It’s not an uncommon experience for Christians to protest media, especially in recent years. The latest T.V. show to garner anger from a conservative Christian group is Good Omens, based off a book by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman. A group called “Return to Order” created a petition to remove the show from Netflix (though the show is exclusively on Amazon). Their list of objections include that a demon is portrayed favorably, Satanism is presented as “normal and even good,” that God’s wisdom is mocked, and that God is voiced by a woman. Essentially, they are saying the show is “blasphemy.”
And while, yes, Good Omens does not match up with the Biblical narrative on many points, how should faithful Christians approach such a blasphemous show? Should we protest it? Delete our Amazon? Cry in a corner? Start a blog against it? Should we watch it?
I can’t tell you what to do with the show, but I can tell you that there is no need to protest it on the grounds that it’s blasphemous. That doesn’t mean I think it isn’t blasphemous. But blasphemy doesn’t need to give us a run for our money. I want to make a case for such blasphemy to stick around.
Getting Blasphemy Straight
Blasphemy. Everyone is going to have a different definition. Dictionary.com gives us this: “impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.” It sounds simple enough. But it’s nowhere close to simple.
But we run into the problem of how subjective “impious utterance or action” is! For instance, according to the Return to Order group, God being voiced by a woman might be blasphemous. But many people might have zero problems with God being voiced by a woman because God’s voice isn’t a central tenant of the faith. For some, blasphemy could be the way you pray. In middle school, I had a friend who wasn’t a big fan of the casual way I talked to God—even making jokes during prayers. He felt I wasn’t being respectful of God. He wasn’t saying I’d go to Hell, but he seemed to think my prayer action was an “impious utterance.”
Different denominations are also going to have different quibbles. In a Catholic tradition, me not taking seriously the Eucharist might be a big issue because they believe the bread is the Body of Jesus. In Orthodox traditions, they have a set standard for how Biblical characters are depicted in their art. Deviation from their color pallet and instructions is irreverent. In the church of Christ movement, most think baptism is a necessary part of salvation. Many Believers would call that blasphemy, saying that it’s promoting salvation by works. In other words: One man’s blasphemy is another man’s orthodoxy.
Then of course there’s the Biblical definition. In the Ten Commandments, we are reminded: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). According to Leviticus 24:10-16, blaspheming the name of God gets the death penalty. Old Testament examples seem to see idol-worshipping as a major form of blasphemy. In the New Testament, where we actually can see this term “blasphemy” pop up, the term is used as a serious insult. In fact, Jesus says the “unforgivable sin” is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matt 12:31-32; Mark 3:28-29; Luke 12:10), likely referring to anyone calling an obvious act of the Spirit an act of Satan (and the real sin is when you know it’s the Spirit—so you can’t accidentally blaspheme the Spirit).
But here’s the truly important thing to know about blasphemy. Generally, God calls out the blasphemy. Not us. Stephen Motyer points out “In both Testaments the idea of blasphemy as something that offends the religious sensibilities of others is completely absent.”[1] Blasphemy is between you and God. Let’s not forget that Jesus Christ was even accused of blasphemy because he forgave people’s sins (Matt 26:65; Mark 2:7; John 10:33). Clearly, Jesus was in the right, but the smart religious scholars of the day called it like they saw it: blasphemy.
Us humans get too easily twisted in a knot trying to defend God’s honor among non-Christians, when our primary job has never been to be blasphemy police. Folks, let me tell you something: Christianity will survive the T.V. show Good Omens. We’ve survived the Life of Brian, we’ve survived various episodes of The Simpsons and Family Guy which knock at Christianity. We’ve survived Jesus Christ: Superstar. And we’ve even survived Kanye West’s album Yeezus. And we will continue to survive various heretical portrayals of Christ and the faith. The media will never and can never destroy faith.
Why Blasphemy Can be Good
So this is the reason you clicked on this article. Why is it good? How can blasphemy in the media contribute anything beneficial to Christians? Like any good sermon, there are three points.
1. Opens Your Worldview
The Pharisees, mentioned earlier, who were certain Jesus was blaspheming God by claiming to be God, had it wrong. But they really, truly, thought they were right. Jesus messed up everything they believe! He subverted so many expectations—so can you blame the religious leaders for calling foul on this guy?
Similarly, we might be wrong on some things. Blasphemous stories, even made by non-Christians, could open our minds to what we’ve missed. For instance, if you are angry that God is voiced by a woman in Good Omens or The Shack, ask yourself: why? After all, God doesn’t have a gender—no genitals, no chromosomes to look at. Yes, the Scriptures used gendered-language like “he” or “him” but that’s just how language works—you have to pick a gender. In Spanish, how “guitar” (la guitarra) has a feminine ending, but that says nothing about the actual gender of the object. So maybe Good Omens can help push us out of the box of thinking of God as a card-carrying male.
Even religious works made by Hollywood can have important lessons. Good Omens, I’m told, might have a message about not polarizing or going extreme ways. Bruce Almighty had a redemptive arc in it for the titular character, even if its premise doesn’t jive with Biblical Christianity. The Last Temptation of Christ might go too far in making Jesus a “human like the rest of us,” but at least it highlights how Jesus was tempted and struggled in similar ways to the rest of humanity. And the out-there “went to Heaven for a minute” books and movies teach us about trusting and relying on God.
