Yesterday, a few friends posted on Facebook a link to the story that a Christian group has cancelled a speaking engagement for some of the members of the cultural phenomenon known as Duck Dynasty. I commented that I had developed, over the past weeks, some concerns about the show. Apparently, I'm alone in this amongst my friends. So let me lay out here those concerns in order to open up the conversation.
First, let me confess: I came to the show only this year. Kendra had started watching, so I started watching. And, though it probably seems odd for an intellectual to claim: I love it. It's funny and well-produced. It's even largely a family-friendly show for cable tv fame.
That said, I've developed some critiques of it.
The largest -- and most serious to my mind -- involves the scandal of particularity. What's that? Let me illustrate. Like I said, I've watched nearly every episode. True, the stars of the show mentioned "God Almighty" a couple times and they weren’t swearing. I didn't hear the name of Jesus mentioned, but that could be the producers' fault. I've watched many supposedly Christian television shows that featured a lot of God-talk without any mention of Jesus. I assume television producers forbid it because it might offend someone or "turn off" some viewers (and their television sets). This is true for Duck Dynasty.
Lots of Christians seem comfortable talking about God, but get nervous when you give "God" enough content so as to get particular. Namely, Jesus. For the most part, we reward God talk in America. Hence the popularity of the show. It's heavy on the God talk and religious values. But light on specifics.
This cultural embrace of a kind of deistic Christianity (an oxymoron) has, I fear, bled into Christian churches. I have noticed a decline in the practice of praying "in the name of Jesus", singing about Jesus, preaching about Jesus, telling the "story of Jesus -- not just then but also now -- with us. To me, God is just a word. Until filled with some specific content I don't know who or what is being referred to.
The scandal of particularity is that God really (not just mythically) made the world his home through a specific woman in a specific man at a specific time. For Christians, it's impossible to talk about God without talking about Jesus. And here, the show has a serious deficit.
Take, for example, the prayers at the end of most shows. While I applaud the show for demonstrating a healthy family dynamic that allows them to be hospitable around a dinner table, those prayers aren't demonstrably Christian. So I find it hard to get excited about them.
There's an interconnected criticism here that is leading me up to my main complaint. That criticism is the show's blatant consumerism. I can't walk through WalMart or even Christian stores without all the baubles and trinkets for the show. There's a Duck Dynasty line of jerky and its own peanut butter cup candy. I have to wonder if this isn't demonstrating an idolatry of the heart (Ezekiel 14.3).
Which brings me to my over-arching criticism. The show presents a good life. But that good life isn't necessarily Christian. It's a cultural Christianity that still characterizes a good bit of America. To quote one country singer: "We say grace, we say ma'am, but if ya ain't into that, we don't give a damn". It's American culture that's sprinkled with some Christian flavoring.
Being a good ole boy who says a vague thanks to a vague deity isn't the same as being Christian. The specifics of historic Christian being don't enter into the show. But it has just enough to seem Christian.
"If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it's probably a duck." Same goes for Duck Dynasty. It looks more American than Christian. And as I've said here before, those are two different critters.