Theology of Grey's Anatomy

I was watching Grey's and it just struck me how the media is feeding all these poor principles in life, if not poor theology. I never criticized a tv series because I usually just watch and enjoy them. Never letting it bother or affect my emotions, perspective in life or things like that. But in reality, and psychological and sociological studies prove, TV series really affect us. So, what are some of these poor principles in life - poor theologies that they offer? This week's episode on Grey was talking about forgiveness. I was agreeing at first with their idea about forgiveness, that if someone commit a mistake then you forgive. She was almost making sense to me when she explained that in life you are going to get hurt and there is only one thing to be done, forgive. Then she concluded in the end that to forgive and forget... the advice we usually get, is good but not practical. Now, I thought about that for a moment and asked when was forgiving a practical matter? Then I realized that for non-Christians they thought it was a choice they had to make. It's either they forgive or not. That's one problematic view media is giving. But for us Christians, we are commanded to forgive. We are told to forgive our brothers and sisters as many times as they did us wrong. That is what is commanded of us, not merely suggested for us to do. It is important to note however, that we can forgive because we never hate the person.

We hate the wrong act committed against us, but never the person. This is an important thing to consider. I realized this when Grey continued in her explanation "When someone hurts us we want to hurt them back. When someone wrongs us, we want to be right." Grey's perspective suggest that we want to exact vengeance to another person and want to hurt them too. Why? Because her non-Christian anthropological understanding of humanity did not separate "action" from the humanity of the person. Of course, the act was done by the person but we must understand why. The wrong done by the person is a product of a sinful state. But all humanity is originally good. If we never separate the wrong act by a person then we will never see the goodness inate in them. We will always see the wrong done to us. And we will never learn to forgive another person.

But Grey redeemed herself by concluding that "without forgiveness, old wounds never heal. Without forgiveness, old scores are never settled. And the most we can hope for is that someday... well be lucky enough to forget." She is right. Without forgiving someone, the hurt is not healed and restored. But here, Grey is suggesting that if we cannot forgive then we could only hope to forget the pain caused to us. She may be right, that we might be able to forget the wrong done to us. But forgetting does not mean that the hurt done is healed, that the pain is eased or that the broken relationship was restored. Forgiveness still needs to be done. Even after years of forgetting, it is only by forgiving that all the hurt and brokenness is healed and restored. It is only by forgiving that we can truly forget.