Reality TV

I did theater in college, and the closest to a leading role I got was in a play by Moliere called Tartuffe. I played the titular Tartuffe, who was a terrible person. He pretended to be ultra-religious so a wealthy nobleman would basically let him live rent-free at his mansion. And the whole time, Tartuffe was trying to seduce his wife.

It is a classic tale of religious hypocrisy, one that sadly doesn’t feel outdated at all in our world of church scandals and hypocrisy today.

What’s fascinating to me is that the word hypocrite comes from the Greek word that means ‘actor’. Which makes a certain amount of sense, right? A hypocrite is a person playing a part. They’re two-faced.

We love great actors, but we hate great hypocrites.

Which is a funny thing – we love to see people pretend really well on film. We give awards every year to the people who did the best job convincing us they were someone else.

But in real life, hypocrisy is poison to relationships.

I want to explore what authenticity and genuine love look like in our relationships today. And we’re going to use Reality TV to get there. Why?

Well, for one thing, we’re going to be outside on Sunday. In the real world. And for another, the reality TV phenomenon blurs the lines between actors and real people – that’s the whole point. Reality TV works really hard to create the appearance of authenticity, but it’s as produced and scripted as any other show on TV.

Sounds like a lot of relationships we know, doesn’t it?

How can we reject shallow, performative relationships? How can we trade hypocrisy for authentic relationships?

Join us Sunday as we explore how to pursue authentic relationships that grow out of a life of faith.