I suspect (can't speak for the writers/producers of the episode) that people who love that particular monologue are part of a growing schism in Christianity, one which isn't falling along traditional denominational lines. You can find, say, Catholics and Lutherans and Methodists on both sides of the gap. I'm only vaguely Christian, so I don't entirely understand the fault lines, but I know that my husband very much expects an actual, official split in the Methodist Church in the next decade or two and that it will be entirely about required/acceptable Christian positions on social justice issues.
Some of it is geographic, and some is generational, but there's a very strong sense of 'if that bit of the Bible doesn't make ethical/moral sense to me, it must be a mistake because Jesus can't have been a bad person.' That is, there's more emphasis on 'being good'-- whatever that actually means-- than on being obedient and trying to understand why the rules are the way they are. It's more... Are you familiar with the differences between Quakers and other Christians? It rather goes in that direction without following the line of logic to where the Quakers have taken it.
The writers/producers may also have been to some degree anti-religious in the way that a lot of folks are, for one reason or another, either due to their family's views or due to terrible experiences with one or more religious groups.
At any rate, you're right. Those aren't words that President Bartlet would have used, not given his age and background. President Bartlet represented wish fulfillment for many people, and that's one of the most obvious points when something got pushed into his mouth because someone just wanted him to be that sort of person.
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Date: 2017-09-20 03:01 pm (UTC)Some of it is geographic, and some is generational, but there's a very strong sense of 'if that bit of the Bible doesn't make ethical/moral sense to me, it must be a mistake because Jesus can't have been a bad person.' That is, there's more emphasis on 'being good'-- whatever that actually means-- than on being obedient and trying to understand why the rules are the way they are. It's more... Are you familiar with the differences between Quakers and other Christians? It rather goes in that direction without following the line of logic to where the Quakers have taken it.
The writers/producers may also have been to some degree anti-religious in the way that a lot of folks are, for one reason or another, either due to their family's views or due to terrible experiences with one or more religious groups.
At any rate, you're right. Those aren't words that President Bartlet would have used, not given his age and background. President Bartlet represented wish fulfillment for many people, and that's one of the most obvious points when something got pushed into his mouth because someone just wanted him to be that sort of person.
I don't know if any of that makes any sense...