in Touchstone Mag from a hospital chaplain that sheds light on a bit of that profession's struggles.
I saw this episode, and the ending was not so great. Basically, the doctor told the old man that the good he had done (saving a boy from death, I believe it was) was enough to counteract the bad he had done.
Nothing about how we will never be good enough; nothing about the substitutionary atonement of Jesus. (Nothing about Jesus at all, really.) About what you'd expect from Hollywood.
Notice how he pleads for answers and against her uncertainty.
May God send His undershepherds in His Name to decisively declare His Word to a dying generation.
Actually, it seems to me that this would be a perfect sermon illustration - particularly since as pastors we encounter the issue of death constantly.
It powerfully demonstrates the uselessness of pluralistic thinking, particularly to the younger generations.
Very rarely can I say "thank you hollywood" for providing me with a hard-hitting, spot-on illustration--and on Hell at that!
Also "Wow."
What struck me is when he says, "I'm running out of time!"
So are we all.
For some context, the old man was not looking for "atonement" in the sense of Christ atoning for our sins. He felt guilty over having been the presiding doctor over a number of death-row executions. He was trying to atone for what he saw as his sins by doing good things for the families of the men he had executed. I don't know if the writers/directors of E.R. intended this, but the episode showed how impossible it is for a human being to "make up for" past sins.
I'd like a chaplain that believes in a REAL Easter Bunny.. and the REAL Ghostbusters!
Mike Riccardi,
Great observation. I would add that there is more truth in his questions than there is in her assertions.
Jim,
The truth isn't in the questions. It's in the assertions and convictions held behind those questions and from which those questions arise.
As others have already said, "Wow".
This is from a secular tv show? and all the while so many "Christians" telling us they don't want to know about absolutes...
Puts a new spin on "being relevant"!
This post has been removed by the author.
Shows that just appeasing "avante garde" skeptics of truth is hardly even relevant, if right. My guess is that many out there believe in absolutes, fervantly, even if, perhaps, they don't know they do.
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