Vengeful God vs. Loving Jesus

A lot of ink gets spilled when TV shows mock or put down Christianity, but ones that treat it respectfully often fly under the radar. Since The Christophers believe in lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness, let me tell you about a recent episode of the Tim Allen sitcom Last Man Standing that handled a religion issue nicely (and comically).

Last Man Standing is currently in its fifth season on ABC, and Tim Allen’s goal was to make it like a modern All in the Family, in which politics and religion would sometimes get discussed. Allen plays the conservative Mike Baxter living in a house with a wife and two of three daughters who are more liberal. His youngest daughter, Eve, is conservative like him. Each point of view gets its share of zingers, so it might actually be the most fair-minded show on TV.

Two of the characters have differing religious viewpoints. There's the innocent and religious Kyle (Christoph Sanders), the store clerk who's dating Mike's daughter Mandy. Then there's Ryan (Jordan Masterson), the atheist who's married to Mike's daughter Kristin.

In this particular episode, Kristin and Ryan believe that their nine-year-old son Boyd has stolen candy from a store, but refuses to admit it. They try to coax the truth out of him in subtle ways to no avail.

One night, Kristin and Ryan go out to dinner, leaving Mandy and Kyle to babysit. They mention their predicament to Kyle before they leave. When they return home, Boyd admits to them that he stole the candy. When they ask why he finally told the truth, Boyd says it's because Kyle told him about Jesus. This makes Ryan angry because he assumes Kyle told Boyd that God would punish him for not telling the truth. He calls Kyle and angrily asks him to come back to their apartment to discuss something. When Kyle arrives, Ryan tells him, "Boyd finally confessed to us that he stole the candy. And he told us it was because you told him about Jesus."

Kyle is confused as to why this makes Ryan angry. Ryan answers, "Look, I want Boyd to tell the truth because it's the right thing to do, not because he thinks he's going to be punished by an angry God."

Kyle responds, "I never said that. Boyd was scared that if he told you what he did, you wouldn't love him anymore. I said you were like my friend Jesus. Even if I do something bad, as long as I'm honest, He still loves me."

A humbled Ryan mutters, "Oh," and learns a religious lesson in the process.

So here you have two perspectives on God. The first is the stereotypical one that some non-believers hold about people acting morally only because they feel threatened by an angry, vengeful God. The other viewpoint demonstrates that love can be the most powerful motivator in doing the right thing - and it goes so far as to invoke the name of Jesus in that argument.

In essence, Kyle's approach is more representative of the heart of Christian teaching than Ryan's. That's not to say there aren't Christians who think like Ryan and emphasize angry, punishing God over merciful Jesus. But Christianity calls us to act in certain ways out of love, not fear. Love is always the ideal, and it was a pleasant surprise to see that argument validated on prime time television. Good job, Last Man Standing.

This essay is this week's "Light One Candle" column, written by Tony Rossi, of The Christophers; it is one of a series of weekly columns that deal with a variety of topics and current events.

Background information:

The Christophers