Protestants: Willing Participants in a Truman Show Reality.
Originally published July 12, 2016
Truman Burbank lived a seemingly normal life. He was just your regular, ordinary kind of guy. Everybody liked Truman. He had a pretty wife, a nice house, a good job. He had everything anybody could ask for. His life was perfect. Or so it seemed.
Of course, Truman Burbank isn’t a real person. He is the titular fictional character in the 1998 film The Truman Show. Those of you who are familiar with the film well know that while Truman’s story is fictional, the reality of his world in that fiction was fiction as well; a fiction engineered specifically for him. The problem was, Truman did not realize that his reality was fake. Unfortunately, just like Truman Burbank, 99% of Protestants don’t realize that their reality as they know it is just as fake, yet they willingly accept it. Truman Burbank offers a perfect philosophical metaphor, so I am using him to illustrate my point.
At the time we meet him in the movie, Truman is approximately 30 years old. From the time he was born, his entire existence has been in the world of Seahaven, FL. It is the only reality he has ever known. And up until now he has never questioned the truth of his reality. What he does not know is that this world is a carefully crafted façade, and every other person in his reality is nothing more than an actor playing a role. Their sole purpose is to make Truman believe that everything he sees around him and everything that happens to him is real. And as he goes about his daily life, hundreds of tiny hidden cameras capture his every move and broadcast his life to the world 24 hours a day. You could say that Truman was the first reality TV star.
How is it that a person can live his entire existence and not realize that his reality is fake? Because Truman’s reality consists of a very deceptive hermaneutic. Everything that happens in his life is carefully interpreted for him so that his understanding of reality remains consistent with what he observes. On this scale you can be sure that this is a very complicated feat to pull off for thirty years.
Such a task can only be maintained for so long, and eventually, unexpected “glitches” begin to occur. For example, one day a strange object falls from the sky and smashes on the ground just feet from where Truman is standing. It happens to be a stage light that is labeled, “SIRIUS (9 Canis Major)”. On another day, while listening to the radio in his car, his radio suddenly begins broadcasting the director’s instructions to the cast, and Truman realizes that the voice on the radio is describing every turn he makes in his car. Yet another time, Truman enters an elevator only to realize when the door opens that no elevator is there but instead he sees a group of stage hands on break around a snack table.
Obviously, such events would be out of the ordinary in Truman’s reality. Here is a conflict between what Truman thinks to be true about his world and what he observes, and he has no idea how to reconcile these contradictions. At this point a mediator is needed to reinterpret what Truman has observed to reconcile the contradiction and convince him that nothing is wrong, everything is as it should be. No, that wasn’t a stage light that fell from the sky, it was a part that fell off an airplane flying overhead. No, you didn’t really hear a guy on the radio announcing your every move. Our station accidentally picked up police frequencies, ha ha, sorry it sometimes happens. Oh did you hear? There was a freak elevator accident in the building next to yours, and a woman was critically injured- no you didn’t really see a stage crew taking their break where an elevator should have been.
The producers went to great lengths to discourage Truman from leaving Seahaven, because as a boy, Truman had a longing for exploring. They posted subtle messages around town with outrageous warnings about the dangers of travel. Sometimes, drastic intervention was required. They even created a scenario one day where Truman was out on a boat with his father, and a sudden storm swept his father overboard, never to be found again. Of course, it was all an act, but to Truman it was very real, and it made quite an impression on him as a small boy. So much so that Truman developed an acute fear of the water and never thought twice about leaving Seahaven by boat, or even crossing a body of water. But as things progress, Truman’s suspicion grows. He begins to ask serious questions of those around him, who continue to simply play along with their roles in a vain attempt to deflect his suspicions.
But despite all these obstacles, Truman was determined to find answers to his questions. He discovered that he could make unusual things happen anytime he was unpredictable. Those involved with the show could not react fast enough to his spontaneity, and this would give them away, only furthering his resolve. Truman knew something was not right about his world, but he did not know why. He could not explain it, but he was no longer willing to accept the explanations given to him by those around him.
