I am all for creative media being able to take liberties while telling stories, but when it comes to the portrayal of God, a sad pattern keeps appearing.
TV shows like Supernatural, Lucifer, and Dominion leave much to be desired in their portrayal of the divine and angels.
The God of the Bible is often portrayed as a deadbeat parent, inconsistent, and sometimes downright evil; His angels, on the other hand, are spiteful and mean.
I feel like this approach reveals a lot about our collective mindset, as well as our inability to grasp something so complex and profound.
The Flawed Portrayal
God is portrayed as a distant figure in these shows – absent when needed most, or even a being who causes chaos.
There’s often no trace of the omnipotent, loving creator that we know Him as.
He’s reduced to a bad parent who essentially hides from His creations because He doesn’t have the will to face them.
The writers are either unable to come to terms with the idea of absolute goodness, or they make God look spiteful and weak on purpose, just to serve their storylines.
I don’t mean to clutch my pearls here, since the media portrayal doesn’t seriously affect the faith of people who are truly devoted, but it is very shallow.
It bugs me that something as spiritually and historically meaningful as the Bible, is approached with so little seriousness.
A Reflection of Our Cynicism
These portrayals mirror how many modern people view religion: with skepticism and suspicion. We seem to have become too cynical to accept the idea of divine goodness.
Instead of seeing God as the source of truth and light, many see Him as cold and distant, and even malevolent!
And, I get it – wars, pain, and injustices can make it hard to believe that we’re always being protected by an omnipotent being.
But isn’t it also possible that something so powerful is just too much for our understanding? It seems like it’s much easier to mock or dismiss God than accept that He’s a mystery to us.
We Don’t Understand the Divine
Despite all our advancements in science and philosophy, our ability to understand God seems to have regressed.
These shows highlight that we’re no closer to understanding the divine than our acestors, except they had faith, and our society is getting more cynical by the day.
The concept of an all-powerful, all-good creator is so abstract that it’s almost impossible to grasp.
We struggle with the idea of infinite love because we’ve been conditioned to expect immediate answers and tangible proof.
So, instead of appreciating the mystery, we fill the gaps with mockery and cynicism.
We’ve become too proud to accept that some truths are simply beyond our comprehension, and that’s why our portrayals of God are often so shallow and misguided.
The Idea of Absolute Goodness
Our worldview has become relativistic, so absolute goodness is something we can’t quite grasp.
We’re used to shades of gray, where morality is subjective and everyone’s truth is different, and this kind of attitude makes complete sense when it comes to human life.
However, if we’re talking about the divine, this notion gets challenged.
And this is why some of these shows tend to present God as vain or evil, because it’s much easier to doubt such an entity than to try to understand it.
Besides, modern audiences also seem to prefer stories where morality is flexible, since it helps more people relate to the shows.
Like that, divine perfection can feel uncomfortable and even threatening.
The “Deadbeat Dad” Metaphor
When shows treat God as a negligent or absent parent, I honestly get second-hand embarrassment – and this is coming from someone who isn’t strictly religious.
Let’s step away from faith for a moment, and focus on storytelling. It’s lazy and contrived.
And you’ll notice that this unfortunate portrayal is usually the result of show creators writing themselves into a corner.
It’s a naive portrayal that ignores centuries of theology and the notion that God is far too great for most of us to understand Him fully.
That’s why even the wisest philosophers treated Him as a mystery – they weren’t ashamed of admitting when they didn’t know something.
That was a far smarter approach than filling the blanks with cheap metaphors.
Free Will and Our Expectations
The displeasure that the plots of these shows express towards God seems to be coming from the expectations we have for Him.
He’s expected to intervene and solve all the world’s problems, even though the Scripture was clear: we have free will and the world was given to us to rule over.
We’re meant to live with the consequences of our actions, grow through struggles, and turn to the divine for guidance.
This idea that God should always step in to eliminate pain is a misconception rooted in our desire for comfort.
How People Approached God in the Past
Older generations had a much more patient approach to the divine than we do today.
People went through tragedies, plagues, and wars, and still, we can’t find many examples of them blaming God anywhere in literature.
Instead, they used their faith as motivation; it gave them the strength to endure and come out stronger.
We expect things to be easy, and when they’re not, we no longer ask God to give us strength; instead, we ask Him to swoop in and solve it all for us.
And when that doesn’t happen – we feel personally betrayed. Our modern prosperity has made us quite entitled.
What We Need to Remember About the Divine
Though these shows have some amazing qualities, it’s important to remember that they’re just entertainment.
Their portrayal of God reflects some of our modern beliefs, but we must understand that God is beyond our comprehension.
He’s not a cosmic villain, but a divine being we can trust in even when we can’t see the full picture.
We should approach God with humility, recognizing our limits.
His portrayal in the media doesn’t capture His true nature – it’s just a reflection of our doubts and fears.
Moving Toward a Better Understanding
To truly understand God, we must try to suppress our cynicism.
Because science has made such huge progress, we’ve become certain that humanity now holds all the answers. However, there are still many mysteries we haven’t solved.
Hell, we barely know anything about the ocean!
Our perception is limited, and sometimes, the only thing we can do is embrace the mystery.
Faith means trusting in something that’s much greater than us, not sulking because we can’t get all the answers.
A little Aquarius, devoted to writing and embroidery. Through my writing, I hope to empower readers to align with their true selves and navigate life’s mysteries with confidence.