Finding the Lie
- KRISTINE FRANKLIN
My mother was a quiet, pious, fundamentalist lady who loved to read her Bible and go to prayer meetings. She was kind and generous, and had a hug for everyone. Mom only had one annoying habit. She scolded the television.
Wed be watching a show lets say, The Undersea World of
Jacques Cousteau and Jacques would say: No one knows where zee giant
squid leeves. Thats when Mom would start up.
God knows where the
squid lives, she would say, God made the squid.
When Carl Sagan explained
during a Nova program that man is utterly alone in the universe, Mom gave the
TV a brief but energetic homily from Romans 1.
Mom, puh-leeze! I complained.
Cant we watch TV in peace?
Of all the crazy things for a scientist
to say, said Mom, ignoring me because she was so troubled by Carls deficient
theology. The heavens declare the glory of God, Psalm Eight. Poor man. We need
to pray for him.
Many years later, with two kids of my own, I am ten
times worse than Mom. I critique and comment on everything that is counter to
Catholic truth: whether its on the radio, in the newspaper, in an ad, or in the
lyrics to a song. I dont want to raise sponges who soak up the bad right along
with the good, and who dont know the difference. I want my children to grow up
to be good culture cops, just like Grandma.
So, I invite my kids to
comment. I challenge them to find the flaws in the statements, actions or attitudes
of everything from NPR broadcasts, to old Star Trek videos, to magazine ads for
Levis. My constant question is this: Can you find the lie? I hear some pretty
good answers like:
Fat people are ugly.
Immorality is normal.
Parents dont understand their kids.
All religions are the same.
Afterwards, we talk about it. Thats the best part. Finding the lies is a great
stimulus to good family conversation.
Following Christ doesnt mean turning
our backs on our own culture. We lay people arent called out of the world, rather
were called to live the love of Jesus Christ in the midst of society
at home, at work and at play. In order to be effective witnesses, we have to be
able to sort out the good from the bad in our culture. We cant be sponges. We
have to be culture cops, critically examining the messages that daily bombard
us, in order to reject the lies and walk in the light of truth. We also have to
teach this crucial way of seeing to our kids.
Some friends of ours made
a game out of developing this attitude in their two pre-teen daughters. The parents
put two jars on top of the television set. One was empty, the other was filled
with dimes. If either girl detected a false message during a program, or the accompanying
commercials, she would yell, Thats a lie! and then explain in high speed what
she meant; like this: Sassing-your-parents-isnt-funny-its-defiance-towards-authority.
She would then collect one dime for herself, and put one dime into the empty jar.
When the second jar was filled, the family gave the money to the local crisis
pregnancy center, and Dad refilled the first jar.
Those girls turned
out to be tremendous critical thinkers. And everyone who visited that home, and
wondered aloud about the partially-filled jars of dimes, got a thorough explanation
of the game and its purpose.
Want to start a conversation about Christian
family life? Get dimes.
This is Meaghen Gonzalez, Editor of CERC. I hope you appreciated this piece. We curate these articles especially for believers like you.
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Acknowledgement
Kristine L. Franklin Find the Lie. Envoy (March-April, 2003)
Reprinted with permission of Envoy magazine and Patrick Madrid. (To subscribe to Envoy: call 1-800-55-ENVOY)
The Author
Kristine Franklin was raised in a devout fundamentalist home where she learned to love Jesus, study the Bible, and share the Good News. She and her husband were Evangelical missionaries in Guatemala when they discovered that the complete Gospel message was only to be found in the Catholic Church. Since her conversion in 1995, Kristine has shared the story of her faith journey in print, on the radio, and on television. She is a co-host of the EWTN series, "Household of Faith."
Copyright © 2003 Envoy