Three Insidious Lies of 13 Reasons Why

Late one afternoon, I received a call from my mother-in-law telling me that the police had found one of our mutual friends lying dead in a locked bathroom from an overdose. My heart sunk as I just sat there shaking my head, not really knowing what to say. 

Just a couple of days before, I had spoken with the young man, pleading with him to not go back home to the state where his relatives were. I reminded him of the basic lessons he had learned during his numerous stints in rehab, and to stay away from the people, places and things that triggered his desire to relapse. After praying with him, he assured me he would remain here in town.

Though he had been unsuccessful at taking his life in the past, the next night would be his last.

Suicides are devastatingly tragic and traumatic events. One of the most horrifying statistics associated with suicide is that, according to the CDC, it is the second leading cause of death among persons aged 10-24 years old. So, when I heard that there was a new Netflix show called 13 Reasons Why that graphically depicted a high school girl slitting her wrists, my blood began to boil.

My wife and I decided to watch the show together, and after only 15 minutes or so, I asked her to pause it so I could rant about how dangerous this show would be to many viewers. By the end of the last episode, I had made a mental list of several insidious deceptions that were shrewdly woven into the fabric of the show. But to keep this blog to a reasonable length, I’m just going to highlight three of those areas for you.

Insidious Lie #1: God Is Absent.

For a show that is predominantly centered around the subject of death, I found it quite eye-opening that God was completely written out of 13 Reasons Why. Well, I shouldn’t say completely. The names God and Jesus were used quite extensively, yet only as curse words. However, there were no discussions of God in relation to the afterlife (or even mention of an afterlife at all for that matter).

13 Reasons Why puts the secular humanist worldview on full display. Because God doesn’t factor into a secular humanist’s worldview, “mankind is the ultimate norm by which truth and values are to be determined. … All reality and life center upon human beings.” Basically, humans get to act as if they are God.

The worship and exaltation of ourselves above God is the chief sin listed in Romans 1, and, as the Apostle Paul explains, when we try to play God we bring much chaos upon ourselves and others. Though the writers and producers of 13 Reasons Why surely didn’t intend to do so, by writing God out of the script and repeatedly blaspheming His name, they ended up proving that God remains true though every man be a liar. We can try with all our might to suppress the truth of God, but He was, He is and He will always be whether we acknowledge Him now or later.

Insidious Lie #2: Truth is relative.

Tracking right along with the secular humanist rejection of God is the adoption of moral relativism. Basically, they believe that truth is relative to each individual, since each individual can act as his or her own god and standard bearer. 13 Reasons Why repeatedly puts forth this worldview with statements suggesting that we all have to discover and live out our own personal truths.

One of the most glaring fallacies with moral relativism is that no one actually lives that way. We may like the thought of truth and morality being flexible, but the reality is that we all have rigid ethics that we expect others to abide by. 13 Reasons Why shows itself guilty of this hypocrisy in one of the most fundamental aspects of the show.

13 Reasons Why is basically a story about various forms and consequences of bullying. Clearly, one moral of the story the writers and producers want to get across is that bullying is bad. But wait, if truth is relative, what is bad anyway? And, what if a bully decided that his truth is that raping multiple girls for pleasure’s sake is good?

What gives 13 Reasons Why the right to make a rapist a villain if truth itself is up for grabs? If God doesn’t exist, why not live solely for pleasure, even if comes at the expense of others? If God doesn’t exist, there is no ultimate judgment, there is only right now. So why not make our own personal pleasure the standard of good and bad?

Conversely, the Bible relentlessly declares the veracity of God’s absolute truth. That’s ultimately how we know bullying is wrong. That’s ultimately how we know rape is wrong. That’s ultimately how we know murder in all its forms is wrong. The Scriptures reveal the definitive dividing line between truth and error, for Jesus said that everyone who is on the side of truth listens to Him.

Finally, Insidious Lie #3: Suicide Increases Your Level of Control.

