Arrested Development, Pop Culture, and the Christian Stereotype

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I have recently taken somewhat of a liking to the show Arrested Development.

The show, which originally aired on Fox, has been off of television for a few years now, but thanks to Hulu I have been able to work my way through the series over the last couple of weeks.

It is very funny.

For the sake of brevity, I won’t summarize the show’s plot here (click the link above if you’re curious), but suffice to saw it is substantially more awkward than The Office. Just about every character on the show has some sort of odd quirk that makes you squirm and cringe yet continually come back for more.

I’ve just about reached the end of season two, and in the last couple of episodes there has been an interesting portrayal of Christianity–or at least Christians–that reflects a caricature that I often find in pop culture.  Before I go any further, I feel like I should concede a few points:

a) Everything, and I mean everything, gets lampooned in Arrested Development.  Recent episodes have parodied or otherwise misrepresented lawyers, magicians, military officers, various sorts of people with disabilities, Indians (not to be confused with Native Americans), jocks, and the list goes on.  It’s a sitcom, the whole point is to poke fun at life.  I get that.

b) There is much within Christianity that is worthy of mockery. We’ve got our hate mongers, cheesy television personalities, and cultural distinctives that understandably draw the ire of society at large.  I believe it is fair to say that I know that better than most.  As with any people group, there are a lot of Christians who are kooks, there are a lot of people who are judgmental, there are a handful that are extremists, and we’re pretty much all hypocrites to some degree (but honestly, find me a person of any creed, or that thereof, that isn’t). My concern is not with the mockery of elements of Christianity, my concern is with what appears to be a consistent caricature of Christians that is simply inaccurate.  As a Christian myself, I laugh at the mockery because it’s funny.  Part of what makes it funny is that it is so ridiculous.  My concern is that those who perhaps like to throw rocks at Christianity from the outside (and like to aim for the easiest targets) will only have their erroneous views reinforced by these ridiculous portrayals. I am further concerned that they encourage society to lump all Christians into the same category as the extremists.  I read an op-ed piece on cnn.com this morning that suggested that there is little difference between Rick Warren and the Religious Right.  Such a statement defies intellectual honesty.

All of that being said, here’s what happens on the show.  George Michael Bluth, the awkward teenage son of the lead character starts dating Ann Veal.  George Michael’s cousin Maeby almost immediately starts referring to Ann as “Bland”, and for good reason. Ann is cast as the plainest of plain people, in both appearance and personality.  George Michael’s dad doesn’t approve of Ann, either.  For the first couple of episodes, Ann is kept mostly in the background.  As time progresses, it comes out that Ann is a Christian.  We learn this in several ways, including seeing Ann yell at George Michael for skipping church, hearing about multi-hour silent prayer meetings (with accompanying awkward video of such meetings), and seeing George Michael look for “secular” music to burn at a Christian music burning party (As a write this I’m listening to Rage Against the Machine…don’t tell anyone).  Later on, when George Michael decides to run for student body president, Ann is his campaign manager and she creates a campaign sign for him that lists reasons to vote for him that form the acrostic “virgin”. Ann also talks about all “the Christian kids” that are going to help him get elected. As the show progresses we find that Ann, while committed to maintaining her virginity until marriage, is nothing short of sex-obsessed.

Perhaps the most ridiculous episode is one where Michael (George Michael’s father) meet Ann’s parents.  Ann’s father, it turns out, is a pastor.  When we meet him his golden blonde hair is perfectly combed, and he is wearing a goldish sportscoat and turtleneck.  Ann’s mother is easily fifteen years younger than Ann’s father, and is a very attractive brunette.  The stereotype being reinforced is obvious: He’s the powerful uber friendly pastor-man, she’s his trophy wife.  We later find out that Ann’s mom is sexually repressed, and she desires to know what “it is like in the secular world”, a desire she expresses while throwing herself at Michael when her husband was not present.

The whole family is simply ridiculous, and, much like the Bluth family, each member of the familiy has his or her own extremely odd quirks.  As a Christian pastor watching the show, I thought the Veal family was hilarious.  They were the epitome of everything we are not.

My frustration comes from the continual reinforcement of this sort of stereotype that seems to find its way into pop culture.  Christians are closed-minded, judgmental, anti-intellectual, prudish, separatist, etc.  Of course, this caricature makes for good comedy, and it has for years (one need only remember Dana Carvey’s performance as the church lady).  I certainly don’t mean to come across as some sort of blowhard who is “mad at those heathens that are making fun of ‘us’”. Far from it.  I am merely raising the general point that media portrayals of any subset of society are often focused upon the most absurd members of said subset and their most absurd qualities (just listen to day-time talk radio if you don’t believe me…depending on who you are listening to, either Republicans or Democrats are the saviors of the world, and either Republicans or Democrats are evil, foolhardy psychopaths hell bent on destroying America). This sort of caricature, while good for a laugh, is ultimately bad for society. I am also, of course, raising the specific point that Christians are a common target of this sort of mockery. The reality is that in the mainstream, stories about Christians who travel to Iraq to sit with children while our warplanes fly over head simply don’t make for interesting news.  Neither do stories of clean water being provided to the poor around the world, or single mothers finidng hope, or young people that find purpose in something other than sexual exploitation and drug abuse, or people making incredible financial sacrifices for the good of people they hardly know.  Those stories more accurately represent the heart of Jesus, and more accurately represent the heart of most followers of Jesus that I have known.

Arrested Development is a funny show, and I look forward to watching the rest of it, but it is unfortunate that it has to propogate the absurd, and largely inaccurate, Christian stereotypes that it does.

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