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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, my favorite fictional depiction of the President is Harrison Ford’s portrayal in the movie Air Force One. And I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.
I love a good biopic. Or better, said, I love a good movie that’s wrapped in real historical events. Whether it’s movies like Bohemian Rhapsody, Lincoln, Braveheart, Catch Me if You Can, or The Untouchables, these movies almost always send me to the internet afterward to try and learn the truth of what I just watched.
Hollywood is known for creating amazing stories that evoke emotions which inspire, engage in discussion, cause us to think, lose track of time, escape, or dream. I’ve visited Hollywood sets, spoken with directors, writers, producers, and actors. They are all passionate people who are incredibly gifted at their craft. But at the end of the day, we must remember, Hollywood is built on lies and deception.
Of course, that’s why we love Hollywood! We know that Sandra Bullock didn’t really go to space to film the movie Gravity, but we love that Hollywood is so good at deceiving us that we believe she could have been. We know that Ryan Reynolds didn’t really have to be severely burned in order to play Deadpool, but the special effects and makeup are so well done that we love that it makes us think his burns are real.
Indeed, we LOVE being fooled by Hollywood magic. We love it so much that when we can tell it’s fake, we complain. We WANT to be fooled!
When it comes to historically-based Hollywood stories, I know that liberties have to be taken for the sake of time and storytelling that often mix in bits of fiction in these stories. I wouldn’t call this deception per se, but it is another aspect of Hollywood that contains elements of inauthenticity.
I know this and understand why it often has to be done, but knowing this about Hollywood is also what often drives me to the internet afterward to seek out the truth.
So if we know that Hollywood adds fictional elements and interpretation to the stories of Freddy Mercury, William Wallace, and Frank Abagnale Jr., we should also be quite suspicious of Hollywood’s handling of the Bible.
Today’s story is pulled from a television episode that aired 25 years ago. However, its claims about the Bible are ones that I still see being used often today, and the very scene has been making the rounds on social media this year, which is why I decided to address it on this podcast.
The scene in question is from season 2, episode 3 of The West Wing. It’s an episode called Midterms. In the clip you’ll hear a male character portrayed by Martin Sheen. His character is the president of the United States, President Josiah Bartlet. The female character you’ll hear is Dr. Jenna Jacobs portrayed by Claire Yarlett. Dr. Jacobs is a talk radio host who is invited to attend a reception at the White House. When the President enters the room, she remains seated. She’s also a conservative Christian.
Let’s check out the clip.
President Bartlet: I like how you call homosexuality an abomination.
Dr. Jacobs: I don’t say homosexuality is an abomination, Mr. President. The Bible does.
President Bartlet: Yes, it does. Leviticus.
Dr. Jacobs: 18:22.
President Bartlet: Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you a couple of questions while I had you here. I’m interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She’s a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be? While thinking about that, can I ask another? My chief of staff, Leo McGarry, insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to call the police? Here’s one that’s really important because we’ve got a lot of sports fans in this town. Touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean. Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame? Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads? Think about those questions, would you? One last thing…while you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the ignorant tight-ass club In this building where the president stands, nobody sits.
What do you think? Did he put her in her place?
I’ve never seen an episode of The West Wing so I don’t know the context of what led up to the confrontation between President Bartlet and Dr. Jacobs in this scene. But his intent seems to be that if the other things in Leviticus are no longer sinful, then homosexuality must not be either. It’s an all or nothing sort of thing and if it’s not all, then Christians are cherry picking hypocrites.
There are a lot of verses, accusations, and implications tossed around in this short clip and these verses are some that are often used by various people to attack Christianity and point out hypocrisy. So let’s do that thing where we take a Hollywood story and go find out which parts are true, and which parts are fiction.
This short clip mentions 6 items: homosexuality, selling someone into slavery, keeping the sabbath day, touching a dead pig, planting different crops side by side, and wearing garments of two different threads. That’s a lot to cover in the 10 or so minutes we have left today, so let’s get going.
While it’s obvious I don’t shy away from religious conversation on this podcast, I do typically try to avoid political conversation. I’ll talk more about that decision in an episode coming up in August. Homosexuality is very much a politically charged topic so I’m only going to be looking at this from a Biblical point of view.
Does Leviticus 18:22 condemn homosexual behavior? Yes it does. Is that type of behavior still something that should be considered sinful today by Christians? Yes. Homosexual activity is also called out as sinful behavior in several New Testament passages such as Romans chapter 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, and 1 Timothy chapter 1.
I am planning an entire episode either late this year or early next year that will look at the types of Old Testament Jewish laws and how those (or if those) should be applied today by Christians or anyone else.
But for this topic we have New Testament reinforcement of this being called out as sinful behavior. There are progressive Christians who falsely teach otherwise, but those who interpret these verses as such are twisting scripture to say something it is not saying.
Having said that, we Christians often get this wrong. That is, we wrongfully attack the LGBTQ community while ignoring other sins mentioned in those same verses. For example, 1 Corinthians 6 says, “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
I see Christians get upset and boycott TV shows and movies that contain an LGBTQ character or have a storyline about it. Yet, I don’t think I’ve seen a Christian exercise the same judgement for movies or TV shows that portray getting drunk, stealing, or committing adultery in a positive light.
