The Christian Reaction to The Bible Series by Julie Arduini

Whether you have an actual water cooler at work or where ever you spend your Monday morning, chances are the topic of conversation was the History Channel’s 10 part series on the Bible. The ratings are in  and over 14 million people watched the first offering, produced by husband and wife team Mark Burnett (producer of Survivor, The Apprentice, and The Voice) and Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel.)

You know what, I’m disappointed. Not in the episode, but in the negativity by Christians who made up part of the viewership.

Here is some of the feedback I read on my Facebook feed:

-Too Hollywood

-Biblically Inaccurate

-How could Focus on the Family promote such heresy?

-Is Roma Downey even saved? Should she even be representing this Holy Book?

-Way too much was missed/ignored

My takeaway, perhaps because I have a writing background, is this is  a production full of  people doing their best to represent God’s Word. They are mere humans, and even with the best of intent, they are not perfect. Because it is a production, there are going to be points we can quibble about. I’m sad that debate outweighs the heart to tell the greatest story of all time.

I read someone was mad because Sarah headed for Moriah during Abraham’s sacrifice.  Since we don’t read about her in Genesis 22 as far as the sacrifice scene, some people felt her presence on screen was too much liberty with His Word. But I think to focus on that is missing the big picture.

People I never expected to talk about God’s Word are conversing and asking good questions. I heard morning show anchors speaking in depth about it. I sat with my teenaged son where he paused for two hours from his friends and hobbies to watch this, talk with me, and look things up in his Bible. That will always impress me.

I wonder if the criticism would be there if Ted Turner were behind this, or Spike Lee? What exactly are Christians looking for? I mean, we all do understand Charlton Heston was not really Moses in his offering of The Ten Commandments, right?

Anyway, I was moved by the first installment. As a wife and mom that had a dying child we had to trust God for, I was more than inspired and moved by Abraham and Issac. What left me unimpressed were the harsh criticisms and arguing amongst Christians. I turned off the TV believing this was an offering to the world showing how personal God is, and wants to be with us. It wasn’t about religion, but relationship. God is real and longs for us to know Him. To see the Red Sea part reminded me how much He is for us.

Here is what I shared on my Facebook page:

We can’t re create what God created and expect perfection, but I applaud everyone behind the project for having the passion to try. It has started conversations between all ages and walks of faith. My teen son and I watched together, talked through the whole thing, and he went to his Bible more than once to check things. That will always impress me. If you walked away unimpressed because of religious matters, I’m sorry, but I think you missed the point. I saw/read their interviews and they were prayerful and wanted to be reverent. Their passion is to show the world the relationship Christianity brings. And if you believe and couldn’t find that aspect, to me, that’s the saddest thing of all.

If interested, I tried to embed a video interview from Roma Downey and Mark Burnett sharing their hearts about this series. The site also has a lot of faith based resources I believe are worth looking at.

I’d love to read what you think. Am I too harsh on the viewers and their criticisms? Did you watch? What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear them.

image from bibleseriesresources.com

Disclaimer: These are my thoughts, and don’t represent the other bloggers represented here. They are allowed to disagree with me. 🙂