Maybe not all blasphemous things have something good to offer, but as Christians, we should be willing to engage with what the world is saying. The book of Job suggests that bad things may happen even if you are good, but Proverbs seems pretty sure bad things only happen to bad people. They both appear in the Bible so that a conversation can happen: What is the truth? Are there times where Proverbs is right? Are there moments when Job might serve as the more helpful text? Similarly, put blasphemy in conversation with the Bible, and see what wisdom might come out. Don’t dismiss it outright, but use blasphemy as a time to think “What if?” When you step outside what you’ve always been told, your faith will grow, be stretched, and maybe even become stronger.
2. Allows You to Understand the Other
Another helpful aspect of blasphemy is that it can allow us to see the world’s concerns. Granted, if Family Guy makes Jesus out to be a pervert, it’s just going for the laughs and shock factor. Yet still, sometimes blasphemous media might be speaking on behalf of non-Christians.
The movies Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings diverge greatly from the Biblical source material (adding in material from other Jewish sources). But do offer some questions about divine justice—as those kind of stories should! Non-believers and believers alike have some serious questions about why God allows evil and how a good God can be involved in so much destruction. What we call “blasphemy” might be a cry for an answer, or at least it’s someone’s creative solution. For instance, Exodus: Gods and Kings could suggest Moses is crazy or is dreaming—that’s not a traditional answer to why God would obliterate most of Egypt! But perhaps before crying “burn ‘em for blasphemy!” we should stop, listen, and seek to understand the other.
Though I’m not one to buy into the idea that “Hollywood is out to get us Christians,” I’m not so naïve to ignore that many media messages don’t always line up with a life aligned with Jesus. But a Christian response is not to yell and scream or develop a persecution complex. Jesus reserved his table-flipping and sickest burns to those in his religious community that should know better. When it came to people on the outside, Jesus chatted pretty civilly while still offering his teachings. You can see in Jesus’ interactions with the Samaritan woman at the well or in Jesus’ discussions with Pilate how he engaged with others–civilly. He listened. He asked questions. But he didn’t shy from getting to the spiritual conversation.
One of my Bible professors during my undergraduate degre told us that exegesis—the process of understanding what the Bible says or means—is part conversation, part art. As we “exegete culture” in an attempt to understand it, it involves conversation with what makes us uncomfortable. Truth often is discovered somewhere in the middle of two opposing views.
3. Helps Us Appreciate Art
Honest question: does art have to say something deep and meaningful? Certainly, there are times where media is directly making fun of Christianity—that’s probably what’s happening on The Simpsons or Family Guy. But other times, Christian faith elements might just be the fuel for the story, and there isn’t supposed to be a commentary. The comic series and movie franchise Hellboy likely isn’t a deliberate jab at the faith. In the series, demons, Satan, and Hell populate the story—and certainly liberties are taken that don’t appear in our Bible—but it’s not trying to anger Christians. It’s trying to tell a story.
Even ancient Bible-based literature did this. The Book of Enoch features the character Enoch, only briefly mentioned in Genesis, and reads like Biblical fanfiction since there is little reason to believe Enoch actually wrote this as it claims. It in part further explains the reasons for the Flood, weaving in tales about demons, giants, and angels on supernatural adventures unlike anything else the Bible describes. It adds more fantastical elements to other stories familiar from the canonical Scriptures. Some Jews considered it blasphemous because it discussed fallen angels—angels that rebelled against God (which is not found in the Bible, FYI). Yet, in Jude 1:14–15 a portion of the book of Enoch is quoted. From the New Testament quotation, we can at least see that though his text isn’t authoritative or even true, it can offer some value.
Perhaps we need to start seeing blasphemous media for what it is: art. You would never be punished for reading Dante’s Divine Comedy even though that trilogy takes some serious liberties from what we know about Heaven and Hell in Scriptures. John Milton’s Paradise Lost also includes a whole made-up narrative with supernatural beings that expands and adds to what’s in Scripture. And hopefully, you know that even though the Left Behind series is based on Revelation, it’s not Gospel truth—it’s literature for entertainment. Likewise, you shouldn’t feel bad for thinking Tom Hanks plays a cool character in The DaVinci Code even if The Davinci Code says really ridiculous things about Jesus that there is no real reason to believe—it’s just a story.
Now the difference between Paradise Lost and The DaVinci Code is that the former was made for Christian educational purposes, and the second was definitely not. Even still, we can consume art that isn’t made by Christians for Christians, just like we’d watch The Avengers and not expect a morality tale. I believe we should learn to treat blasphemous media just like we would Star Wars—it’s a fictional tale, there is a lot that’s unrealistic, but it’s also fun to watch.
Yes, blasphemy can even help us learn to appreciate art as art!
Blasphemy from Here on Out
Do not fear blasphemy. Though don’t necessarily accept it as absolute truth either. Instead, hopefully I’ve outlined what I think is a helpful approach to blasphemous stories. It’s an approach built from the understanding that we don’t want lies spread, but that sometimes worldly lies are built on deeper truths that Christians need.
We will never be able to rid the world completely of false ideas or sin. So instead, we need to go on the defensive, teaching our congregants the Christian worldview, showing love in the community, and engaging in the Bible in conversation with other art forms. We can’t just protest or petition away what goes against our faith convictions. Yes, I know there is a worry that other people will be convinced of the lies—as if someone will blindly believe Good Omens is right out of the book of Revelation and thus they’ll get a one-way ticket to Hell. But I think a greater worry is that of Christian outrage.
Let’s chill out, examine ourselves, and critically but kindly engage with blasphemous media. This will help our Christian witness in the world, but above all it will make us better Christians.
