Crowned Papillon

I don’t watch a lot of television any more but one of the 3 shows I allow myself to indulge in is Grey’s Anatomy. The second and third are Being Mary Jane and Greenleaf (hey don’t judge me). I have watched every episode of Grey’s Anatomy and the show is currently on Season 14 so you see the dedication! I don’t always watch it live but I always catch up on the ABC app or Netflix.

The show has gone through lots of changes. Some of my favorite characters have died off, but I still continued to watch it. I’m not quite fond of how much they push homosexuality and ‘sexual freedom’ but I still continued to watch it. Side note, I am in no way a ‘homophobe’ but I do believe in the Bible which says that homosexuality is a sin. However I have no problems with homosexuals. I love people for who they are; their sin is between them and God, just like all of mine are!

As I was saying, the show is not the most wholesome and I’ll probably be judged by other Christians for watching it but hey, I’m still a work in progress. This brings me to the point of this blog. I recently watched episode 10 of season 14 called “Personal Jesus” and it really rubbed me the wrong way because of the end. It even made me feel like ‘maybe I can’t continue to watch this show’.

Here’s what happened. April Kepner, the resident Christian of the show, has her faith tested. I mean like REALLY, REALLY tested. The episode began with her in the shower and the background narration was her talking about Job and how he lost all his livestock and children but he still praised God. She said, “His faith was tested and he passed the test and was rewarded with twice what he had before.” Then it went in to April delivering her ex-fiancée’s new wife’s baby. The fiancée she left at the altar and ran off with another man who she ended up marrying and is now divorced from. She had a conversation with the ex where he expressed that it was the best thing that happened to him when she left. He said that God used his pain and turned it into something beautiful and then of course, his wife ends up dying from complications from childbirth.

On top of that, a 12-year-old black boy who was shot by white cops while climbing through a window in his own house, DIED; an abusive man was hit by a drunk driver, suffered a concussion, survived and DIED after he hit his head when he fell trying to reach his girlfriend to beat her and; a Christian teenager tried to chop off his hand to avoid masturbating because Matthew 5:30 says, “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you.” April treated every one of those patients. She even had a conversation with the teen in which she tried to explain to him that the Bible cannot be taken literally because “it’s a book with beautiful stories and metaphors and poems” that was “inspired by God but not dictated by Him” so we have to “do what it says within reason”. The teenager’s response was, “If the Word of God is just a bunch of stories then, what does all of this mean? What is any of this even for?” Talk about testing your faith!

The episode ends with April back in the shower with the background narration saying,

“Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani? This is what Jesus said on the cross before He died. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Job asked this question too but he kept the faith. And what did he get for it? Replacement children. PTSD. Was it worth it to have been a faithful servant? Or would it have been better to just curse God’s name? Where was God through all of Job’s suffering and pain? He was winning a bet with Satan. Makes you wonder where He is through all of the unfairness, inequity and cruelty in the world. Where is He now?”

As I watched this last part I thought, “Hey, what happened to him being rewarded with twice what he had before?” And what about, “He doesn’t give us more than we can handle?” Is it just me? Does anyone else see a problem? Does anyone else see the statement about God winning a bet with Satan as blasphemous? Am I being too extra? Listen, I for one know what it is to question God sometimes but I just feel like that statement went a little too far. Like, how dare you say God did all of that to Job just to win a bet? God is not human. He doesn’t just make trivial bets for no reason. And so what if He used Job, His faithful servant, to prove a point to Satan? After all, He is THE sovereign God!

I know I might sound crazy to people because, it’s just a TV show right? But it’s really not. Satan uses media and the music industry to spread his agenda all the time. Grey’s Anatomy is one of my favorite shows and I just feel like April’s story cannot just end there. There has to be some sort of redemption. Isn’t there always redemption? Isn’t that what the gospel is all about? Giving hope to the hopeless? In my opinion it is irresponsible to put out a message like that without saying more because it plants seeds of doubt in people’s minds. I’ll be watching to see if April gets her redemption and if not I guess I’ll be leaving Grey’s Anatomy at the end of this season just like April’s character will be! (If you didn’t know, now you know). Call me crazy but I know that my God does not make bets!

Just doing my Father’s work!

Crowned Papillon

The images used do not belong to me.