the amazinGrace?

One of the favorite shows at our house is The Amazing Race. If you don’t know the show, it’s typically about two people who have an established relationship (i.e. brother/sister, husband/wife, former couple, etc) who race around the globe, hoping to be first in each leg of a race with a grand prize of a million bucks (before taxes, of course). This season is the “family edition,” with a total of four members from a family doing the same thing.

When the show started out, I found myself rooting for the Weaver Family, comprised of a recent widow and her three kids. During one of the first episodes, they received a map from a stranger and stopped to ask him if he “knew the Lord.” I thought, “Cool! I found my Christian family to root for… and sympathize for, too.”

Because that’s important. (wink)

As the season went on, though, I found myself feeling a bit odd about how this family played the race. I won’t slam them, so I’ll quote Reality TV Magazine who did. (wink, again)

• 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.”
  
  
• On the way to the park, the Weavers take a scenic route by accident, and Rolly Weaver harasses bikers by yelling “you wish you were Lance Armstrong” at them. Realizing they have made a mistake in their route, Rachel Weaver says the “people who win will probably spend it on a new nose and bigger boobs.”

Hmm…

Each episode they complain about the other teams not liking them, and yet they continue to rub their wins (and losses) in the faces of their comptetitors.

Speaking of which, here’s a snapshot of the two families they will play tonight in the final round.

The Linz family is made up of three brothers and a sister. Here's another snapshot from “Reality TV Magazine”:

• On the way to Moab, the Linz family passes the Weaver family. The Linz’s refer to the Linda Weaver as “the wicked witch of the East” and to her children as “her three little monkeys.” The Linz’s also joke that “someone’s gonna come and drop a house on her head.”

The Bransen family from Park Ridge, Illinois, is made up of a father and his three daughters (with “sweet-as-honey” smiles). The girls once appeared together in a Pert Shampoo commercial and have all attended Hope College in Holland, Michigan (where I now live). Here’s another quick glimpse from the same site:

• [A] bit of excitement occurs when one of the Bransen girls moons the Linz family. Of course, the actual mooning is blurred out. (CBS has to save something for the uncensored DVD version of the Amazing Race Family Edition.)

So who should we be rooting for tonight?

• The “Carnal Christians?”
  
• The “Sarcastic Siblings?"
  
• The “Honey-Mooners?”

I'd like to root for the Christian family, but something within me is struggling. Then again, I have a hard time supporting the other teams, too. Maybe I expect too much from Reality TV and should just pop some popcorn and extend some amazinGrace to each team.

Then again... what would it be like if a camera followed each of us around for 24 hours? Would anyone root for us?

Oh, yeah... Jesus would. Your thoughts?

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)