Punkin' for the Lord

Just a quick recommendation for all of you who may be looking for something different:

Check out One Punk Under God that the Sundance Channel is airing. It's six (half-hour) episodes long, and Sundance has run it through a few times, so you should be able to catch up on it quickly. One episode airs multiple times every week.

The show follows Jim (and Tammy Faye) Bakker's son, Jay, as he tries to reconnect with his dad, comfort his dying mom, goes through a crisis of conscience (which results in a crisis to his ministry), and agonizes whether it is time to pack up and move, so his wife can follow her dreams.

I wasn't really keen on watching this show. As you can surmise from my comments in previous posts, I don't "go to church", and, frankly, I have a lot of issues with organized religion (I don't think they're wrong for people as a whole; just wrong for me). I've spent many years really being disgusted with the innundation of Christianity that has been shoved down my throat by politicians and other heads of churches the past two decades.

But new media looks at religion by shows like Big Love (yeah, they're polygamists, but it was fascinating to see their love of God as an every day thing), The Book of Daniel (a very positive show that got the shaft from right-wing nutjobs who hadn't watched the damn thing), Joan of Arcadia (a sometimes overdone show, which had a great version of God as a character), and, yes, it's true: Real Time With Bill Maher (which had an episode that summed up my disgust with religion mixed with politics so perfectly, I was able to let go of the rage) gave me a new look at religion.

No, I didn't find God or anything, but I was able to be reminded that there are many more religious people out there in the world than the zealots that whine about anything rated above something a 7-year-old could watch, or say gays or single mothers or divored people are affronts to humanity, or politicians who say they prayed for guidance-- and then did the wrong thing.

Aaaaanyway, to get back on track (I did feel I needed to explain my background a little, though), One Punk gives us a look at a man who started a church (called Revolution) that meets in a bar, and has taken in many people whom other religions have left behind. Jay, himself, would probably be shunned (or given strange looks) at many churches because he's scraggly, he smokes, he's got tattoos all over his body, and he's got a few piercings to boot.

It was pretty inspiring to see the kind of church he built. I've long felt that the outdated views some religions have will ultimately be their undoing.

And to add to it, he's trying to reconnect with his father, and, throughout the six episodes, you really get a sense of how each views the other-- and I have to say what happens in the final episode couldn't have been better if it was written that way. He's also trying to comfort his terminally ill mother, and he lets the camera film how he deals with it. To see a woman who knows she is dying fight through it to spread her message as long as she can was pretty inspiring.

And, just as warning (because it could turn some people off), Jay felt that God spoke to him and said gay people are okay. So Jay gave a heartfelt sermon about how, maybe, it's wrong to discriminate. As you can imagine, his backers (who, oddly enough, are Christian Conservatives) pulled out, which sent his ministry in a tailspin.

That storyline right there (especially when he discusses the events with his father) sums up large religion for me. Jay went out on a limb by saying "the right thing", and forces conspired to shut him down. Because Jay doesn't pass the collection plate around at church, he really relies on his financial backers. I won't say what happens to him and the church, but I will say he stuck with his convictions which, in it's own way, is very heroic (and Jim comments about that in the finale).

Well, I certainly wrote more than I expected (and ended up saying very little), but if you're looking for a very well-done reality show (Jay really let us see into his life) or maybe to get a glimpse of an alternative religion, then check it out. It's a very honest look at one man's life. The ups and downs, triumphs and defeats.

I'm glad I took Entertainment Weekly's advice and watched it, and I really don't think you'll be disappointed if you watch it too.