The History Channel's The Bible: My Thoughts, Part 1

I was a speech communications major in college. That meant 30 plus hours of speech, theater and classes in that vein. I was involved in several productions and enjoyed the time spent acting immensely. After college I remained in the speech realm in preaching and teaching. Later I was in a drama group where we performed all manner of productions. In addition to acting, I was able to be involved in directing and writing a lot of drama, including a full three act play.

While I was in that group, we led our church of 3,000 in an annual production called a “Praise Pageant,” which was a combination of music and theater done with the highest quality by trained individuals. It was attended by 10,000 folks a year. I was privileged for four years to play Jesus in that production. It was, and is, the highlight of my dramatic involvement. I have some of my fondest memories from those events.

In addition to other outcomes, it also led me to a great love of what I like to affectionately call, “Bathrobe Dramas.” Some are quite well done and very accurate Biblically. Others are less well done, and less accurate. I simply take them as they are intended and enjoy them. At times they have given me a new perspective on a passage that I had not thought of before.

In my collection I have numerous DVDs of Biblical productions. Many have some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry playing key roles. For example, I have one on the life of David where Leonard Nimoy (Spock from the Star Trek series) plays the role of the prophet Samuel. These DVDs are a great source of Biblical discussion between Gavin and me. He and I will play a portion of one and then talk about what we have just seen. At a later night we pick up where we left of. It is a great way to open up discussion with children regarding the Scriptures.

For those reasons and many others, I was very excited to learn that the mini-series The Bible was in production and sought to be Biblically accurate and cinematographically done of the highest quality. You will notice some “artistic license” in this series as with all of its predecessors. After all, they only have so much time and so much material.

I was a bit dismayed reading online this evening some of the numerous criticisms on the production after only one installment. Can we not forget our interpretive differences? I know some things shown do not line up exactly, but come on people, if you get lost in those all I can say is you have simply lost the plot!

While we are at it, let’s be honest here, some of the things folks are complaining about are not as clear in the Biblical text as we want to believe they are. In many of the Biblical narratives, there are details that quite honestly are not given at all! What do we do? We fill in the details as WE think they were or as we want them to be. Some of our blank filling comes from ideas, thoughts, past sermons, or whatever, that we bring to the actual text. Then when it is not portrayed on the screen as we think it should be, we get all over it. In truth if we go back read the text slowly and thoughtfully, we find it is not as cut and dried in some of the narratives as we may have thought.

Can we not simply be glad that people are actually talking about our Bible in a positive light on two major cable TV channels? Do we need to pick apart items that are moved around for the sake of artistic license or to make a story flow on the screen? Do we have to get on them because of the English or American flavor in places? Can we not give credit where credit is due? This was a monumental task they have undertaken and I for one cannot applaud their efforts enough. Would we really rather folks were watching Honey Boo Boo or Teen Mom? Have WE lost the plot of why God has us here in the first place?

I have read so many criticizing the accents, or the portrayals that I wonder if they noticed some key items. Did you not notice that there were more people of color in this version than in any of these films I recall ever seeing? There were two angels with Abraham and Lot. That should be accurate enough for the most cynical. But did you notice that one was portrayed as a Black man the other as an Asian? Did you see that throughout each scene, God was portrayed as ultimately FOR us not against us?

In my weekly emails to each congregation I have served as pastor in recent years I close them with the phrase “Come expectantly,” in regard to Sunday worship. For this television mini-series my phrase is “Watch expectantly.” See what God may have for you.  Why is that so hard? Could it be that somewhere deep down we are afraid of what God may actually say to us?