We could summarize the salient points about Truman’s reality this way:
- Truman’s understanding of the world was based on a false assumption.
- From time to time Truman would encounter contradictions in his reality that he could not reconcile.
- Truman needed mediators in his life to interpret reality for him.
In much the same way, the way that Protestants understand reality is based on a false assumption. Doctrines such as total depravity (total inability), determinism and God’s sovereignty, election, and many others present man with a view of reality where man is evil and therefore cannot know truth. Believers go to church week after week so that they can be told not just what to think but also HOW to think about not just what the Bible says but also how the world itself works.
Invariably there will come a time when a believer will encounter a contradiction. It may be that he comes across passages of scripture in his Bible that seem to contradict each other. It may be that he encounters something in life that runs counter to what he was taught from the pulpit. Something that he cannot explain, like how can man have a free will if God is sovereign? “Well, you know God’s ways are higher than man’s ways, so we just have to accept that there are some things we just can’t understand and accept as true because God says so.”
Most often, contradictions are handled from a matter of interpretation. This is where the mediator steps in and reinterprets scripture for the believer in its proper “gospel context”. You see, because man is unable to know truth, he needs the authority of a mediator to explain it to him. This is the role of pastors, elders, deacons, bishops, et al.
For Truman Burbank, his mediators were not just a select few in positions of authority. It was the entire cast of characters from the crew behind the scenes, to the actress who played his wife, to the guy who sold him his daily paper at the newsstand. Every person in Truman’s life was a willing participant, regardless of how much they were aware of their overall impact in shaping his life. Extras in the cast, for example, would dutifully play their part all while being totally ignorant of the ultimate level of control the producers sought to wield over Truman’s life.
Truman himself was a willing participant in this ruse. One could argue that he was simply an innocent victim in the whole matter, but consider how much he was willing to overlook in his life for such a long time just so that he could go on living the only life he ever knew. That fact was a major point in the film, when a former cast member called the show and told the show’s creator just how wrong she thought it was the way they were using Truman for their own ends. The creator’s response was profound and powerful. He said that if Truman REALLY wanted to discover the truth, he would find a way, and that whenever that happens, there would be nothing they could do to stop him. The point being of course was that the mere fact that Truman lived this life for so long was a statement to the reality that he really didn’t want to know the truth.
How much can the same be said of Protestants? To what extent are Protestants willing participants in their own “Truman Show” existence? How much are we willing to overlook just so that we can be comfortable in our lives? How much abuse and evil are we going to tolerate just so that we can have some sense of security in where we think our salvation lies? Do we blame the cast of mediators who create this charade for us? Their role is obvious, and they play their parts well, wittingly or unwittingly. But the laity are playing a role as well. They shoulder just as much of the blame as those under whose self-appointed authority they have placed themselves. And they will dutifully pay their tithes and offerings each week, and they will warm their spot on the pew every time the church doors are open, and they will sing when told to sing, and they will stand when told to stand, and they will pray when told to pray, and they will outsource their minds to someone standing before them who will tell them what to think about life. And they will never ask a hard question, even when a stage light falls from the sky.
But there is hope! Because if Protestants really want to know the truth, they will find it. If they really want to find a way out of the nightmare that is the institutional church, they will discover it. And when they are determined to do so, there isn’t a thing the church can do about it!
Andy
FYI: Thug Who Got In MY Face at Conference is TGC Program Director
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/about/staff
Ben Krueger – Director of Program Development
Thug gets in my face at 6:44 for video recording TGC bookstore splendor; paranoid much? The bookstore was directly adjacent to a street entrance and was clearly open to the public.
Spiritual Identity Crisis
Why do people who call themselves “Christians” and who claim they are “saved” still talk in terms as if they are still unsaved?
