The Gospel According to Eastenders

Dear Friends

My family are keen followers of the soaps with one exception – me. Very often they are a ridiculous parody of life, concentrating as they do all the ills of society in one small place. Such is Eastenders. It’s true that East London can be a challenging place to live – I know because we had a few years in Walthamstow, but it can also be a colourful place to live and work. No more so for the pastor of a church, because these inner city areas have the fastest growing churches in the UK and where the Christian faith can be vibrant. In fact, Britain’s largest church KICC is set in Hackney, in the heart of Eastenders territory.

So why is it that religious people, particularly Christians in soaps are often portrayed as eccentric, morally deficient, unstable, nutters or as in the present storyline in Eastenders, murdering psychopaths? I’m sure we can all point down the years to people that have claimed to be Christians but whose lives have fallen short of the mark. In fact newspapers love “naughty Vicar” stories don’t they? They particularly like ones where people end up exploited by unscrupulous people calling themselves pastors. But why portray most Christians in that way in a soap and not balance it with showing a much more sensible picture of Christianity? Lots of Christians have written to complain about this storyline.

The psychopathic pastor in Eastenders quotes scripture to justify his bizarre behaviour and proceeds to murder people. His congregation starts to twig and question his authority quoting (correctly) Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:15 watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. The image Eastenders seems to leave is that Christians are just people who use the Bible to push their own prejudices.

This issue has bee around since the beginning of the church – people who set themselves up as Christian teachers but who deceive people for their own ends and use the Bible to justify their actions. How can we tell the difference? Sometimes it’s obvious because these false leaders ask people to do something that’s very wrong or abuses others, but there are also times when it is more difficult to discern truth, particularly when the person seems to have a huge scriptural knowledge: Jehovah’s Witnesses for example.

That’s why it’s so important to be able to know the Word of God for ourselves. In 2 Timothy 2:15 Paul encourages Timothy to do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. That’s a challenge to each of us.

It’s easy to be quick to complain to the BBC or the like when people portray Christians in an unfair way. Let’s by all means use our freedoms to complain and correct, but let’s also allow God to challenge us so that we will not fall into the kinds of snares that these fictional characters suffer.

Your friend and Pastor

Mark

Inspired by an EA Friday Night Theology article