As much as 13 Reasons Why is a show about bullying, it is also a show about control. The lead character, Hannah Baker, felt her life had spiraled completely out of control because of the bullying and controlling actions of others. So, she attempted to regain control by ending her life. Also, before she slit her wrists, she made a series of tapes for 13 people detailing the 13 reasons why they were to blame for her suicide. She hoped that she would be able to control them from the grave, and in this fictional show, she played them like puppets.

But that is not how things work in the real world.

In the real world, even when we’re alive we cannot control the way others grieve a loss. We cannot make others feel guilt or remorse. We cannot make others repent. So, it doesn’t make sense that dying would suddenly cause people to do what we want.

Dying is not a means of regaining control. It is a complete relinquishing of control. When we stand before the Almighty Judge of all the earth, do we really think we will have the freedom to do as we please?

Death is not the end; it is the beginning of the rest of our lives with either Jesus in Paradise, or apart from Him in a hellish domain. There’s no more freedom to choose. Where we spend eternity is based on what we did with Jesus while we were still on earth. The early Christians all testified of this truth.

He … will examine all things, and will judge with righteous judgment, rendering merited awards to each. To those who seek immortality by patient endurance in well-doing. He will give life everlasting, joy, peace, rest, and an abundance of good things, which neither hath eye seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. To the unbelieving and despisers who do not obey the truth, but are obedient to unrighteousness, when they will have been filled with adulteries and fornications, and filthiness … there will be anger and wrath. … At the end, everlasting fire will possess such men. – Theophilus 180CE, ANF Volume 2, p. 143 [CD-ROM]

The truth is: The Lord Jesus came into the world as a baby, faithfully lived each moment according to the will of His Father, died for our sins on the cross, rose from the dead on the third day, and is now exalted at God’s right hand. He is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. The question is: Have you surrendered control of your life to Him?

The Unlikely Apostle Pt. 2: “… Men Who Suppress the Truth…”

The end of World War II brought about the beginning of the postmodern era.  Two atomic bombs dropped upon Japan served to bring great fear into the hearts of human beings worldwide as speculation of apocalyptic times on the horizon grew. To combat this worldwide anxiety, people began spreading the message of peace, love, and acceptance of all races, religions, and cultures.

A stark change from the pre-modern and modern eras, postmodernism declares that there are no absolute truths, and neither religion nor science can determine the right way to live. The vast uncertainty of meaning in life has left people believing in few authorities, with perhaps the most influential of these being oneself. Naturally, this philosophical worldview has led to a culture of narcissism where people are chiefly concerned with gratifying their own perceived needs and wants ahead of anyone else’s…. all in the name of living out their personal truths.

Here’s an example:

A woman named Glennon Doyle Melton, also known as the Christian Mom Blogger, announced a few days ago that she is in a romantic relationship with U. S. women’s soccer star, Abby Wambach. This news comes on the heels of Melton’s statement that she and her husband had separated after his affair. Melton writes candidly about her joys and struggles, and has openly shared about her battles with addiction and an eating disorder.

While I cannot empathize with her in the area of her eating disorder, I have experienced the brutal psychological, emotional, physical and spiritual chains of addiction. One thing that I have learned through years and years of counseling is that people like me who are prone to addiction are pleasure centered. We tend to determine something’s truth and value by how much pleasure it will bring us. It’s very postmodern.

Though I don’t know Melton personally, I can sense this same pleasure-filtering approach to truth in several of the statements she has made about her decision to engage in a lesbian relationship.

