Reality TV may be TV but it never has been real. As a culture we’ve moved from idealized presentations of what is best about us through wholesome sitcoms like Andy Griffith and Father Knows Best, through more “realistic” social commentary sitcoms like All in the Family and MASH only to find it cheaper to take real people and give them the Trueman treatment. Put people on a deserted island, or in a diet or cooking contest or in a rehab program and let the cameras roll.
Just as video is said to have killed the radio star, so it may one day be argued the internet killed television. Our commonplace phones now carry with them better cameras than network news shows had just a few decades ago. Our laptops have stronger editing capabilities than those newtworks enjoyed those same few decades ago. And social media has invited us all to star in our own production of “This is My Life.”
The trouble is that while the presentations we make of ourselves on facebook or tiktoc or Instagram of whatever the app du jour is are not real, the people behind them are all too real. We may be playing a part, but the part is us. When Archie Bunker’s mouth committed macroaggression against George Jefferson, neither Carroll O’Conner nor Sherman Hemsley were wounded. No actual human was harmed in the creation of the humor, or the social commentary.
When all our world’s a stage, however, and we merely players on it, sound and fury harms real people. When the lines we give ourselves wound the other players, the blood is not stage magic. When we play Judge Wapner, convening our own personal court for public consumption, there are no rules of evidence, no penalties for perjury, no right to face our accusers.
I know my little “show” on the vast wasteland that is the internet signifies nothing. To adopt the wisdom of William F. Buckley, this conservative, when it comes to the internet, stands athwart digress yelling “Stop!” at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.
Our problem belongs to us all. It is not just the other side, whether the other side is unbelievers, democrats or believers who think believers can be democrats. We all, on every side of every aisle, tune in, popcorn in hand, while real people have their lives dragged through the shameful mud that Jesus washed from us. We’re fools enough to think we don’t do it to be entertained but to fight on the side of the angels. The angels, however, are busy calling us all to peace on earth and good will to men.
A comic once made the astute observation that we are never “stuck in traffic.” Instead, we are traffic. In the same way, we don’t tune out the noise because we are the noise. Even my noise is the noise. The RC Sproul Jr. Show has been on the air for decades now. Long enough for me to not wish it on my worst enemy. Please, if you want to encourage the downtrodden, do it in private. If you want to challenge the Philistines, do it in private. If you want to grow in grace and wisdom, seek, as much as is possible with you, to live in peace and quietness with all men.
Thank you RC Seoul Jr for this beautiful message! I too was in a dark season that lasted well, longer than a season. But I met your father there. Watching every teaching he ever presented all the way back to when he began televising his teachings. He was a true man of God, as you are also. Yes, I’ve watched you with your father along with Dr MacArthur, Steve Lawson, etc on the Ligonier Q & A. You men taught me a lot and I’m grateful for that. You have been a good model of someone of prominence who had a moment of weakness and knew your circumstances never watering them down. You took responsibility in front of your father, your children, the public eye and most importantly, The Lord. So I say again, thank you for doing what most of us couldn’t do in such situations; you stood on the promises of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
In Jesus Name
Jan