The Running of the Bulls… New Orleans’ Style

Okay, they’re not actual bulls.  They’re roller derby skaters wielding foam bats.  Season that idea with in a horde of Elvis impersonators on scooters and a Hemingway-themed acting contest and you’ve got a festival.  But I think it’s an amusing idea, and – sangria at seven in the morning aside – a good deal less dangerous than allowing actual bulls to chase you.

I have a difficult time reconciling my amusement with this sort of thing with my Christianity.  As a concept, I think this is hilarious.  In practice -  drunkenness is explicitly listed in the bible as a sinful activity, and is obnoxious, to boot.  And at an event like this, drunkenness is pretty much a feature, not a bug.   So good Christians should disapprove.  Right?

Life is messy, and we live in a fallen world.  Every day we have to make decisions about what media we will take in, how we’ll spend that 24 hours.

Think of faith as a river. We’re either swimming upstream toward Christ, drifting back downstream toward the world, or standing on the shore, lukewarm.  And our entertainment choices – as all our other choices – move us in one of those directions.  There’s very little entertainment that points us to Christ. And lately, most of that is courtesy of the Kendricks.  We no longer have cable TV so I’m not up on the latest shows, but consider a similar case to be made against some of the television shows that I know Christians often enjoy with a clear conscience:

• Crime shows: escape into a seamy world where the focus is to see earthly – not Godly – justice done, where moral compromises are made, and where you are exposed to the dark underbelly of society. One which you would never approach as a missionary in real life yet where you are sorely needed.
• Nighttime soaps, including medical shows: people indulge in the worst sort of behavior. Murder, infidelity, gossip, lies. Is this really the sort of entertainment in which a Christian should immerse himself? At the end of the show, what has he gained?  Is he coram deo?
• Reality shows: some genuinely pathetic people who need our prayers, not our avid viewership.  Oh, you might not be rooting for the next unbelievable gaffe and when it comes you may perform a facepalm.  But you’re certainly supporting the system which exploits these sad people.  Week after week, Christians tuned into the train wreck which was Jon and Kate.  I heard – after I heard of the divorce – that they were Christians.  There was certainly no evidence of that in the episodes I saw.  But, again, did this show point people to Christ, or back toward the world?

Those are just a few examples, but be honest – what entertainment out there is really beneficial to Christians?  Practically none.  The entertainment we escape to tends to make us more jaded, to normalize sin, to deepen our hold on the world instead of releasing our grip.

Is Harry Potter sinful entertainment?  There’s a case to be made for that, but not the one the “Potter is witchcraft!” folks are making, as they fight against the straw man of children being lured into the occult yet freely let their kids worship Miley Cyrus and Rihanna and the Jonas Brothers, and otherwise participate in pop culture.  What I don’t think there’s a case to be made for, is the idea that Harry Potter and other fantasy stories, yes, even those incorporating themes of witchcraft or sorcery, as works by Lewis and Tolkien both did, are especially to be avoided.  Especially in comparison to the sin-drenched pop culture pool we swim with our kids in every day.

Are fantasy literature like LOTR or the Harry Potter series more harmful than, say, crime shows, night-time soaps, or reality shows?  I don’t think so.  I once caused a great deal of distress to a very sincere and well meaning woman because I mentioned in the church lobby that a group of us were going to see one of the Lord of the Rings movies.  “But that’s got magic in it!” she gasped.  She was genuinely shocked that any churchgoer would view such a thing.  And worse, talk about it as if it were perfectly acceptable.  As for me, not only did we see it in the theaters, but I’ve got all the DVDs.  Worse: for the last thirty or so years I take a long weekend once a year and read all the books.  I’m looking forward to a nice chat with J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis when I get to heaven.  And maybe that shocked woman will join us.  That said, I’m also not making the case that LOTR, or Potter are beneficial.   I can’t make a case for them moving anyone closer to God.  Just not any further away than any other commonly “acceptable” form of entertainment.

As for the bull running – I know a lot of what goes on in the Quarter is explicitly sinful, that it showcases and promotes sin.  And this bull running does as well.  And yet, I’m still amused when I should probably be shocked.

What criteria should we use for our entertainment decisions?  Should we opt out entirely?