“I want you to grow so comfortable in your own being, your own skin, your own knowing - that you become more interested in your own joy and freedom and integrity than in what others think about you. I want you to refuse to betray yourself. Not just for you. For ALL OF US. Because what the world needs -- in order to grow, in order to relax, in order to find peace, in order to become brave -- is to watch one woman at a time live her truth without asking for permission or offering explanation. The most revolutionary thing a woman can do is not explain herself. What I need you to know- and what I know you need to know- is that I am deeply, finally, FINE. Fine through my bones and soul and mind and just every fiber of me. You have the room to feel and react with your truth….because I am so unshakably certain inside of mine. I have officially become a woman who knows who she is and refuses to betray herself. So anyway. What I’m trying to say is. PRECIOUS WORLD: I LOVE ABBY. Love Wins. G”

Notice how Melton approaches truth in this quote. You have your truth and she has hers. Her husband’s truth was having an affair. Her truth is engaging in homosexuality. I’m not sure what their kids’ truths will be. But the only way we as human beings can be at peace, both individually and collectively, is if we all live out our individual truths without explanation or apology. So says Melton.

There are many problems with this line of thinking, but I’ll just point out a few. First, I promise you that Melton doesn’t really want people to adopt her worldview. Do you think she really wants child predators or other violent criminals to live out their truths with joy and integrity, only seeking to do what they love without offering explanation? Do you think she really wants her new girlfriend to cheat on her, just because she feels the urge and wants to stay true to herself?

Second, how do we find solid footing for discussion and discipleship when asserted truths contradict each other? Can Jesus be a false messiah and also the one true Messiah? Can Jesus never have existed and also have been born in Bethlehem? Can Jesus be the way, the truth and the life and also not the way, the truth and the life?

Third, the main problem with her approach toward truth is that it is completely out of line with the Scriptures. I could go into a lengthy explanation starting in Genesis, working my way to the Gospels, and closing in Revelation to make this point, but let it suffice to say that nowhere in the Bible does God bless homosexual relationships of any sort. In fact, every time a homosexual relationship of any sort is mentioned in the Bible, it is expressly spoken against.

The issue of homosexuality is, biblically speaking, similar to the subject of idolatry. Idolatry has always been condemned. Yet, as the people of God became more intertwined with the unbelieving culture, they began to view idolatry as less and less of a big deal until it became normative in Israel. Even though they knew the truth, they suppressed and twisted the truth to suit their own desires. What followed, however, was always wrath.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. … For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. – Romans 1:18, 25

We of the postmodern generation have lived out Romans 1. We have known the truth, but have suppressed it and exchanged it for a lie. We have exchanged the fact that Jesus is the revealer of truth for the lie that we are the revealers of truth. And in doing so, we have become worshippers of ourselves rather than worshippers of God.

We need to pray for Glennon Doyle Melton and her family. Also, we need to pray for ourselves. We are products of the same culture and are prone to viewing truth through the same lens, whether we realize it or not. 

So may we repent of this blasphemy. May we repent of the exaltation of ourselves. May we love God’s truth and obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The apostle … says: “For the wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those men who hold back the truth in unrighteousness.” … So the apostle says … in the Epistle to the Thessalonians: “Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, at the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with His mighty angels, and in a flame of fire, to take vengeance upon those who know not God, and upon those that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Irenaeus 180CE, Volume 1, p. 838 [CD-ROM]

How to Become a Holy Beggar

How tenaciously do you seek God for all He is willing to give you?

Every morning after I feed my dogs, Zeke and Vida, it begins. Vida, my Boxer-Shepherd mix, begins giving me "the eye” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6P7TLzm6k0). You see, she is not satisfied with merely consuming her breakfast. She wants her Glucosamine pill and multivitamin as well, and she will not stop sheep-dogging me until she gets them.

Zeke, my big and goofy Airedale, could take them or leave them. After breakfast, he usually just gets his 80lb self into my recliner and chills out. I’m sure Vida thinks he’s ridiculous for not being as persistent as she is to receive the supplements that could be theirs.

A couple Sundays ago while my church was seeking God and waiting on Him, I saw a picture in my mind of Vida giving me “the eye”. Then, I felt God ask me if I wanted to be like Vida or like Zeke. He said there is so much He wants to give me of Himself. But then He asked if I really want all He has to offer. Will I have a “take it or leave it” approach, or will I keep on giving Him “the eye” until He gives me His supplements?