Our best example is Jesus himself and his encounter with a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. He never acted as if adultery was an outdated issue. He didn’t deny that adultery was a sin. But he also showed her love and compassion. At the end of their encounter he told her “Go and sin no more.” This acknowledges her behavior as sin, and he calls her to stop doing it. That is, to repent. And she does.
Likewise, if you keep reading in 1 Corinthians, the very next verse after the list of sins says, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Have I ever been guilty of homosexual behavior? No. But I’m certainly guilty of other sins in that list. We have to stop treating homosexuality as if it’s some sort of super sin and the people who are doing that behavior as if they are less human. Treat them normal. Show them love. Don’t compromise on truth. Don’t act like you’re better because your sin has a different name. Okay, I think I’ve said enough on this topic so let’s move on.
Ah, from homosexuality to slavery. Let’s just hit all the controversial Biblical topics today!
In the episode clip, President Bartlet says, “I’m interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She’s a Georgetown sophomore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be?”
Slavery is without a doubt a tough subject to cover and understand. In today’s culture, it seems that every view of slavery is filtered through the lens of American chattel slavery. While that is certainly one form of slavery, that is not the only type of slavery.
So it should come as no surprise that I also have an entire episode coming up that will cover this topic in great detail. So for today, I’ll simply say that the slavery mentioned in Exodus 21 is not chattel slavery. There’s other context to be considered, but what’s being mentioned in that verse is a sort of last resort.
It applied only in dire situations when a father could not provide for his children. In this case, he’s not simply selling his daughter into slavery, he’s selling her as a bride into a family that will be able to give her food, shelter, security, and a hopeful future. For us today and in our culture, it certainly seems odd, perhaps repugnant to sell a person and to sell a person into marriage. So you can certainly see why we need to devote an entire episode to this topic. But for today, just know that it’s not at all what our American minds think of when we hear the word slave.
Next he said, “My chief of staff, Leo McGarry, insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to call the police?” Working on the Sabbath is something that I covered in detail back in episode 604. Rather than go into detail here, I encourage you to check out that episode and the in-depth answer I provided.
But in short, COULD someone be put to death in the Old Testament for working on the Sabbath. Yes. But that law only applied to Jews. Even then, death was not the punishment in all cases. Many times death was not the proper punishment. To use it here as if it applies to our culture is completely off base.
Okay, I’m hoping by this point you’re starting to see that there’s more to these Old Testament passages than face value. Proper context and study is needed. These next few passages will go more quickly.
President Bartlett asks if touching a football, also called a pigskin, makes the Washington Redskins unclean. He sandwiches this in between two accusations of death with the Sabbath and our next topic, so it seems like he’s implying touching a football should bring about the death penalty too. I’m not sure if that’s his implication.
However, what he does say is that touching the football would make them unclean. He’s right and wrong here. Touching a pig or other carcass was never a capital offense in the Old Testament. However, the Jewish people were not allowed to eat pork. Likewise the touching of a carcass would make them unclean. Once they were unclean, they simply had to go through a cleansing process and they were good to go.
However, the Washington Redskins are not Jews so this doesn’t apply. Furthermore, the football is actually made from cowhide, not pigskin. But more importantly, tanned and treated animal skins are not the same as carcasses, so this passage wouldn’t apply anyway.
For the last two items, let’s group them together. President Bartlett says, “Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother John for planting different crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads?”
First off, neither the planting of two crops side by side nor the wearing of garments made from two different threads were capital offenses. To say that they are is a complete fabrication. Second, once again, these laws were only applied to Old Testament Jews. They each served as living metaphors to help the Israelites understand their relationship with God.
Not planting two crops side by side was to help them understand that what they sow, water, and nurture, grows and the fruits of that effort are what results. As they entered into lands where other gods and religious rituals were practiced, they would be tempted to mix in elements of those false gods and ungodly cultures into their own.
God knew that would be to their detriment and would lead them away from Him (which is exactly what happened). So he set up both the crops law and the different threads laws to help them visualize these principles and help keep them on track.
These laws have no bearing on Christians today, except that their principles are still good reminders for us.
Here’s what I learned.
It’s easy to see why the Old Testament laws can be confusing and hopefully it’s easy to see why I’ll be devoting an entire episode to this topic.
What we see in this clip from the West Wing is not an example of putting someone in their place. No, what we see in this clip is what plagues our culture. That is, Biblical illiteracy. In fact, this clip demonstrates Biblical illiteracy from both President Bartlet and Dr. Jacobs.
Once he’s done delivering his monologue, she sits there embarrassed, uncomfortable, unable to say a word. Then, humbled and humiliated, she slowly stands to show him respect. The fact is, had she been Biblically literate, she would have been able to help him see the errors in his Biblical interpretation. She doesn’t, she can’t, and so you have a case where the loudest person in the room seems to be the smartest, even though they are both equally ignorant of the truth.
I’ve done several episodes now where we’ve looked at Biblical passages that are difficult. In each of these episodes, I’ve tried to provide enough insight to help you understand that there’s more to them than what you may first think. Too many times I’ve seen people arrive at these passages, become angry, offended, upset, or confused, and use that as an excuse to close the book and walk away.
My hope is that instead of walking away from the Bible when confronted with difficult passages, you’ll dig in and discover the truth of what is actually commanded and taught.
All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.
I’m Darrell Darnell, and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
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