Would John Wesley Watch “Law & Order?”

on January 6, 2014

Would John Wesley watch “Law & Order?” Once I Facebooked the question and a colleague cleverly responded: “Not SVU!” She was citing the series “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” which the producers originally wanted to title “Sex Crimes” until overruled by network censors.

Wesley like most evangelicals of his day would have disapproved of most if not all theatrical dramas. His rules for Methodists warned against “singing those songs, and reading those books, which do not tend to the knowledge or love of God.” However, at age 86, he did read the somewhat relatively racy memoir of infamous British actress Mrs. Bellamy, which he called a “very pretty trifle,” whose author had “total ignorance of God,” yet was a “fine and elegant writer.” Wesley sardonically noted of her potboiler: “Surely never did any since John Dryden study more ‘to make vice pleasing and damnation shine.'”

So no, Wesley likely wouldn’t have watched “Law & Order,” but plenty others have. Different series in the “Law & Order” family have broadcast over 20 years, making it one of the longest lasting, most successful programs in television history. A few years ago former President George H. W. Bush confessed to spending much of his time watching “Law & Order” reruns. There are hundreds and hundreds of hours, and they can be rhythmically addictive.

There is usually a moral architecture to all the variations of the series. It’s not plagued by lots of moral ambiguity. Police and prosecutors aim to catch, prosecute and incarcerate. Of course there’s political correctness and there are requisite swipes at conservatives and religious people. Amusingly, occasional villains are charismatic Religious Right leaders, who of course are very common and influential in Manhattan. One “SVU” detective is grudgingly portrayed as a pro-life Catholic. Each episode usually ends with some definitive justice against murderers and rapists, which is satisfying if not entirely true to life.

But a relatively new episode of “Law & Order: SVU” gave me pause last week. The female lead is Detective Olivia Benson, played for years by Jayne Mansfield’s daughter, Mariska Hargitay. She pursues a clever serial rapist and killer who has continuously evaded successful prosecution across the country. Even in Manhattan he defies justice, is freed, and turns on his pursuer, kidnapping Detective Benson, and driving her all over Long Island, helplessly duct tapped on the car floor, while he murders and rapes, warning her that she’s saved for last.

When her time comes, Benson predictably and superbly wiggles loose and repeatedly bludgeons her tormentor with a metal bar. Remarkably, he survives the countless bashes to his head, and Benson will have to testify against him. A preview of the next episode ( “Law & Order” doesn’t often “continue;” each episode usually stands alone.) indicates he will recover to robust vigor, yet again outwit prosecutors, and renew his unending crime spry, of course again targeting Benson.

No thanks. “Law & Order: SVU” should not resemble the absurdly interminable “Halloween” movies in which the indestructible serial killer “Michael Myers” survives countless barrages of police gunfire, car crashes, fires, and numerous blows to the head, seemingly never to meet justice.

This uncharacteristically unsatisfying episode of “Law & Order: SVU” echoes a bit of Process Theology, the school popularized by Methodist theologian John Cobb, which asserts God is constantly evolving but never complete. There is no Final Judgment because the divine is not omnipotent. Good and evil contend forever because God has no ultimate authority. Villainies collude and plot endlessly across time and space. Who can really oppose them? Unsurprisingly, the current head of the Center for Process Theology at Claremont School of Theology is a premier 9-11 conspiracy theorist, claiming the federal and New York governments blew up the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

In contrast to Process Theology, one of orthodox Christianity’s many mercies is its promise that all evil is finite, its emptiness ultimately enveloped by God’s overwhelming presence. Sin and horror have their day but never prevail. Even the most intelligently, talented wicked are mere mortals, with weaknesses, who will leave this world as do we all.

There is Final Judgment to be sure. But there is at least a partial reckoning in this world. Two of the great villains of the last century evaded formal justice yet hardly departed with a smirk. Hitler in his fetid bunker blew his brains out while listening to his enemies destroy his capital city up above. One enemy, the equally murderous Stalin, died alone, left paralyzed on a couch in his dacha, his pants wet, with staff and even doctors afraid to approach. Some accounts claim he ranted about wolves in his final moments. The tyrannies that Stalin and Hitler constructed, once so mighty, annihilating millions, stand no more.

The Christian revelation envisions completion for the whole cosmos, crowned by justice and mercy, evil enduring only for a time. Meaningful dramas in literature or television usually echo this vision. As Wesley would say, “Law & Order: SVU” may have sometimes made “vice pleasing and damnation shine.” But it almost always offered until recently some completed, plausible moral conclusion. Maybe Detective Benson will finally defeat her superman nemesis in the next episode. But I’ve lost interest in watching.

  1. Comment by Donnie on January 6, 2014 at 8:06 pm

    Very excellent post!

    I hate to be the horror movie geek, but Halloween’s villain is Michael Myers. Jason is from Friday the 13th.

  2. Comment by Janice on January 8, 2014 at 12:31 am

    I doubt seriously if John Wesley would even own a TV today. The commercials alone are now beyond the pale. I know my devout Christian mother wouldn’t own one were she alive today. As for Law & Order, I quit watching that show many years ago after tiring of all the liberal propaganda.

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