The Religious Ideology of Young Sheldon
Rotten Tomatoes. License: All Rights Reserved.
Spoiler Alert!
Introduction
In 2017, CBS aired a spinoff of their much-loved sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. In Young Sheldon, the audience is introduced to a younger version of one of its central characters, Sheldon Cooper; and through its seven seasons, the audience watches Sheldon from a young age navigate high school and then eventually college. The show is quirky, family-friendly, and relatable.
Now, anyone who watches the show would notice that religion is treated in a mostly negative light, which shouldn’t surprise viewers as Sheldon is dogmatically naturalistic in his view of life. In Sheldon’s mind, religion is pointless and though he does attend church services at First Baptist Church of Medford several times throughout the series, it isn’t because he believes in God, but because he believes in his mom.
In fact, throughout the show, we’re presented with a caricature of shallow Christianity—a Christianity that thrives on dogmatism, culture wars, and platitudes rather than the deep truths of historical Christianity. For instance, many of the teachings that Sheldon has difficulties with aren’t actually explained how a Christian would explain those teachings, but rather how unbelievers tend to portray the teachings (i.e., they’re strawmen). So, when Sheldon has a problem with creation at the onset of the series, the responses from their pastor are dogmatic statements that don’t actually answer the questions that Sheldon poses. Likewise, there are several episodes focused on cultural issues in which the church insists on certain beliefs that are actually Christian liberty issues (e.g., there’s an episode in which Missy, Sheldon’s sister is dancing to a song at a church social and is confronted for dancing; the multiple episodes dealing with smoking and drinking; and even what the local video show rents becomes a target of the local church). Throughout the series, Mary, Sheldon’s mother, is seen as a mostly kind-hearted, sincere, well-meaning, and loving person who is ignorant of the truth because she has been tricked by religion.
Young Sheldon offers a distorting, but revealing snapshot of a shallow, moralistic Christianity—one that was prevalent in the 80s and 90s (one that is still seen in certain churches today)—that needs replaced with biblically rich, intellectually credible, and Gospel-centered faith.
A Caricature of Christianity
The picture of Christianity in Young Sheldon is bleak, but arguably it shouldn’t surprise us that this is how Christianity is portrayed because of two primary reasons: (1) the protagonist, Sheldon, has a caricatured view of Christianity in his life story and (2) whether we like it or not, Young Sheldon portrays the dominant religious landscape of the 80s and 90s in small-town America. Both of these reasons deserve more attention:
Sheldon has a caricatured view of Christianity and there are a number of reasons that add to this, but realistically, there are primarily three reasons for this caricatured view: (1) the church that he grew up in has shallow teachings, (2) Christianity, in the show, is almost always shown opposed to science, and (3) though his mother is highly religious, those around him aren’t.
Sheldon’s childhood church is shallow—any way that you look at it, First Baptist Church of Medford is filled with shallow Christianity. Pastor Jeff and eventually Pastor Rob are typically well-meaning, but often simplistic in their views of life and even in their understanding of Christian teaching (that’s including the instance when Rob quotes Kierkegaard during a Sunday School lesson). Throughout the series, none of the preaching and teaching really deals with the Gospel, who Jesus is, or even utilizes Scripture at any length besides shallow proof-texting. Christianity in Young Sheldon is theologically weak and essentially anti-intellectual. It’s really no wonder that Sheldon has such a caricatured view of Christianity when the primary Christian church influence in Sheldon’s life is weak theologically, culturally focused in a negative way, and systematically disjointed.
The show almost always pits science against Christianity—occasionally, Sheldon will mention that some great scientists were also Christian, but those few instances are offset by the multitude of instances in which Sheldon “bests” religious ideology by insisting on naturalistic explanations of the world. Admittedly, Sheldon’s arguments against Christianity aren’t great (any trained apologist can see that), but it perpetuates a view of Christianity that can’t answer weak questions from those opposed to it because no one in the show ever has good answers for Sheldon’s weak arguments. As Sheldon ages through the show, none of his mentors have any sort of religious belief system whatsoever, thus, it's no wonder that Sheldon has a view that Christianity and science are always opposed.
Sheldon’s main influences in life aren’t consistently Christian—besides Sheldon’s mom, who is the only consistent voice for Christianity, albeit a shallow view of Christianity, Sheldon has no one in his life that is consistently Christian that speaks into his life. All his teachers (with the exceptions of his high school librarian and math teachers) are atheistic or agnostic (particularly his science teachers). And those who are Christian tend to waiver significantly over and over again.
Young Sheldon portrays Christianity as it was predominantly seen in the 80s and 90s in small-town America. The reality is that American Christianity in the 80s and 90s was filled with pastors who were doctrinally weak, churches that were primarily focused on culture wars, anti-intellectualism, cultural beliefs over true beliefs, and theologically disjointed. Any spiritually mature believer today can look at the state of the local church in the 80s and 90s and realize that the church traded deep historical and Christian teaching for easy-believeism, cultural relevance for legalistic tendencies, and systematic theology for disjointed topical ideology. The way Christianity is portrayed in Young Sheldon is how the church looked in the 80s and 90s. It’s really no wonder why, then that the show progressively views religion negatively as the storyline continues.
The Corrective: Real Christianity
With all this said, though Christians can look at Young Sheldon and be upset about how the church is portrayed and how Christianity looks throughout the series, we need to admit that Young Sheldon shows us how people outside of our churches viewed our churches in the 80s and 90s and continue to view our churches today. In reality, Young Sheldon helps us to understand that we need churches that are doctrinally robust (not doctrinally weak), focused on cultural engagement (not culture wars), intellectual (not anti-intellectual), Gospel-focused (not culturally Christian), and theologically coherent (not theologically disjointed).
Really, if Young Sheldon is an indicator of what American Christianity was like in the 80s and 90s, the primary way that we would fix it is by showing Christianity’s intellectual credibility (it isn’t anti-reason, but the foundation for reason), a rich, theologically deep Christianity (Christianity offers a worldview that is all-encompassing and can handle life’s hardships), a holistic view of discipleship (Christianity influences all of life), rejects stereotypes with lives of integrity and grace, and the transcendent and transformative power of the Gospel. The solution to the shallow Christianity of Young Sheldon is a return to historic, confessional Christianity that influences all of life with strong teaching and preaching, and a rejection of platitudes that reinforce stereotypes. Essentially, the solution is to reject cultural Christianity and return to biblical Christianity.
Conclusion
Otherwise, we ought to get comfortable with the caricature of Christianity present in Young Sheldon because that image of Christianity will remain the dominant view of Christianity. In fact, we ought to get comfortable with the caricatures of Christianity that are present not just in Young Sheldon, but in most Hollywood and Hollywood-style entertainment options. And truthfully, these caricatures of Christianity are on us as Christians because we’ve presented a view of Christianity through the way that we live and think that is far more deficient than what’s presented in Scripture.
Young Sheldon doesn’t showcase true Christianity. It shows us the cultural Christianity that has been prevalent in American Christianity—and it is deeply distorted and tragically shallow.
We, as Christians, need to do better.
