More on my guilty pleasure

A few weeks ago I blogged about the new show on ABC, 666 Park Avenue.

I still find the show fascinating from a theological perspective. Many of the tenants of 999 Park Avenue make a deal with the devil character, Gavin Doran, only thinking of the immediate rewards and not thinking about the price. For instance, this past week a woman wanted to be an extremely successful writer. The deal she struck with Gavin guaranteed her success, however the downside to her deal was whatever she wrote came true. She worked for a prominent New York newspaper and wrote news stories that were based on lies and fiction. She winds up dead because of the webs of deceit she created only to be successful.

The storyline got me thinking about lies and then yesterday I heard a story on the radio that seemed like it came out of a Hollywood script. A local woman told her co-workers that her infant daughter died. Her co-workers donated money to her to cover the costs of the funeral and then discovered the lie when they arrived at the church for the funeral. The woman said she wanted attention and used the money to buy clothes and toys for her child. Well, she's definitely getting attention now because she's going to jail. This case is extreme and while the law might assign more weight to a particular kind of lie, does God?

A lie is a lie is a lie and I know I lie.

Why do I lie? Uh...well...it's usually to avoid something unpleasant. For instance, I might tell a friend that she looks great in an outfit so that I don't have to tell her that her butt looks big (to my friends: if you've gone shopping with me, you know I don't do this). While I might not be signing my soul away to the devil with a little white lie, I am definitely getting an immediate reward of not having a fight with my friend. Rarely do we think of the cost of a little white lie. What might happen when my friend goes to a wedding in her new dress and some tipsy family member makes a crack about her caboose? That "little" white lie could end a friendship or at the very least create a lot of tension while the question of trust hangs between us.

It's a heavy cost for something so "little", but hey, that's the way the devil works.

***I have to make one correction from my last post about the show: the protagonists of the show are not married, they're living together. ***

The Devil on Park Avenue

Last night was the premier of the second season of Revenge. It is hands down my guilty pleasure. I usually don't like soap opera style shows, but Revenge is more than just rich people sleeping around (although that's in there, too). During the commercial breaks ABC was pushing a new series called 666 Park Avenue. I thought I would give it a couple of minutes and see what it was like. I was only able to withstand 10 minutes of Revolution on NBC a few weeks ago; my suspension of disbelief was not so willing with that one!

666 Park Avenue turned out to be awesome, that is if you're watching it with a theological eye. If you want to read the full synopsis of the episode, you can do so here. Here's the really brief synopsis: it's a modern take on Mephistopheles (a devil). In the first episode the viewer learns the price for making a deal with the Devil. Gavin Doran is the successful, real estate tycoon version of Mephistopheles. Don't ask me why my disbelief will suspend for this show while it won't for others, perhaps it's because there is theological gold in this show. The pilot episode jumped into several deadly sins: pride, sloth (discouragement), lust, and wrath.

What is yet to be seen is the balancing force against the Devil. I have a few ideas of how it will play out in the show, but I can bet none of them will involve a character saying "In the name of Jesus Christ, get back, Satan!" or someone reciting the Prayer of St. Michael the Archangel. And, that is sad, because nothing human can fight the devil, only the name of Jesus Christ and the Heavenly Hosts.

Here is the problem with the messages in this show (including many movies and other shows - including my guilty pleasure): it's fine to satisfy any desire, any need and who cares about the side effects. In reality, ideas have consequences. If I lust after some guy that is not my husband, even if it's only in my thoughts, that is a doorway into serious sin. And, to be clear, I shouldn't even lust after my husband, because that reduces him to an object instead of the person God created.

There is an interesting scene where the two protagonists, a married couple, are talking after they willing agree to work and live with the Devil.  The wife asks her husband, "Henry, are we going to be okay here?"

No one is okay with Mephistopheles in their company.