Christians can actually learn a lot from Barry Berkman.
I’m not recommending we take any lifestyle tips from a show where the titular character is a hit man; but since watching the final season, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how the show portrayed Christianity.
Barry, after years of involvement with various crime organizations, moves to the middle of nowhere to hide & is raising his son in pious isolation. When an old friend threatens to expose him, Barry decides to drive to California to commit one last hit. On the drive he puts on a Christian podcast that is discussing the nature of sin. What is sin? Are some sins worse than others? Is murder a sin? He listens long enough to hear murder condemned before switching to a new podcast. By the time he reaches the golden coast, he’s done this several times. Finally, sitting in a car outside the house of his mark, Barry finds a podcast that claims that murder can be not only justified but sanctioned by God.
It’s played for laughs, but I felt squirmy watching it. It wasn’t just because Hollywood’s portrayal of Christianity is often cynical & inaccurate. I think I felt uncomfortable because it was presenting an extreme example of what Christians today do all the time. And I’ll be honest; I saw myself in that car with Barry, earbuds in.
There are two tendencies we need to recognize. First, I think we have the tendency to consume ideas without asking the hard question, “Is this actually Biblical?” This is often just laziness on our part. Second, we have the tendency to make up our minds (without asking the question) & then seek out extra-biblical sources to interpret the Bible to support our decisions. This is manipulative. We must be careful that Scripture informs what we believe and not the other way around. We will always be able to find a voice that seconds our opinion & a verse out of context to back it up. That doesn’t make it the truth.
In this extreme example, Barry kept switching podcasts until he found a pastor that claimed that he felt God leading him to kill someone. That’s not how God works! He will not condone what His Word rejects. This pastor was making his own feelings into truth. And Barry, rather than questioning whether it was Biblical or not, was making this pastor’s feelings into truth. Neither was the actual Truth.
If the Bible is not our number one authority, (more than experts, preachers & teachers, more than mentors & friends, more than voting positions & the current cultural norms, more than our own emotions), then we are doomed to be led by what we want to hear & not by truth. We have to stop fitting the Bible into our worldview & start making it the foundation.
A Good Crisis 