Speaking in a recent video, Alan Ritchson, the star of Amazon Prime’s hit “Reacher” series, discussed why he finds criticism of the show’s moral framework to be wrongheaded. Further, he noted how the questions presented by plotlines in it help him introduce viewers to God and Christian morality in a unique and potentially more efficacious way.
As background, the series is about a former military officer who has to deal with cops, politicians, and corrupt businessmen after being arrested for a murder he did not commit. In the show, numerous moral grey areas come up, and Jack Reacher must respond to them in equally morally ambiguous ways.
That sense of moral ambiguity troubled some Christians, who then took to criticizing Ritchson, a Christian, for playing Reacher. He addressed their criticisms and explained the benefits of the character in a powerful video about faith and how he thinks Christians need to act if they want to win over converts through the popular culture.
Speaking about the Jack Reacher character and why he finds playing Reacher so engaging, Ritchson said, “I love playing Reacher. I love telling this story. I love playing a character who creates a kind of moral ambiguity that we should struggle against as we consider whether or not what he’s doing is good all the time or morally right.”
Continuing, he pushed back on the criticism he has faced for playing the character, joking about how boring a show without any moral grey areas would be. He said, “But it’s funny to me how a lot of people criticize me, supposed Christians especially, criticize me for playing Reacher. As if the only TV that should exist is seeing people silently folding their hands in the pew of a church. I mean, what kind of stories are we supposed to tell?”
Then Ritchson turned to Scripture itself to contrast the views of some that TV should have no grey areas with what is in God’s word. He noted that “If you look at scripture, what do you find? You see 1000 years of an infant that we hold all we got holding tension with human beings, as he tells the story of who he is, reveals who he is through an imperfect people. So we get stories, we get stories of a paganism in a war and bloodshed and ghost stories, mysticism, we see a miracles and magic and we see life and resurrection and death.”
He also noted that, like “Reacher” there are “morally ambiguous” people in the Bible, and that they often help reveal God’s plan or further the faith. He said, “We see this incredible canvas where God is completely unafraid to tell the story of who He is through less than morally ambiguous characters, through pure evil sometimes.”
Then, explaining how he thinks “Reacher” helps him spread the faith, Ritchson said that he thinks the moral questions presented by it might help “reach people who maybe don’t think about these things all the time.” As he put it, “I don’t think God cares about only telling those kinds of stories, I think, we can start conversations. And we can reach people through these mediums in a way that I think God enjoys. And so here we are now, where we can get to the heart of the matter, where God has built a platform because of the show for me where I can reach people who maybe don’t think about these things all the time. And maybe maybe, for those who are struggling or feel lost, or want to try something new. If they can find something that brings them hope, like my faith has mine.”
Posting the video on Instagram, Ritchson said, “As an outspoken person of faith, I’ve been getting a lot of criticism from “Christians” who believe I can only be one if I play saints in saintly projects. This is a tip-of-the-iceberg look into that topic.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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