Case #1: Celebrity Fit Club

Celebrity Fit Club 2

People who are called to love Jesus and love others can receive a lot of wisdom through the good and not-so-good examples of other people. Reality TV contains an abundance of examples of the latter type. This show's plot is to take pampered celebrities and subject them to basic training-type tactics to help them lose weight while amusing America and creating financial dividends for the parent conglomerates.

The Cast

For our purposes, the main cast is team#1 (I forgot their name). This team consists of captain Gary Busey (Action Movie star who is a minister), Willie Aames (Eight is Enough, more recently "BibleMan" Superhero), Victoria Jackson (SNL, now a Christian Comedian), and Wendy Kaufmann, the "Snapple Lady" who I am sure is of a Jewish background.

The Exploits

To their credit, these characters often are supportive, encouraging, polite, and genuine. However, the nature of reality TV is to celebrate the worst of human behavior so that the viewer should watch cautiously, assuming that their on screen personae are a collage of the worst behavior exhibited, under artificial conditions contrived by the producers.

Dirty Deed #1

Willie Aames has missed his target weight goal for another week and the drill sergeant pays him a surprise house call. Willie is having a bad morning and doesn't want to deal with this for whatever reason. So the episode contains a lot of rude behavior from Willie such as door slamming, yelling, and garden-hosing of the drill sergeant, culminating in a yelling match in the "boardroom" scene. To his credit, it's obvious that Willie knows he is "in the flesh" as he admits, but I cringed for him the whole time.

Deed #2

Gary Busey is the team captain and kicks butt in a boxing match, scoring points for his team. He is whupped at the end of the match so he calls for a team prayer session. With so many other professing Christians on the team this seems like a great move, but the Snapple Lady takes offense to the end of the prayer which of course invokes Jesus' name.

Gary is wiped out from the boxing and snaps back about "team unity" and that sort of thing, and it gets very uncomfortable especially when he declares "the AntiChrist is among us". Willie and Victoria in the meantime try to smooth things over but it is awkward.

Suggested Tips for Getting Along in the Real World

1. Don't expect people to want to pray, especially outside of a vague ecumenical context, unless they are visibly open to it.

2. When people cry foul in response to a religious element, don't rail back without thinking. Listen to them and be willing to suck it up.

3. On your own time, ask God for discernment and what to do next.

4. It is probably better to be meek than to be inflexible in the heat of the moment.

5. -Flip/Flop Statement: Having said this, Gary's boldness and proactive orientation is a huge asset to him. I believe that the aftermath of this experience will be positive, especially if he has learned from it. In any case, we do need bold people that occasionally offend others since the rest of us may be so timid and afraid to speak out that God can't do much through us. The biblical record is full of such outspoken and tactless characters whom God used in huge ways. (Peter, Paul, Elijah etc...)