By Joel A. Hess –
A couple of weeks ago, my kids enjoyed the movie The Truman Show for the first time. If you have been living with the Amish for the past year, I will summarized the movie for you. The film is about a man, Truman, who is part of an ultra-reality T.V. show that films him from his birth until death. It is set in a fake town underneath a large dome that even controls the weather. All the people except for Truman are actors. Everything is controlled except Truman. Truman’s life isn’t perfect; his dad traumatically dies in the surrounding sea and his first girlfriend disappears. Yet, overall he lives a fairly carefree and easy going life until he realizes it is all a conspiracy.
While it seems impossible that someone could actually accomplish such a feat of entertainment, the US government, their education directives, and Hollywood have done exactly that! We live within an artificial dome constructed by repeated words and images that enjoy no basis in physical reality. Hollywood for some time has been repeatedly planting in our heads the idea that children in single parent homes are happier than those who have a mom and dad. They have carefully projected a world where there are no repercussions to carefree sex. For some time, we have laughed and cried at Truman shows where all sexually perverted people are nice and good in every way. In fact, we have done this much better than those who put their genitalia in the biologically correct places. Sadly, our institutions of critical thinking have become venues of the same propaganda from preschool on up. And finally the government is tyrannically enforcing ideas that began in the entertainment industry—the trifecta of propaganda! Goebbels would be proud.
Not surprisingly, Americans have come to believe it all. Amazingly, most Westerners believe that T.V shows are a reflection of reality. Even more foolishly, they think “reality” T.V. shows are a reflection of pure reality.
Yet, everything has been perfectly choreographed to keep you from seeing the reality outside of this existential dome.
At the end of the movie, the “creator,” played by Ed Harris, tells Truman as he is about to leave, “I’m the creator of a television show that gives hope and joy to millions—and you are the star. There’s no more truth out there than there is in the world I created for you. Same lies, same deceit. But in my world you have nothing to fear.”
There is the lie—the lie of our current administration, Hollywood, and perhaps that dirty old snake in the garden!
You are the star! You can do whatever you want. Nothing can hurt you. There will be no consequence even for your most irrational and unnatural actions. In fact, there are some that may even concede that the reality being promoted isn’t true at all, but at least it’s safe.
Is this not the same seduction tactic of that dirty ole snake in the garden? He basically told Eve, “God is keeping secrets from you! In my world, you will be the star! You will be safe.”
Meanwhile, kids suffer as they are literally sold into families without a mom or dad. College students are filled with emptiness and angst as they attempt live in a world that pretends sex and love aren’t related. Ironically, while the government wants everyone to feel safe, porn, which is proven to be addictive and the cause of violent behavior, is promoted even in schools as teachers put condoms on bananas. Because it’s all about safety right? Suicide is skyrocketing among members of a generation who have nothing to live for and have been told they are just animals anyways. Life in the dome is not safe at all, especially for the weak. Of course, we will just dump their bodies outside of the biosphere.
Being the star isn’t what it’s all cracked up to be. Eve learned that the hard way, and so have her children. When a person becomes his own master, she also becomes her own slave.
You could say Jesus became our Truman as He entered our imaginary narcissistic village through the womb of Mary. Yet, He did not come to escape from it but to tear it down.
Through His Church, He breaks glass domes to free fools playing parts in someone else’s play. Jesus is reality.
Some Christians like to think of the church service on Sunday as an escape to a domed fantasy world. Yet, it is not that at all. When Christians gather and hear God’s Word, enjoy His heavenly supper, sing songs, and pray, they are not interrupting reality or taking a break from reality. The Worship service is reality interrupting the false narrative preached by a false creator, and the God speaking from above beckons gently, ‘Come out.’
