My interest in the "news" is not something I would consider white-hot, and perhaps I'd describe it as tepid at best. Most mornings I'll pour myself a bowl of Cheerios topped with blueberries or strawberries, fill up a tall glass of high-pulp orange juice, and snag a banana from the fruit counter at home and then sit down to catch up on the latest. Occasionally I'll tune in to MSNBC or Fox News, but I'd say 90% of the time it's Headline News. I've heard of friends and family members alike who suggest they watch certain shows and avoid certain others because of their political preferences. I guess I'm just not involved enough, or perhaps I just don't possess the intelligence, to detect "spin". Some I'm acquainted with speak almost passionately about who believes what and which anchors are masters at making their political sentiments come out on top, but I just don't seem to get it.
That all being said, in the last two months I've learned of Tucker Carlson, pictured above left. His show The Situation With Tucker Carlson airs at 11 pm EDT on MSNBC. My viewing is not religious and certainly has no set pattern, but a good 2 or 3 nights a week I'll give his show at least a bit of my time. It's not a cover-all like Headline News, and is obviously more of an opinion piece rather than just reporting. I like it just for that reason. He's the type of anchor that I just connect with and when I watch I am not distracted from what he's saying by any idiosyncrasies, unlike with similar programs.
I just recently was made aware that he maintains a blog called Untied, and upon reviewing it I find his writing to be just as enjoyable and informative as the television show. His post for today, for example, is entitled Nice to see Christianity still scares. I'm pasting a copy of it here because I think it's quite poignant and perceptive...
Nice to see Christianity still scares (Tucker Carlson)
People often make jokes about Episcopalians being boring, and unfortunately they're usually right. I know this because on most Sundays I sit through an Episcopal Church service with my wife and children. It's a reassuringly predictable experience, always exactly an hour long. And you'll never meet nicer people. If you needed someone to hold your wallet, or if you were lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood and had to duck into a stranger's house to use the bathroom, you could do a whole lot worse than to meet up with an Episcopalian. No one has better manners.
And that may be the problem. There's a notable lack of urgency in most Episcopal churches. Jesus may have promised he'd come back someday, but in the Episcopal Church you don't get the feeling he really meant it. Nor do you hear a lot about sin. Lust, hatred, gluttony, pride, envy -- those are dramatic emotions. Drama makes Episcopalians uncomfortable. The typical sermon leaves the impression that all would be well in this world if only people could manage to be reasonable with each other. Gentlemanly. Thoughtful.
There's nothing necessarily bad about any of this. (I remain an Episcopalian, with no plans to change.) But every once in a while, as I shift in my pew listening to one of our unusually well-educated preachers expand on the Aramaic understanding of discipleship, I do wish Jesus would come back, preferably in a massive ball of fire through the ceiling of the church. Spiritually, I'm nowhere near ready to face something like that. But it'd be worth it for the shock value.
All of which is to say, I welcome the controversies this season over Christmas. Every time a school district bans Christmas carols, every time the ACLU dispatches a busload of lawyers to fight a nativity scene, every time the ADL declares the Christian Right "dangerous," it's a reaffirmation that the faith is not dead. Dead religions don't give people the creeps. They don't make atheists mad. They don't keep Alan Dershowitz up at night. But Christianity still does. What a relief. It's nice to see that our faith still scares people.
