Casualty

So tell me, what's going on with BBC's Casualty programme just now.

Last week (and Andrew's already picked up on this) they featured some Salvationists including one guy who had a crush on a fellow soldier who also happened to be the CO's son. This CO's son was also being seemingly pushed into a marriage by his very overbearing 'Major' mother. All this came to light after he 'fell' or rather jumped down a set of stairs in order to get out of the marriage and ended up in A&E.

Now, this week, we have a couple of Christians who are either very high Anglican or Catholic - its never said. Anyway, she's ill and he's hating her being ill. Blaming God, not wanting to go to the Chapel, saying things like "If he's a loving God why are we suffering like this". She on the other hand is telling him to hold onto his faith as God is all they have just now. Seems a standard Christian struggle but then it turns out that she has been ordering Holy Water over the internet for years and drinking it and this water turns out to be laced with arsenic.

So, if the writers of Casualty are to be believed, Salvation Army officers are forceful and overbearing and soldiers are pushed into marriages they are not totally happy with just to save them from sin including gay relationships and any such thoughts must be brushed under the carpet rather than dealt with face to face. Also, Christians are a bit thick believing Holy Water bought online can help you in life and despite our stupidity in trusting human things, we blame God for not pulling us through.

Now, I'm not here to get into arguments about the rights and wrongs of any of this subject matter. I'm simply concerned about the negative way in which Christians, and especially Salvationists, are being portrayed in this prime time successful TV programme. Is this the work of an atheist scriptwriter or an extreme Christian trying to challenge us to get out and prove the scripts wrong? I don't know and in a way I value the chance to discuss it here. But I think on the whole I am concerned as it seems just now that there is an "anything goes" mentality as far as Christianity on TV goes but a "hold your tongue in case you offend someone" mentality for other religions. This concerns me greatly but I'm determined to do something about it. I don't know what but I'm not prepared to sit back and get walked over - that is not what Jesus has called us to. He didn't say "go into all the world and lie down and take all the abuse they throw at you." He said "go into the world and preach the Gospel." Okay, he never promised us an easy ride - remember Salvationists got badly beaten up in the early days of TSA, and many Christians are persecuted in ways we can never imagine. However, he has promised us an eternal future with Him and can't be happy with us just accepting the status quo. We are called to be radical for His Kingdom. We are called to be on fire for Him. We have the Holy Spirit within us to enable us, to guide us, to speak for us. So why are so many of us lying down and taking all this stuff that the world is throwing at us? Come on friends. Lets get up and fight!