A West Wing Bible Lesson

The West Wing character Jed Bartlett is a professing Roman Catholic Christian, as well as President of the United States. Here, a passionate, indignant President Bartlett makes his point so well, and with rhetorical flair: to be a Christian doesn't mean we are to be members of what he indelicately, pejoratively refers to as the "ignorant, tight-ass club."  Legalism, discrimination and judgment are not the paths we're called to walk.

To the contrary, we are called to be well-informed, thoughtful and generous people whose beliefs and behavior reflect first the love, compassion and humility of Christ. And we are to be nonjudgmental and forgiving of others, too. Lofty standards often unmet, they are nonetheless at the heart of our faith understandings and aspirations.

We are also to understand the differences--in historical and cultural context, and their relevance today--between the Bible's early accounts of the ancient people Israel and some of the harsher elements of the Mosaic Covenant (the Law), and the New Testament's accounts and teaching of the New Covenant of Love in Christ. And we might venture a nod of acknowledgment, even acceptance, of the understandings of an advancing, affirming humanism, particularly in the more modern socio-political context of the West.

Loved West Wing and President Bartlett, and in this clip his character and understanding show as clearly as his passion and rhetorical giftedness.