Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Friday Night Lights A Hit With Me

Today is Wednesday, so I feel like I should be writing about a book for the CFBA.  But we are taking a Christmas break, which is nice to be able to read some books I’ve put on hold.  Since I don’t have a book to talk about, I thought I would talk about a TV show that has really caught my interest this season - “Friday Night Lights.” 

 

Not only are the characters great and the storyline real, the show doesn’t apologize for portraying faith.  I believe the show to be fair toward the Christian influence of the players.  There has been at least one prayer in every show and they pray to Jesus, not just something generic.  The students go to church, and deal with their problems in a way that is reflective of the real world.  Some may say that they took the good Christian cheerleader and turned her into someone who was having sex with her crippled boyfriend’s best friend.  But let’s take another look at that issue.  Do Christian teenagers have sex?  Yes.  If you don’t believe me, you are not living in the real world.  Are there teenagers who are strong enough to stay away?  Yes.  There are those students in the show as well.  Let’s get back to the cheerleader.  She is a Christian, the earlier episodes established that.  She made the mistake of having sex.  There were consequences for that mistake.  In Numbers 32 Moses is talking to his army and he warns them that if they do not do as the Lord commands, they “will be sinning against the Lord; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out” (23).  In last night’s episode, which I assume was the fall finale since there were no previews, Lyla’s sins found her out and she paid dearly for her sins.  She was repentant to the ones that sin hurt and realized that she must endure the pain.  There was no scene of her at the alter or even of her praying for forgiveness, but I got the feeling that she had done that at some point behind the scenes.  And at the end of the show, there was a strong redemptive quality.  We all sin and come short of the glory of God.  When children disobey, they are punished (at least they should be if the parent loves them).  God is not different toward his children.  There are consequences to our actions, but there is also repentance and redemption.

 

Last night’s show also talked openly about sex and how boys and girls are viewed differently because of the things they do.  There was also a scene in the classroom in which a preacher’s daughter (I don’t recall her name because last night was her first appearance) explained how boys think that it’s okay to spread their seed because that is human nature, but humans are to rise above nature and be stronger than those urges.  She called it higher evolution.  I thought that was really good and met the secular views on secular grounds.  She didn’t mention the Bible or God or that sex should wait until marriage.  She made her point within the confides of the secular argument about human nature and she won.  Again, it was very well done.

 

This is a show that everyone should start watching.  It moves to Wednesdays in January.  Hopefully, the move will up the ratings because I hate to see a good show like this hit the can.  If you want to know more about the show or watch the episodes online go to the link below:

 

http://www.nbc.com/Friday_Night_Lights/

 

 

 

 

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