Religion on TV

Yesterday was an interesting day for religion on television. First, to note was the heaven story by Barbara Wahwah on NBC. I didn't see much of this story, although during the first part I thought she did a good job of getting different views of heaven and the afterlife from different perspectives. But, it was on during House so I turned to it during commercial break and started talking to Mom on the phone sometime during the second part so my focus turned away from the TV. If anyone else caught parts of this story, I would like to hear your opinions and maybe some of the parts that I missed.

As I got back from work yesterday evening, I was flipping through the channels (all 6 since I don't have cable) to have something on in the background as I changed clothes and fixed dinner. Something caught my eye on 3ABN and I thought maybe I could find out a little more about what Seventh Day Adventists believe. Well, I looked at the passage on the screen and noticed where it came from in the Bible, especially when I saw something about Babylon and a woman and then I hoped that it wasn't going where I thought it was. But I was wrong, of course it was about "the Papal Church," as they called it. The program was called Lift Him Up and they were talking about Revelations chapter 17, mostly versus 4-6. Of course the Church is the harlot, the wine is the lies about Christ she has filled it with, and the ones drinking from the cup are the protestant churches that sprung from the Church. Somehow the L.A. Times, New York Times, and Time Magazine all became infallible resource on what the Pope has said and what the Church believes. They used quotes from these articles trying to support that Catholics have to confess to man and cannot confess directly to God and that Catholics worship Mary. Even if these articles did have quotes of the Pope saying these things, I seriously doubt that those quotes are reliable since the ones they came up with, the Pope or anyone in the Church would not have said. They did however, take paragraph 2072 out of the Catechism. Saying that the Catholic church says that Christ dying for our sins was not enough for our salvation and that we have to work to earn our salvation. Far-be-it from any church to actually suggest that we actually need to do good works to show our faith. And then of course Purgatory is where we Catholics must go to be tormented to repay our sins. Hmm, don't know if I've ever heard that one being taught before. They also refer to a question answer with a Stephen Keaning about the Sabbath being Sunday or Saturday and then afterwards say, "There you have it from the Catechism (oh, make sure you mis-pronounce it as Catesism every time) that the church changed the Sabbath." Well, honestly, I don't think that was the official Catechism that you talked to there. A full-out attack on the Catholic Church over the air all on misunderstandings. Very offensive.

House came on and was a Christmas season episode. The main patient in this episode was a nun with a rash on her hands. There really wasn't much talk about the Catholic Church one way or another. Just House's usual miserable panderings and always trying to diagnose everyone else (physically or mentally). Some characters wrestled with their own theological views, one a fallen away seminarian that started to re-find his faith, another one an agnostic, etc.

This morning, flipping through the channels, I again landed on 3ABN hoping to find out more about SDA since they were talking about missions in India. And again, I was disappointed that it wasn't much on their beliefs. They mentioned how by tradition St. Thomas came to India and was martyred there. They mentioned that supposedly St. Thomas brought a statue of Mary, but "Mary worship didn't start until Pope Pius X." Do you not understand that you don't put the words Mary and worship together! That does not happen within the Catholic Church! We honor Mary as everyone else does in the Bible. When Gabriel comes at the annunciation he says "Hail, Mary, full of grace." Mary says, "I will be called blessed by all generations." Her sister, Elizabeth, says, "Blessed are you among all women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." Jesus tells his beloved apostle, "Behold your Mother." All of these words from the Bible, why then should we not honor Mary as special like these people, angels, and Christ himself did in the Bible. India is only a small percentage Christian, but the state of Kerala is the most Christian, most of which are Catholics. All the Indian priests and deacons I know come from this state. Now, guess which state the missionaries were going to. Yep, Kerala. Does anyone else have this feeling that they would rather evangelize to other Christians than non-christians? Especially when they tell of the Portugeuse Catholics coming in and declaring the Churches property of the Pope and forcing the residing Christians to give up their religion. Wow, what a historical re-telling.

To me it looks like the SDA's best weapon is to attack various Christian churches especially the Catholic Church. I'm pretty understanding, but these programs are starting to upset me. I don't have any problems with people stating their own views, but when they start attacking someone else's to further their own, that's when I start getting unnerved. I also have a tendency not to trust a church that follows Christ whose fore-founders (Millerites) claimed to know when the second comming was, when Jesus clearly states that no one will know. If there are any Adventists or anyone who knows an Adventist that wants assure me that they don't have it out for Christian Churches, please let me know. Until then, I have this very uneasiness with the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Paix du Christ!