The Weaver family from The Amazing Race 8 is going to be my second illustration for essentializing the evangelical. This family, who lost their father in a Nascar accident, were part of the A.R.'s family edition.Never before have I seen a family more hated on reality television. I've seen individuals, married couples etc... but never like this! In fact, I was pretty disappointed at the insensitive editing of this family. Guess what? Evangelical doesn't equal perfect family. It means salvation by grace through faith in Jesus! However, very little grace was shown to this grieving family.
They were portrayed as cons - hypocrites - actors. Was there a contradiction between their words and actions? Sure! Did they say what they said? Of course! ...but so do a ton of other evangelicals and non-evangelicals out there!
I think we all need to give them a break! They're teenagers. They're grieving. ...in fact, they're human!
I think this demonization really needs to stop. Why start a witch-hunt on this family?
Check out these blogs to illustrate the common sentiment about this family:
biggest stars "We hate the Weavers" seems to be the emotional bond that's bringing the other teams together as the families headed off to Costa Rica in this week's 6th episode of Amazing Race 8. The embarrassing Weaver clan -- I mean the three crazy females, not poor, shy Rolly Weaver -- are self-professed Christians who are often caught on-camera spewing more hate than a neo-nazi rally."
Weavers Embrace God, Hypocrisy "Next were the Weavers, and oh man, let me just say this: I hope Jesus had some downtime because he'd be called upon a lot tonight. As the family bounded out of the Pit Stop, the kids told us in an interview, "We've been raised since we were born not to trust other people, but to trust your family and to trust God." Huh. I always wondered where xenophobia came from. Thanks Weavers!
Oh, but they weren't done. One of the daughters noted that everyone was talking about them and stuff, but "We're all Christians, and we're above that." Yeah man. They would never talk smack about anyone else. We'll just see how that pans out a little later, mmkay?"
Weaver Family Claims to be The Only Family Living the Christian Life "The Weaver family continues to trash the other teams while espousing their Christian virtues. Rebecca Weaver explains, “It’s greater to be hated for who you are, then loved for who you are not. We’re being ourselves and we’re being hated for it. Why make these buddy-buddy friends? No, we’re competitors.”
Check out this video which re-enacts through puppets a Weaver family breakdown.
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