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DO YOU BOYCOTT CBS OR INVADE IT?

Do you remember an NBC drama about eight years ago entitled L.A. Law? Kind of a slick, cynical, rated-PG-13 lawyer show set right here among our Hollywood freeways. Some shows good, some shows bad. From a religious point of view — not a great batting average.

And then, all at once, in the final episode — the SERIES finale — was a little scene between Arnold Becker, the womanizing divorce lawyer, and a young Christian lawyer named Jane. And for about two minutes, right there in Thursday night prime time on the peacock network, Jane tells Arnie that he can come to Jesus Christ just as he is, lust and shame and fear and hurt and worry and decadence . . . and that Jesus will take Him RIGHT NOW. And he protests: "No! You're not allowed to do that. You can't spend your life living this way, and then come to Jesus just ‘cause you're scared." And she looks right at him and gives him the message that is all through the Word of God. "Yes," she tells him. "You can. You can come right now."

I don't know how many people saw that program. Multiplied millions, I suppose. L.A. Law wasn't on my list for regular viewing, but that was one breakthrough moment.
I think we've shared before how a young Christian writer named Martha Williamson sat one day in the office of Peter Tortorici, president of entertainment for CBS. And she agreed to do a television program on angels — HER WAY. According to the Bible. In harmony with the truths she knew as a believer. But on CBS. On Sunday night, prime time, going up against NBC, ABC, and FOX. And for a while the ratings weren't so good. The show got bounced around. Finally Martha went to New York, and roamed the halls of CBS, begging anyone she could find to keep her program from getting axed. She got in to see the president of the entire network, and told him right to his face:

"When you are lying on your deathbed, you won't be thinking how glad you were that you renewed Walker, Texas Ranger. But you'll never forget renewing Touched by an Angel, and you'll always be glad."

And Sunday night after Sunday night, tens of millions of people around the world now tune in as secular actresses and secular scriptwriters and secular directors and producers beam this message to the world: "God loves you. He cares about You. He wants to be a part of your life."

Well, friend, we've been spending a week talking about whether or not Christians ought to be involved in politics, ought to be trying to change the morals of a sin-sick world by gaining control of Congress. And perhaps you're wondering: how'd we get over to West 57th Street and the headquarters of the Columbia Broadcasting System instead?
In their book, Blinded By Might, Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson have sounded a call for a retreat of sorts. The attempt to "(quote) Christianize America," as some put it, or to "take over" politically, has fallen painfully short . . . and they outline some of the "why's." Their core observation is this:

"Morality is never activated from the top down. It is achieved from the bottom up — one person at a time, one family at a time, one street at a time, one community at a time — until the entire CULTURE is changed — NOT by laws, but heart by heart. This work of individual transformation is slow and takes a long time. The net effect cannot be easily measured or observed. It is easier to pass a law. But laws do not change people. Trickle-down morality does not work."

Well, friend, after a week of talking about it, I'm sure the above paragraph sounds rather simplistic. Abandon the coalitions and the voter guides, and go back to saving America one Sunday School baptism at a time. Ed Dobson, who pastors at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, tells about a guy named Bob. Early 50s, successful in business, but also an alcoholic. However, through AA meetings there at Calvary Church, and the Saturday night services they offered to the community, Bob came to know Jesus Christ, and got his life back. And Ed writes in this book:

"Bob's story reflects the lives of hundreds of people in our congregation who have discovered that Jesus can and is transforming their lives. On the surface it does not appear that we are making a huge dent in the problems of alcohol and drug abuse. But below the surface we are seeing God change people — one heart, one life at a time. We do not have a national organization. We do not get our name in the media. We do not print magazines about it. We are just the church BEING the church in a local community."

But again, what does this have to do with CBS or one lucky Jesus-y moment on L.A. Law. In a Christianity Today response to this rather controversial book, Blinded By Might, two alternative paradigms are proposed for Christians here in a battle-weary year 2001. One writer, Paul Weyrich, helped found the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, and is now president of the Free Congress Foundation. And he basically preaches a gospel now of giving up, of pulling out.

"Politics has failed because of the collapse of the culture," he writes. "The culture is becoming an ever-wider sewer. We need some sort of quarantine."

And he explicitly suggests this: "Look at ways to separate ourselves . . . from this hostile culture." Do like the homeschoolers have done. Get rid of TVs. Use private, "(quote) Christian" courts to solve disputes. Boycott Disney — not so much to bring Disney to its knees, but simply to protect yourSELF and your family from anti-Christian entertainment.
Well, that "(quote) Amish concept" carries some validity . . . and there certainly ARE ways that a born-again Christian who takes seriously what the Bible says in Philippians 4:8 — "Whatsoever things are true, noble, pure," etc. — would have to consider SOME degree of separation.

But let me take you to another rebuttal proposal, this one by Don Eberly, a former aide to President Reagan and now the founder of the National Fatherhood Initiative.

"Politics hasn't failed," he writes. "Attempts to reform culture THROUGH politics have failed." Then he offers this diagnosis: "The debate should not focus on methods of retreat, but on new models for engagement and new strategies that focus MORE on CULTURE than on politics in the decades to come."

In a nutshell, he says, we need more Martha Williamsons. More people who, instead of retreating from the messes at CBS, go right INTO CBS and get a Touched By an Angel put on the air. People like Robert Duvall who invade Gramercy Pictures, put up their own money, and make religiously-themed films like The Apostle or Dead Man Walking. Christian recording artists who cross over into the secular arena, win five Grammys, and then include songs about the love of God on their platinum albums.

We mentioned the other day that the secular person out there, watching his MTV, is naturally resentful of Christians who try to FORCE him to be good. "I WANT my MTV," they snap back at the censors. And Don Eberly takes note of that attitude when he writes:

"Strategies that invest heavily in prohibitionist logic will almost always fail. . . . While evangelicals count millions of members among their grassroots POLITICAL group and are now, if anything, OVERrepresented in the LEGISLATIVE arena, the number of evangelicals at the top of America's powerful CULTURE-shaping institutions could be seated in a single school bus!" Then he adds this: "The watching world is understandably chagrined by the interest evangelicals have shown in POWER while simultaneously showing so LITTLE interest in the NONcoercive arenas of society where one's only weapon is PERSUASION."

Thomas and Dobson second this new model in their own book. Here's what they say:
"If religious conservatives really want to change Hollywood, for example, so that it produces movies more to their liking, more of them who have the required talent should PENETRATE Hollywood. If they are tired of one-sided journalism, people who don't like what journalism has become and who have the necessary skills should penetrate journalism. The example works in every field: education, politics, media, the arts, even churches."

Well, friend, in our last 90 seconds, what does this mean for us? If you want to help your neighbor be good, more obedient, more moral . . . true, that might impact how you voted last November. But your best bet is to show them Jesus. To reflect His acceptance, His concern. To love people one on one. To help provide after-school care for restless kids, a hug for a pregnant teenager with a tough decision to make, a fun-filled Christian video or good software for a computer-smart kid who's tempted by Internet porn. That might be your BEST vote.

You might be smart enough, and ambitious enough, that God is calling you to be His salt and light within the CBS or WB networks. Or by writing a blockbuster bestseller — a secular, compelling story — that carries its own effective Christianity as a silent undercurrent. That would be salt and light indeed — invading Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Or He may simply invite you to be His salt and light in your own little neighborhood, not just on November 7 when we go to the polls to vote, but all the time. A cup of cold water and a smile for Jesus. Go for it.