We were recently encouraged to watch a TV series called "The Chosen". It's virtues were extolled to us as it's creator's past and the project's genesis was enthusiastically described. We began watching the program and immediately noticed very strong feminist messaging and at least a few flippant and irreverent lines that border on, if not achieve, full on blasphemy. At one point a character makes a joke about Jesus fixing the bad dancing of another disciple and Jesus replies with "There are some things that even I can't fix". The creator of the universe who makes the lame to walk is incapable of giving someone slightly improved coordination? Now, this line was intended to be a joke; and we overlooked it initially; but after everything else, we now see that this reveals how the writer views the Christ. There was another scene after the water into wine wedding miracle where someone asks Jesus if he can "do that to the well by my house". Not blasphemous; but certainly irreverent. Jesus didn't come to give you an endless supply of wine. Combine this with the fact that every male character is an overly emotional bumbling fool (which wouldn't be a problem if not for the following). While literally every single female character in the first handful of episode we watched that has any relatively significant amount of screen time is instinctively functioning with "Mary Sue" levels of insight, wisdom, spirituality, poise, grace, intelligence, faith, etc.

For instance, Simon's wife, after having just been told that Simon has been lying to her about basically everything in their lives and as a result they are going to lose their home and everything they have because they have insurmountable tax debts. Also, Simon has just defaulted on a deal he made with the Romans to betray his fellows Jews in a desperate attempt to cover those tax debts. So, the authorities are coming after him so hard, that he is not only going to lose everything; but the Roman named Quintus is almost certainly going to torture and murder him for not fulfilling his part of the deal (this character is well known for this). Oh, and all this comes out when Simon's wife's family asks if their mom (Simon's mother-in-law) can stay with them because she is gravely ill. Simon says no, she can't stay with them and then spills the beans on all of his treachery and deception. In that blow up argument, Simon storms out to "go fishing" in a feeble attempt to get the money he needs; a clearly foolish and impossible task. Well, the next morning when Simon comes home, he tells his wife (who hasn't seen him since this huge fight) that he has found the Messiah and is going to leave everything and follow Him. His wife has no idea who Jesus is and has never heard of Him. Keep in mind, there were numerous false Messiah characters in this area during the 1st century. That is well documented in both history and Scripture. So, this fact would have been common knowledge. Simon attempts to explain to his wife that he isn't crazy when she starts crying; but plot twist! She is crying tears of joy and proclaims that "this is the man I married". You guessed it, she instinctively knows that this random unknown itinerant preacher she has never met and that no one has heard of up until this point, is definitely the real Messiah. She has absolutely zero reason to trust her husband's judgement and would be an emotional wreck after having been left alone all night with the news of her mother's illness and her husband's treachery against their people to the Romans that will follow with his coming imprisonment and demise. You want your audience to believe that she is going to trust anything that this man thinks, says, or believes at this point? It strains credulity so far as to blast well into the realm of absurdity.

This level of immediate recognition of the truth by women characters who have had no prior knowledge or information about the Messiah is constant. Every male character is an emotional, doubting fool, even after having spent time with Jesus. Yet, every female character instantly knows that Jesus is the Messiah as soon as they lay eyes on Him; and in Simon's wife's case as soon as she even hears Simon mention that He exists without any real description whatsoever. Each of these women get special screen time, that is totally unprompted, to faithfully and firmly instruct the idiotic men around them to "follow and trust Him". They are given dramatic camera angles and emotional music to really lay on how wise and faithful they are. All while their husbands, sons, business partners etc. are behaving like a bunch of emotionally unstable children who have no idea what is going on around them. The writers really lay this on thick. It crosses well into the realm of insulting asininity. These women have no reason to have the knowledge they are miraculously gifted with. Even the very young woman who appears to be a business partner with Thomas. They are the wine providers to the famous wedding at Cana where Jesus performs His first miracle in this telling of the story. She even gets a chance to be the all wise instructor to Thomas, who is obviously a doubter by design, regarding following and trusting Jesus. And once again, you guessed it, she has absolutely no prior knowledge of or experience with Jesus nor any of His disciples. Everything the women are exposed to that would give them any idea that Jesus was the true Messiah, which in many cases is essentially nothing other than "there is a man named Jesus and we think He is the Messiah", is nothing compared to what the disciples witness first hand. Yet, the disciples have no idea what is going on and require constant direction and guidance from the women in their lives regarding trusting and following Him. Again, this is when we first see these women in some cases or when the women first get any information at all regarding Jesus' existence period. They have no experience nor first hand knowledge of Him. It's as if they were all given supernatural knowledge of who He is. Knowledge that God does not see fit to deliver to His chosen disciples. It is ridiculous how thick they lay this on and how repeatedly the writers bludgeon the audience over the head with this point.

This got so bad after our second night watching this that my wife arose early the next morning and began researching the company that created this and it's origins for herself. The following articles are what she discovered.

And unlike the women in The Chosen, she does have first hand knowledge of the Savior; and, as a result, her judgement actually can be trusted. Almost ironic...isn't it?