![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/21\/2023\/06\/933D1CE7-384B-4720-B021-92C347ACD489-300x180.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI admit it. I watch more TV than I should. I always have, at least since I left home at age 18! My parents monitored my TV watching carefully and limited it severely. And much of the time we didn\u2019t even have a TV.<\/p>\n
But somehow I have had the ability to multitask\u2014watching TV while reading a book, even a book of theology, and even writing an essay while watching TV. Of course, that has led to many irritating questions to my long-suffering wife: \u201cWhat happened?\u201d And \u201cWhat did she say?\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing I have noticed over the years that in both fiction (of which I read a lot) and television and movies characters who talk about God almost always assume that \u201cGod\u201d means \u201cthe all-determining reality.\u201d That is, they (or their writers) assume that whatever happens, including evil and innocent suffering, is from God. Surely this assumption has seeped into many readers\u2019 and viewers\u2019 minds and caused them to assume the same.<\/p>\n
I wonder why that is the case? I have seen many movies and television programs where someone in deep distress goes to a Christian minister to ask \u201cWhy?\u201d And \u201cWhere is God?\u201d And in most cases the minister has no satisfying answer but mumbles something about God knowing what he is doing. Often, sadly, the minister-character (whatever the denomination or tradition) seems not to have any idea how to have a helpful discussion with the questioner.<\/p>\n
I would like just once to see an entertainment (not documentary) show on TV or as a movie where a Christian minister (or any Christian) explains that not everything that happens is God\u2019s doing or God\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n
So what should a Christian minister (pastor, chaplain, whatever) or other Christian say when someone asks \u201cWhy did God allow this to happen?\u201d Or \u201cWhere is God in this?\u201d He or she should say \u201cNot everything that happens is the will of God; God is not making this happen. Yes, he allows bad things to happen because he has given this world \u2018relative autonomy\u2019 over against him in order to allow free will. Humanity has deviated from God\u2019s perfect will and brought this brokenness upon the world and ourselves. It\u2019s not as if each suffering person brought that upon himself or herself; it\u2019s that humanity as a whole has turned its back on God for ages and ages and allowed God\u2019s enemy Satan, who Jesus called \u2018the ruler of this world,\u2019 to wreck havoc on creation including us. But God has promised ultimate, future redemption, salvation from all this and is being patient, waiting for as many people as possible to have faith in him and turn to him and look forward to the future time when he will wipe away every tear and put an end to Satan\u2019s mischief. In the meantime, God wants to be with you, as the fellow sufferer who understands what you are going through. He wants to comfort you and give you faith to see that this present world is in darkness, away from him, and that he is good and loving and compassionate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, much more could be said, but that should suffice in the short-run. Has no contemporary writer of fiction or maker of a television show or movie ever heard anything like that? Why not? Why do they all seem to assume that the person who asks about God in the face of evil and innocent suffering puts the minister, priest or lay Christian in a corner where they have no reasonable response? Even \u201cFather Brown,\u201d whose television writer seems to know something about Catholic theology, has, to the best of my knowledge, ever put words in Father Brown\u2019s mouth like what I wrote above. Mostly, Father Brown is speechless, just a \u201ccomforting presence,\u201d even when someone asks him to speak about God in the face of evil and innocent suffering.<\/p>\n
Almost universally in American popular culture (and British because I watch a lot of British TV) writers portray their religious characters as assuming, together with everyone, that God must be by definition the all-determining reality and author of evil and innocent suffering. That is simply ignorance on their parts. They need to call up a Christian theologian (I volunteer) and ask \u201cWhat would a seminary-trained minister say\u2026.?\u201d<\/p>\n
*Note: If you choose to comment, keep it relatively brief (no more than 100 words), on topic, addressed to me, civil and respectful (not hostile or argumentative), and devoid of pictures or links.*<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture I admit it. I watch more TV than I should. I always have, at least since I left home at age 18! My parents monitored my TV watching carefully and limited it severely. And much of the time we didn\u2019t even have a TV. But somehow I have had the ability […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":9452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture I admit it. I watch more TV than I should. I always have, at least since I left home at age 18! My parents monitored my TV\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture I admit it. I watch more TV than I should. I always have, at least since I left home at age 18! My parents monitored my TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Roger E. Olson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-10T21:26:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/21\/2023\/06\/933D1CE7-384B-4720-B021-92C347ACD489-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"461\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Roger E. Olson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Roger E. Olson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/\",\"name\":\"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-10T21:26:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-10T21:26:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/84d70594b349147e27843d59d5db8cca\"},\"description\":\"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture I admit it. I watch more TV than I should. I always have, at least since I left home at age 18! My parents monitored my TV\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/\",\"name\":\"Roger E. Olson\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/84d70594b349147e27843d59d5db8cca\",\"name\":\"Roger E. Olson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fe30530b483e239a4ca15ef464a5902?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fe30530b483e239a4ca15ef464a5902?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Roger E. Olson\"},\"description\":\"Roger E. Olson is Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology at Baylor University where he held the Foy Valentine Chair in Christian Ethics and taught Christian Theology from 1999 to 2021. He is the author of over twenty book including The Story of Christian Theology and The Journey of Modern Theology (both published by InterVarsity Press).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/author\/rogereolson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture","description":"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture I admit it. I watch more TV than I should. I always have, at least since I left home at age 18! My parents monitored my TV","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture","og_description":"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture I admit it. I watch more TV than I should. I always have, at least since I left home at age 18! My parents monitored my TV","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/","og_site_name":"Roger E. Olson","article_published_time":"2023-06-10T21:26:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":461,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/21\/2023\/06\/933D1CE7-384B-4720-B021-92C347ACD489-scaled.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Roger E. Olson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Roger E. Olson","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/","name":"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-06-10T21:26:44+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-10T21:26:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/84d70594b349147e27843d59d5db8cca"},"description":"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture I admit it. I watch more TV than I should. I always have, at least since I left home at age 18! My parents monitored my TV","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2023\/06\/god-in-popular-culture\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u201cGod\u201d in Popular Culture"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/","name":"Roger E. Olson","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/84d70594b349147e27843d59d5db8cca","name":"Roger E. Olson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fe30530b483e239a4ca15ef464a5902?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fe30530b483e239a4ca15ef464a5902?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Roger E. Olson"},"description":"Roger E. Olson is Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology at Baylor University where he held the Foy Valentine Chair in Christian Ethics and taught Christian Theology from 1999 to 2021. He is the author of over twenty book including The Story of Christian Theology and The Journey of Modern Theology (both published by InterVarsity Press).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/author\/rogereolson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/21\/2023\/06\/933D1CE7-384B-4720-B021-92C347ACD489-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n