The Ottery
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What Does It Take to Get Me to Watch a Reality TV Show? Monks!

October 26th, 2006

Last Sunday night, The Learning Channel aired the first episode of its five-part series “The Monastery” (on at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time). Filmed at the Monastery of Christ in the Desert in northern New Mexico, the show follows five “seeker” men as they spend 40 days and 40 nights with the Benedictine monks. The men are not seeking to become monks; rather, they are there to wrestle with their questions about God and faith.

You can read full profiles of the seekers and of some of the monks (side note: it annoys me how the series and the web site refer to the two groups as “men” and “monks,” as if the monks aren’t also men—thus, I’m going to call them “seekers”) on the series’ web site, but I’ll give a brief introduction here.

(1) Warren, age 24, is a former Satanist, now an Episcopalian. He believes he has been called to be an Episcopal priest. He is also trained in martial arts, so the meditative aspects of monastic life come fairly easily to him. When he made a comment about this ease in front of the other struggling seekers, they obviously wanted to smack him, and so did we. Our label for him: “teacher’s pet.” I’m curious to hear more of his backstory, though, especially how he got out of Satanism.

(2) Tom, age 46, is a former TV comedy writer, whose life has fallen apart due to his alcoholism. He’s been sober for three years, but believes that he can’t stay with it unless he somehow comes to believe in God. We haven’t seen a whole lot of Tom’s interaction with the monks yet, but his discussion with young Alex about how a near-fatal car accident didn’t even stop his drinking was moving. You get the feeling that, if anyone can break through to Alex, it might be Tom and not the monks.

(3) Alex, age 23, is a former Marine who lost his leg in an ambush in Iraq. He has no religious background at all, so he has a hard time showing respect in the sanctuary. When the monks ask him to genuflect (or at least not prance around the sanctuary pointing a shovel as if it’s a gun) in church, he responds that he doesn’t want to do something unless he knows what it means. Good point. A monk follows with an oft-true observation that, sometimes, if you go through the motions, you’ll find yourself believing. Another good point. This exchange, I think, reveals one of the strengths of the show: it doesn’t resolve complexity too neatly. My own gut reaction is that Alex is an immature jerk—you know that he was trained to obey and respect his superiors in the military, so why can’t he do the same for the monks? But, at the same time, I feel sympathetic to his desire to understand the reason behind all the rituals and symbols—if that really is his desire.

(4) Jon, age 30, is also a former Marine, now a paramedic. His everyday proximity to death and suffering has made him doubt God’s existence. The show has thus far labeled him “the cynic.” He’s the one rolling his eyes when Warren says meditation is easy for him, and in pretty much every situation. He says this visit to the monastery is God’s last chance to prove his existence. Interesting that it doesn’t occur to him that God might still be able to work even after this “ultimatum” is past.

(5) Will, 35, is a former gang member and drug dealer who spent six years in prison. He’s now trying to work with youth in his community, but he has a hard time not getting too wrapped up in his work. He wants to develop a better balance between his work and his family life. So far, he’s my favorite of the seekers, because he seems to have a genuinely open attitude. His spiritual mentor at the monastery is also the one who’s impressed me most thus far. Father Luis has had some great advice about developing deeper prayer habits.

Overall, the show does have some predictably cheesy narration, and it does bother me how it’s set up as almost a contest to see who can grow the most during these 40 days. It’s so limiting to God’s time to assume that the fruits of this stay at the monastery will develop while the seekers are there. However, the show is respectful of monastic tradition and of the monks themselves, and it does give a fairly good overview of Benedictine spirituality. (I was happy to note that the list of books recommended by the monks included one by Esther de Waal, my favorite Anglican-Celtic-Benedictine!).

I was also interested to learn that “The Monastery” was inspired by a similar show done previously on the BBC. The Brits also did another project with female seekers at a convent, so apparently we’re going to copy that, too, with a show filmed at a Trappistine (“Trappistine”? I didn’t even know there were female Trappists. Can’t they just be called a Trappist convent, though? The “convent” bit would seem to indicate their gender) convent in Iowa. I know I’ll be watching that one, too.

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