The New York Times says the best show on TV is Dexter. Typical. All the best shows (in the world's eyes) box God out. Dexter is a Showtime series based on the Fraud of Freud. The premise (of the first season) is that two little boys witness the chainsaw death of their mother, and then are left in two inches of blood in a cargo container for two days. The first policeman on the scene adopts the youngest boy, three year-old Dexter. The other child is never adopted and left to rot in foster care and psych wards.
So the older child develops into a psychopathic serial killer, while Dexter works for Miami police as a blood splatter specialist. Oh he also kills, drains blood, and keeps their specimens on slides. However (and this is a big difference in the world's eyes), he only kills those who deserve it.
The Fraud of Freud says that these adults act according to childhood trauma. But the one is adopted into a loving family, and taught a "code" by his adoptive father. His serial-killer tendencies are channeled into becoming a hero, because he only "puts down" the really bad guys. The other child grows up to kill without reason or regret.
What a simple explanation! It ties up loose ends how we like them. When we hear about some heinous murder on the news we ask, "How could somebody do that?" But this show comforts us by boxing God out so that the answer cannot be "for all have sinned...ye are of your father the Devil." Freud's psychoanalytical method of examining the "subconscious" says the answer is the thing(remembered or not) that impacted you as a child. Examine the Fraud of Freud.
1. Freud says you are sick and therefore not responsible, while God says you are a sinner and therefore sick
You don’t get depressed because your momma made you eat black eyed peas. You get depressed because you've been drinking, and alcohol is a brain depressant. So if you want to look for something else to blame for your problems, you need to remember to blame the conditions that you control. We are all sinners in need of God’s grace, but
2. Freud says you need psychotherapy, while God says you need to repent
And I know you don’t like that, because what you want to do is talk about it but not be about it. Oh, you say you want "change you can believe in," but you are not willing to change your mind, your heart and your attitude so that you can believe in change! See,
3. Freud says to diagnose your problem by looking within, and find the solution to your problem by looking outside to a therapist, while God says the diagnosis of your problem is found outside of you in your Bible, and the solution to your problem is made by changing those things within
How’d you miss that, all these years? You need to look outside of you to find the diagnosis, because the Bible is an owner's manual on the human life. The only people that don’t recognize that are Oprah and Eckhart. But once you get the diagnosis from Bible principles, you have to apply those principles within you as your prescription. Oh, I’m going to help somebody out, because
4. Freud says never preach or moralize because you will get guilt, while God says, preach, reprove, rebuke and exhort because what you need to get is forgiveness!
Dexter gives a simplistic explanation for evil in people. And it's an incorrect one because it ignores the sin within all of us, factory-equipped at birth.
Where is the preacher on that show? Nobody is destined to become a serial killer because of what they witness as a child (no mater how traumatizing it is). And anyone, even a preacher or preacher's kid, can turn out to be a murderer if they get far enough away from their Bible.
Oh, I almost forgot. Every really popular show wraps itself around a grain of truth. Dexter gets it right when it says that obedience to the right code can change your character, behavior, and ultimately your destiny.
