This is a response to Rachel V’s earlier post "Serial Killer and God into a bar":
Rachel V's post: http://gospelaccordingtobuddychrist.blogspot.com/2012/01/serial-killer-and-god-walk-into-bar.html
After reading Rachel V’s posts, I found out
that one of the earlier posts was happened to be the same television show I was
planning to write about this week, the sixth season of the show “Dexter”. This show
was about a vigilante serial killer who “has no religion” but plays the role of
“savior” just as Jesus did, in this season, the Christian content become
explicit because the issue about how to educate his young son emerged.
According to Rachel, “Someone studying the
relationship between religion and pop culture from the “outside” may see this
season as a great representation of religion.” I really agree with that, the identity
of Dexter has always been a debate, his identity as a vigilante or a killer or
a savior? Especially in this season, a lot of Christian elements have been inserted
into the show, the Jesus tattoo, the church school, the crucifixion;
Christianity is really explicit in it.
This also brings another question about the
representation of Christianity in television shows nowadays, the depth, variety
and complexity of it. Christian figures are not simply good, the killer in the
first episode Joe Walker has a tattoo of Jesus on his body, he is apparently a
Christian, but he is a cold-blood killer at the same time. On the contrary, the
main character Dexter who claims as an antitheist but actually is doing a
savior’s job; they are both kind of paradoxical figures. Generally, both of
what they did can be considered as sin in Christianity, but neither their
nature have been hidden in the show.
As I believe, the interaction of
Christianity and popular culture has changed as we changed and our society changed
as well, the simple Christian figures cannot cater for delving humanity and
social issues, therefore the Christian figures began to show complexity, no
longer simple good or simple savior.
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