Now, I understand how all that supplement talk may sound weird to you, but please hang with me for a minute. There were two verses God was calling me to dwell on that I’d like for you to consider. The first is 1 Corinthians 12:31, where Paul writes, “But earnestly desire the greater gifts.” The second is 1 Corinthians 14:1, where we are told, “Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” These are commands God has given to every Christian.

If you’ve read those commands before, how have you been treating them? Are you earnestly desiring the greater gifts? Are you earnestly desiring all the spiritual gifts, especially prophecy? Or, have you been satisfied with just being sealed with the Holy Spirit, or only having one spiritual gift?

Remember, God has given the spiritual gifts for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7). Often, spiritual gifts will give credibility to the message of the Gospel to non-Christians (see Mark 2:1-12; Acts 3:1 - 4:4). Sometimes, as James 4:2 says, we simply have not because we ask not. Indeed, it may be that our non-Christian friends, family members, co-workers, and neighbors have not come to know God yet because we have not tenaciously asked for this fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Why tenaciously? Because that’s how Jesus says we are to pray. Additionally, tenacious prayer is actually one definition Jesus gives for faith (Luke 18:1-8); and faith moves mountains. 

Jesus tells us to ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking, because people who pray tenaciously like that for the Holy Spirit receive Him (Luke 11:1, 5-13). So may you ask for Him and receive Him that way.

It’s amazing the things God can teach a man through his dog. But you know, maybe that shouldn’t surprise me. 3^rd century bishop, Novation, rightly paraphrased Paul's words in Romans 1, that God is constantly speaking to us through His creation. So may we have eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that receive this lesson on how to be holy beggars!

Since by the gaze of our eyes we cannot see Him, we rightly learn of Him from the greatness, and the power, and the majesty of His works. “For the invisible things of Him,” says the Apostle Paul,” from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by those things which are made, even His eternal power and godhead.” – Novatian 235CE, Volume 5, p. 1076 [CD-ROM]

Justin Martyr on Christians and Pre-Marital Sex in 160CE

We ought not, therefore, as that presbyter remarks, to be puffed up, nor be severe upon those of old time, but ought ourselves to fear, lest perchance, after [we have come to] the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of sins, but be shut out from His kingdom. And therefore it was that Paul said, “For if [God] did not spare the natural branches, [take heed] lest He also not spare you, who, when you were a wild olive tree, were grafted into the fatness of the olive tree, and were made a partaker of its fatness.”

You will notice, too, that the transgressions of the common people have been described in like manner, not for the sake of those who did then transgress, but as a means of instruction for us, and that we should understand that it is one and the same God against whom these men sinned, and against whom certain persons do now transgress from among those who profess to have believed in Him. But this also, [as the presbyter states,] has Paul declared most plainly in the Epistle to the Corinthians, when he says, “Brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant, how all our fathers were under the cloud, and were all baptized unto Moses in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual meat, and all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

These things were for our example, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted; do not be idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them also did, and twenty three thousand fell in one day. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents. Neither murmur, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. But all these things happened to them in a figure, and were written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the world is come. Therefore, let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.”

As then the unrighteous, the idolaters, and fornicators perished, so also is it now: for both the Lord declares, that such persons are sent into eternal fire; and the apostle says, “Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” And as it was not to those who are without that he said these things, but to us, lest we should be cast forth from the kingdom of God, by doing any such thing, he proceeds to say, “And such were you; but you are washed, but you are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.” …

And as then the condemnation of sinners extended to others who approved of them, and joined in their society; so also is it the case at present, that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” And as the wrath of God did then descend upon the unrighteous, here also does the apostle likewise say: “For the wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those men who hold back the truth in unrighteousness.” …

So says the apostle, in like manner, in the Epistle to the Thessalonians: “Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, at the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with His mighty angels, and in a flame of fire, to take vengeance upon those who do not know God, and upon those that do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them who have believed in Him.”