~ Andy
Terrorism Defined: It’s Collectivism
All world politics flow from the question of individualism versus collectivism. It all boils down to the ability of the individual versus the inability of the individual. This is the crux of religion as well.
Why do liberals insist on reapplying policy that is proven not to work? Well, that depends on how you define what “doesn’t work.” What doesn’t work for the individual might be great for the state. If you want to see liberalism/collectivism/socialism/et al in action, just visit any banana republic that has no middleclass.
Whether communist or Democrat, it’s the same worn-out politic: “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.” This is what tyranny always does; it accuses its detractors of what it is guilty of; it plays the people for fools. And to the degree that their own policies bring about what they themselves decry, they blame the opposition that much more. “See, you need us now more than ever!”
The best example of this is “The People’s Republic of China.” A republic for the people and by the people? Hardly. This is the ploy: “Certainly educated leaders wouldn’t state such a blatant contradiction openly, so it must be true. Since I am a commoner, and they are destiny’s chosen, I must be misunderstanding the obvious.”
Individualism and freewill are foundational pillars of reality. This is why governments evolved with an Achilles’ heel; the people, or the “great unwashed” if you will, always greatly outnumber the government and its army. When it gets right down to it, if the people rise-up in great enough numbers and have minimal organization in doing so, governments are powerless to do anything about it. Indeed, the government could kill everyone, but that would leave the government without any supporting serfs or a purpose for being a government in the first place. And, the elitists would have to get real jobs.
Governments are therefore in a catch-22 because collectivism, socialism, communism, and the like are contrary to the natural order of creation. The people always greatly outnumber the elitists that rule over the people, so it should be evident that governments are defined by being for the people and by the people according to the reality of the math. Therefore, governments will brainwash, threaten, and kill to maintain control over the great unwashed.
Enter gun control. The right to bear arms by the public is perhaps the greatest barrier there is against fascism. Why would any government want to disarm their populous when such is a huge deterrent to invasion from foreign powers? Because there is only one thing worse than being invaded by another country that probably shares your despotic ideology to begin with; sharing power with the great unwashed.
One reality that might perplex is anti-Americanism coming from groups that greatly prosper from capitalism. But don’t miss this: those groups see themselves as elitists that rank high in the caste pecking order; so, they stand to gain more in a socialist environment or at least they think so. Remember, most A-list people in religion, sports, or Hollywood despise the serfs that fawn over them. This comes out from time to time when these folks let their guard down. But whether religion or Hollywood, much more is to be gained by contributing to the state’s ability to control with propaganda and the promise of heaven. Sure, America may end up like those pictures depicting high-rise luxury suites overlooking massive shantytowns, but so what? They see themselves in the luxury suites while the serfs suffer what they deserve.
This is why Donald Trump, whatever you think of him, is driving the ruling class completely out of their minds. He is an outsider that takes his case directly to the people. This one thing he has done by virtue of who he is and what he represents: he has unmasked the true mentality of socialists, and it ain’t pretty. They are now exposed according to their real life terrorist hearts.
If not for American jurisprudence, every Protestant church would have a gallows room. Why wouldn’t they? They all did before America came along. And if not for American jurisprudence, Hollywood would endorse any and every kind of reprisal that would be inflicted upon individualists. The entertainment industry has always sought to be the obvious choice for any state’s propaganda machine. Whether church or entertainment, compelling the people to pay by force is much better than persuading them to pay via rubbing shoulders with them while holding your nose. By the way, do these people really display themselves before the great unwashed by walking on a red carpet dressed in garb that costs more than many people make in a whole year?
When people lose sight of their own self-dignity the relinquishing of their freedom is not far behind.
paul
What God Does in Protestant Progressive Justification
Originally published May 31, 2015
There was a meme in my Facebook news feed that caught my eye this morning. I felt compelled to make some corrections to it. If you still don’t believe that Protestantism teaches progressive justification, think again.
Andy
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
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