When Hallmark Is a Hallmark of Sin
The Hallmark Channel advertises itself with taglines like Where Great Stories Come to Life and The Heart of TV. 
I don’t watch Hallmark a great deal—partly because I don’t watch a lot of TV and partly because a lot of Hallmark’s shows are a tad sappy-happy. In other words, not a lot of depth in terms of storyline or character development.
However, when I saw ads for their new series, Cedar Cove, I was interested mainly because of the main character, Andie MacDowell. I remembered her from her co-starring role with Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day. I also was interested because Cedar Cove is set in a fictional town near Seattle where our non-fictional son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter live. 
So, Shirley and I have watched a few episodes of Cedar Cove which is based upon a series of books by Debbie Macomber. It’s still sappy.
Sappy and Godless
But it’s also something else—godless and without marital, sexual morals.
In numerous episodes, I’ve yet to hear God, Christ, church, or the Bible reference once. That’s not all that surprising on TV…but this is Hallmark…
In numerous episodes, unmarried people live together. In fact, the entire series is about a series of developing relationships between unmarried consenting adults who clearly either have had sex together or will have sex together before they marry.
Now, because it’s Hallmark, there are no lewd sex scenes.
But how do we define “lewd” biblically?
Here is the most wholesome channel on television (other than, I suppose, a Christian network), and sex outside of marriage is not even given an afterthought. And God is not even given a thought.
Once Upon a Time
Once upon a time in TV land, married couples like Rob and Laura Petrie and Lucy and Desi slept in separate beds—as married couples. That in itself could be a blog post—why would that be the case when Hebrews tells us that the marital bed is pure? But…as I said…that’s another blog post for another day…
And, yes, I remember that Groundhog Day ended with Bill Murray and Andie Macomber’s characters—an unmarried couple—in bed together. That was clearly no better in terms of biblical sexual morality, but perhaps at least a tad more expected due to it being typical Hollywood movie fare.
Where Have We Come?
But where have we come as a society where Hallmark—The Heart of TV—is depicting the human heart where God is irrelevant and sex before marriage is the norm?
Where have we come as a society where the channel Where Great Stories Come to Life totally ignores the Greatest Story Ever Told?
And where have I come as a Christian if I can watch all of this and not be bothered? Well, I’m bothered, and I’m not watching it anymore.
And, yes, I understand that the Bible depicts stories with sex outside of marriage. But it does so within the framework of sexual morality and consequences. It does so within the framework of a God-centered world and a cross-shaped worldview.
It’s not that my eyes can’t imagine sin. It’s that my eyes should never imagine sin apart from a moral universe that is God-centered and cross-shaped.
The Essence of Sin and the Essence of Grace
The essence of sin is leaving Christ out of the picture. It all started in the Garden of Eden where we decided that we could decide our own view of good and evil.
Christ came to another garden—the Garden of Gethsemane—showing us that it’s not our will, but God’s will, and way, and wisdom that must be done, followed, and believed.
Christ went to the cross and rose again—showing us the magnitude of the penalty for sin and showing us the magnitude of God’s forgiving, cleansing grace.
Join the Conversation
Where have we come as a society where Hallmark—The Heart of TV—is depicting the human heart where God is irrelevant and sex before marriage is the norm?
Where have we come as a society where the channel Where Great Stories Come to Life totally ignores the Greatest Story Ever Told?
RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth
