Alan Ritchson is a faithful Christian in Hollywood who is best known at present for playing Jack Reacher in Amazon Prime’s “Reacher.” While many love the show because of its compelling storyline and awesome action sequences, some Christians took issue with Ritchson’s playing the Reacher character because of the morally ambiguous grey areas in the show.
In a powerful video posted to social media, Ritchosn rebutted those criticisms of his role. Doing so, he argued that Christians need to think differently about the matter if they want to win over people through popular culture, pointing to stories from the Bible that are also moral grey areas but, in the end, show God’s grace, love, and plan.
Beginning, Ritchson said that he loves playing Reacher because of the moral ambiguity in the storyline, saying, “I love playing Reacher. I love telling this story. I love playing a character who creates a kind of moral ambiguity that we should struggle against as we consider whether or not what he’s doing is good all the time or morally right.”
He then got to explaining what, he thinks, is misguided about the criticism of the show and his character from Christians. He said, “But it’s funny to me how a lot of people criticize me, supposed Christians especially, criticize me for playing Reacher. As if the only TV that should exist is seeing people silently folding their hands in the pew of a church. I mean, what kind of stories are we supposed to tell?”
Turning to God’s word to prove his point, Ritchson referenced Biblical stories about war, pagans, and many other moral grey areas, but all of which lead to a better understanding of God in the end. He said, “If you look at scripture, what do you find? You see 1000 years of an infant that we hold all we got holding tension with human beings, as he tells the story of who he is, reveals who he is through an imperfect people. So we get stories, we get stories of a paganism in a war and bloodshed and ghost stories, mysticism, we see a miracles and magic and we see life and resurrection and death.”
Further explaining that point, Ritchson argued that sometimes even bad people are used by God to tell His story. He said, “We see this incredible canvas where God is completely unafraid to tell the story of who He is through less than morally ambiguous characters, through pure evil sometimes.”
He then turned from defending the show’s morally ambiguous storyline to explaining how those moral questions it presents can, in the end, lead people to Christianity. He said that the questions in the show might help it “reach people who maybe don’t think about these things all the time.”
Continuing, he said, “I don’t think God cares about only telling those kinds of stories, I think, we can start conversations. And we can reach people through these mediums in a way that I think God enjoys. And so here we are now, where we can get to the heart of the matter, where God has built a platform because of the show for me where I can reach people who maybe don’t think about these things all the time.
Then, explaining how he hopes the show could lead people to Christianity, he said, “And maybe maybe, for those who are struggling or feel lost, or want to try something new. If they can find something that brings them hope, like my faith has mine.”
Posting the video on Instagram, Ritchson said, “As an outspoken person of faith, I’ve been getting a lot of criticism from “Christians” who believe I can only be one if I play saints in saintly projects. This is a tip-of-the-iceberg look into that topic.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: By Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA – file-storage_2022gcrichmond_1318220022, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117295665