By: Brian G. Chilton | November 26, 2019
Being from Mount Airy, North Carolina (the home of Andy Griffith), it is a given that one of my all-time favorite shows on television is the Andy Griffith Show. That’s like an unwritten law in this area. But another one of my all-time favorite television shows is from the same era, but it did not originate from the same area or even the same genre. I am speaking of the show known as the Twilight Zone. Rod Serling was one of the writers and the affable host of the show, always carrying a lit cigarette, an ever so casual smirk while introducing episodes which were often loaded with heavy philosophical and sociological themes. The aspect that made The Twilight Zone so fascinating was the ironic twist afforded at the end. The story made one think in one direction while the reality was presented in another.
An episode of great interest is the show entitled The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. The story tells of one small midwestern community that seemingly lives in harmony until strange phenomena occur on an ordinary summer evening. Automobiles turn on and off at will. Lights flash in homes. Finally, the community loses its power which causes great anxiety. Concerned that they were being invaded, they began to accuse one another of being an extraterrestrial due to their eccentricities. One resident named Charlie Farnsworth holds that his neighbor Les Goodman must be an alien because of all the time he spends standing outside at night looking at the stars. Les defends himself by noting that he suffers from insomnia and enjoys looking at the night sky. Les’s case does not become any better when he successfully starts his car. He’s the only person on the street who could. Charlie increasingly accuses Les of being an outsider afterward, even though Les had been a resident in the community for over five years.
Steve Brand tries to defuse Charlie’s accusations against Les. He warns the people that they are falling into paranoia and will eventually create a mob scene if they weren’t careful. At this time, Don Martin accuses Charlie of being an extraterrestrial invader because Charlie built a ham radio which no one had been allowed to see.
After the community lost power, Peter Van Horn, a resident of Maple Street, decides to walk over to Floral Street to see if the residents there were experiencing the same oddities that they were. As he returns to the street, all the residents of Maple Street can see is a shadowy figure approaching them. Panic-stricken, Charlie grabs his shotgun and blasts the shadowy figure who was Peter Van Horn. Charlie is distraught that he had just murdered his neighbor. The residents hold that Peter must have found evidence that Charlie was an alien.
By this time, the residents’ fear is at a fevered pitch. They begin to cast blame on each other before physically attacking one another. The lights flashing in the house only stirs them to greater violence towards one another. The people were caught up in their paranoia that they had forgotten that they were people, neighbors, and friends.
The scene cuts to a nearby hillside where real extraterrestrials were watching from afar. They noted that by creating a little bit of fear, they could invade every town on planet Earth. The aliens would need to do nothing more than to perform a few parlor tricks. Then, the people would destroy themselves without any physical action on their part. The episode ends with one alien saying to the other, “The world is full of Maple Streets. And we shall go to them and let them destroy themselves, one to other, one to the other, one to the other.”
Serling ends the episode with these words, “The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy and for a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.”
Modern American Christianity greatly resembles Maple Street. Christians seem to fear that their rights are being taken away. Modern American Christianity has become so involved with politics on both sides of the aisle that people, good people, find themselves attacking other people out of suspicion and fear. The entire debacle with Chick-fil-A is an example of the mentality. A restaurant that had once been proclaimed to serve “heaven’s chicken” was now propagated as a heretical tool of the devil.
It doesn’t end there. People, good people, launch attacks against their own. Karen Swallow Prior recently left my alma mater, Liberty University, for Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. I have been ashamed of some of the things that people have said. While I have never met Prior personally, she doesn’t strike me as the “flaming liberal” that some have accused her of being. Dr. Daniel Akin, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, said much the same. Jerry Falwell, Jr., President of Liberty University, said nothing but complimentary things of Prior even though they held a few differing political views.
This is not unique. In the world of apologetics, modern theologians and apologists often berate one another instead of presenting their differences with professional, intellectual decorum. Granted, we are not burning one another at the stake, at least. Nevertheless, we have major problems, my friends. Major problems! In the words of Les Goodman of the Twilight Zone episode, “You are letting something happen here … that is a nightmare!” We are in the mindset of the Israelites in the wilderness, devouring our leaders and friends (Numbers 20).
What is the solution? It’s simple. Go back to 1 Corinthians 13. Yes, some will call me a sentimental old fool. But I am foolish enough to believe that the words of God are just as applicable today as they were when they were written. Paul says that love is “patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor. 13:4–6, CSB). Jesus loved all people no matter their affiliation or mindset. Yes, he stood uncompromisingly for truth. But he was a man of great love! We can have all the intelligence and all of the insight in the world. But if we do not have love, it amounts to nothing.
About the Author
Brian G. Chilton is the founder of BellatorChristi.com, the host of The Bellator Christi Podcast, and the author of The Layman’s Manual on Christian Apologetics. He received his Master of Divinity in Theology from Liberty University (with high distinction); his Bachelor of Science in Religious Studies and Philosophy from Gardner-Webb University (with honors); and received certification in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Brian is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Theology and Apologetics at Liberty University and is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Brian has been in the ministry for nearly 20 years and serves as the Senior Pastor of Westfield Baptist Church in northwestern North Carolina.
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