Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Cosmos The In Lost

Home
Catholic
Rod Dreher’s Scandal

Rod Dreher’s Scandal

Last updated on: November 25, 2015 at 3:22 am by Artur Rosman

Rod Dreher’s Scandal 2015-11-25T03:22:26-07:00 Artur Rosman

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Scandal logo via ABC All Access (fair use).

Rod Dreher has been exceedingly kind in his careful readings of Cosmos the in Lost.

My respect for his journalism leaves me disappointed about his reading of the TV show Scandal in light of the Paris attacks. I waited for several days for him to reconsider. It didn’t happen. Dreher’s reading of Scandal, bearing the title Our Diabolical Culture is more than just a little bit over the top:

Can we continue to speak of a decline when the West never stops consistently declining? Also, perhaps the West wasn’t so great an unique in the first place?

On ABC’s hit show Scandal last night, the main character, the US president’s wife, had an abortion while a gospel version of “Silent Night” played. According to Breitbart, Planned Parenthood released a statement after the program praising the episode.

It’s not enough to present a pro-abortion episode of a prime time television show. They have to choreograph it to “Silent Night,” a hymn celebrating the birth of the Christ child.

There’s no other word for this: diabolical. If this is what America stands for, no wonder other people hate us so much.

He seems to be saying, “I don’t support ISIS [there is no other interpretation given the timing of this post and the content surrounding posts], but I understand” in response to a TV show.

Granted, there is no indication he actually watched Scandal. After this unconsidered gut reaction worthy of Spengler’s The Decline of the West the likelihood of him watching it is probably pretty low.

There’s another person who didn’t watch the show, but embodied a much more Christian response, what Alan Jacobs calls a hermeneutics of love.

This person is Patheos-Catholic newcomer Leticia Adams. Granted, she puts her charitable hermeneutic in rougher language than Dreher, but she gives the show a much more sophisticated and personal interpretation:

There are specifically Christian habits of reading. Alan Jacobs picked his up from Cosmos favorite W.H. Auden.

People losing their shit for a TV show portraying things that happen in real life is so ridiculous to me. First of all, if people knew anything about Shonda Rhimes’ shows they would know that when a character on Grey’s had her abortion, her marriage fell apart because of it. But a lot of people like to write blog after blog about shows they know nothing about and a writer they know nothing about.

Abortion happens in real life, Planned Parenthood has support from people in real life. A person with a real life is writing these shows. And Shonda Rhimes was raised Catholic so all this crazy only confirms what she believes about the faith she grew up in. Honestly people, this is why people don’t want anything up to with Catholicism because we flip the eff out over things that don’t need to be flipped out about and sometimes without knowing all the facts. We hear the rally cry and BAM! We are chiming in.

Read the rest of her piece here. It really hits hard in a lot of the right ways.

What I like best about her perspective is that she bucks the trend of Catholics (and other Christians) pretending they have nothing to be saved from in their lives.

I like Leticia’s theologically-sophisticated interpretation of Scandal better.

I think I’ll watch the show now. Even if the show was meant to give offense (it’s called Scandal . . . ) there’s no reason why I should give its producers the pleasure of watching a stereotypical Christian-losing-it reaction.

I’ll read it against the grain: Gritty but charitable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnd7OxpRxN8

You might also want to read my interview with abortion expert Charles Camosy entitled, The Anti-Abortion Supermajority: Beyond the Abortion Wars.

Previous Post

November 23, 2015

Profiles in Courage for a Refugee Risk-Averse America

Next Post

November 25, 2015 Thanksgiving as Forgiveness

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #WhyRemainCatholic Abortion Advent Anti-Catholicism Arts Atheism Beauty Benedict XVI Bible Book Review Catholic Cinema Comedy Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey Czesław Miłosz Dariusz Karłowicz Devil Easter Eastern Orthodoxy Economics Environment Family Famous Atheists Who Weren't Atheists Guest Post Hans Urs von Balthasar HHS Mandate History Imagination Interview Islam Jean-Luc Marion John Paul II Judaism Just War Lent Literature Little Sisters of the Poor Liturgy Martyrdom Music News Paganism Patristics Phenomenology Philosophy Pierre Hadot Poetry Poland Pop Culture Pope Francis Poverty Prayer Protestantism Rabelais Race Remi Brague Rene Girard Russia Sam Rocha Science & Religion SCOTUS Secularization Sexual Abuse Sexuality Silence Solidarity Stratford Caldecott Synod14 Terrorism Top 10 Uncategorized Walker Percy War Weakened Edition World War II World Youth Day WYD Krakow

Select a Month July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was the primary water source in Jerusalem?

Select your answer to see how you score.

River Spring Well Rain collection