Two and a Half Men star calls his show filth

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Two and a Half Men star calls his show filth

November 28, 2012 -

{source}
<iframe style=”float: left; border: 1px solid #000000; background-color: #C0C0C0; padding: 2px; margin: 10px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; -khtml-border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; border-radius: 3px;” width=”400″ height=”225″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/KTju7uI8-1o?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>{/source}Nineteen-year-old actor Angus T. Jones stars as Jake Harper in the CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men.” His show is the third most popular comedy on television, with 14.5 million viewers each week.  He has been on the show since he was 10 years old and makes $350,000 per episode.  Now he’s making headlines with the release of a video in which he calls his show “filth” and says that people should stop watching it.

Some wonder if his video is a hoax, or if he’s angry about reduced screentime in recent shows and is trying to get out of his contract.  The minister who interviewed Jones calls him a “noble young man,” but some think he’s exploiting the actorStill others call Jones a hypocrite for receiving his salary and staying on the show.  Which opinion is right?  The question is more urgent than you may think.

Here’s how Jones tells his faith story: “I have always gone to a Christian school since I was in kindergarten, but my faith was basically non-existent. . . . Two or three years ago my parents started having marital issues and started to go through the process of getting a divorce.  At the time I also started dating this girl and when I look back now I see that as a time when the enemy was trying to push me in that direction, but God knew he was going to pull me out at the last second.”  He says that “right then this cleansing phenomenon and presence came into me . . . I felt like I had just accepted God.”

Now comes the comments that have created the controversy: “Please stop watching Two and a Half Men.  I’m on Two and a Half Men, and I don’t want to be on it. . . . Please stop filling your head with filth. . . . It’s bad news.  I don’t know if it means any more, coming from me, but you might not have heard it otherwise.  So just watch out.”  Will he resign from the show?  “I am under contract for another year so it is not too much of a decision on my part.  I know God has me there for a reason for another year.”

His situation is not unique: a person whose growing faith conflicts with his or her job.  Not long ago a friend in the construction business told me that his company had just been hired to built a mosque; should he work on the project or leave his job?  There are very few professions without moral dilemmas for sincere Christians.  If we stay, are we condoning what we should condemn?  If we quit, does our witness leave with us?

As the “salt of the earth,” we must leave the saltshaker and contact the culture (Matthew 5:13).  We are commissioned to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), attacking the “gates of Hades” with the good news of God’s love (Matthew 16:18).  We should seek to say with Paul, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).

In light of these biblical imperatives, what should Angus Jones do?  How can Christians engage a fallen culture without endorsing sin?  Please share your thoughts on our website.  And know that I’m grateful for your perceptive and wise comments in response to yesterday’s Cultural Commentary.  I read them with appreciation—it is a privilege to share this Forum with you.

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