Neil: In the short space of his three minute speech, he hit the most important highlights of the evangelical Christian faith, namely that you suck and will never live up to what you are supposed to be, but that if you’ll only surrender your personal autonomy to someone else who is much better than you then you can be forgiven for how very much you suck. Granted, I’m paraphrasing.
Neil (quoting Pratt):
People will tell you that you are perfect just the way that you are. You are not! You are imperfect. You always will be.
But there is a powerful force that designed you that way, and if you are willing to accept that, you will have grace. And grace is a gift. Like the freedom that we enjoy in this country, that grace was paid for with somebody else’s blood. Do not forget that. Don’t take that for granted.
Neil: So much for all those messages your parents and your teachers and your counselors have been trying to tell you so that you’ll stop talking down to yourself and hurting yourself, compulsively entertaining the self-loathing narratives we all learn to absorb as insecure teens. Pratt wants you to embrace the self-hatred and run with it. If you don’t do that, you won’t be as ready or willing to accept what he’s trying to offer you.
ME: Apparently, Neil did not grow up on Earth.
Earthlings know that adolescent self-loathing doesn’t happen for no reason. Adolescents have good reasons for hating themselves like acne, poor grades, and gym class to name a few. Pratt isn’t telling them anything they don’t already know.
“People will tell you that you are perfect”. People like Neil. Neil thinks he’s building self-esteem by telling kids they don’t suck. Neil thinks kids are stupid.
Neil: The MTV Movie and Music Awards is an admittedly odd place to hear a sermonette from a perpetually juvenile Hollywood actor. So he buries his quite serious message inside a frivolous lump of levity in hopes that the young people in the room will swallow it before they realize what they’ve just ingested.
Again, this is a time-tested tradition which ex-vangelicals like me know all too well. That’s why none of this seems all that strange to us. We’re not so much bothered by the ritual as much as we are annoyed by the realization that, in this analogy, we are all the dogs and Pratt represents the “elder” in the room who is condescending to share his higher wisdom with the rest of us.
ME: Neil DOES think kids are stupid! He would have no problem with a “juvenile Hollywood actor” telling kids that abortion shouldn’t make them feel guilty. He doesn’t trust the kids to understand the message because they’re too dumb to see past the levity.
Props to Neil for honesty. Prideful people are always annoyed when someone else tries to tell them something. The idea that ANYONE else would possess a higher wisdom is repulsive.
Since you’re oblivious to the irony, you might as well just go the distance, Neil. Say it! “Chris Pratt sucks!”
Neil: Pratt imported this brief moment of church into an MTV awards ceremony because he is a Christian. And not just any kind of Christian, but an evangelical one, which ultimately means “one who will tell you about what he believes whether you ask him to or not.” They don’t typically wait for an invitation because if they do, they’ll likely be waiting forever.
ME: Neil hasn’t lived on Earth long enough to know that people don’t walk up to strangers and say, “Tell me about your religion.”
Remember, this article would not have been written if Pratt had said, “Follow your dreams! You can be whatever you want to be!” The ONLY reason Neil is outraged is because Pratt is an evangelical Christian.
…Pratt never specifically mentioned Jesus or Christianity either. Neil imported his hatred from a source other than Pratt’s MTV speech.
Neil: Nevertheless, Pratt will be praised for playing youth minister to a room full of admirers who are nearly a decade younger than he is. I suppose he does show bravery in sharing his faith unbidden before a televised audience, and for that I should give him credit. I just wish the message he chose to share so bravely weren’t one of self-deprecation and dependence on the shedding of somebody’s blood.
ME: Yes! Give him some credit for saying something on television that would bring relentless hatred from people like you. You are the reason Pratt’s speech required bravery.
Sure! A better message would have been “gender doesn’t matter” or “rich people suck” but if you want to deliver those important words, you’ll have to figure out how to be as popular as Chris Pratt.
Keep getting angry when people offer hope to kids. Maybe that’ll do it for you.
Isaiah 5:20
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
9 Responses
In that there is nothing to show that needing to believe in John’s version of a particular god makes one better e.g the person you are supposed to be, this only seems an effort by a Christian to convince himself he is better than others. It does take a certain arrogance to think that you’ll get some benefit from a god that failed at stopping the Holocaust.
What is John’s version of God?
Your comment is a little confusing to me. As a Christian, I understand that I am depraved, not better than anyone. There is no arrogance in depravity. And recognizing the human heart as depraved and desperately wicked is not something unique to Christians, I would wager. You recognize it in the actions of the Holocaust and many many other historical events prior to this. We may be the only ones willing to admit it though. God has intervened in other historic events, but you would have to believe what the Bible says in order to believe that. For me to say, “God you should have…” only makes God a puppet on a string. And I don’t know about you, but I would not want a God that would do my will as opposed to His own. When you say “nothing to show”, you discount anyone’s testimony of a changed life as a direct result of accepting Jesus as their personal Savior. I’m afraid you cannot say that. You cannot argue with someone’s personal experience.
“embrace the self-hatred” I guess I don’t understand how realizing that I am a sinner and definitely not perfect is self-hating. How much more self love could I have for myself than wanting eternal life with the God who created me, I would guess during Neil’s time in Christianity he heard it said that God loves you and what better way to boost your self-worth than knowing the creator of the universe went to such great lengths to have a relationship with us. I would also ask Neil isn’t he doing the same thing as Pratt being condescending elder in the room sharing his wisdom with us.
Listened to the podcasts. Chuckling here, I’m still having some feelings, too! It’s all good, though. Listen to Pratt, “God loves you.” Tell Peaches not to apologize for her passion or for her feelings! They are useful tools for discernment. Unless of course she is prone to punch people in the nose, in which case, remind her that self control really is a fruit of the spirit. I’m just saying these ARE emotional issues. They’re supposed to be!I t would be weird if we were all very unemotional and Spock-like in the face of injustice of suffering.
I’m glad Neil is using his small platform to remind us that everyone (except Pratt) IS perfect just the way they are!
But Neil doesn’t think people are perfect. He says it in another article. Which raises a question that atheists never ask…but I intend to.
and I wonder what that question is.
It’s so good to know the leopard is still reading the blog…