The Boston Rob Phenomenon

So, it’s over.  Survivor: Redemption Island wrapped up last night and Rob Mariano – better known as Boston Rob – finally won the million dollar prize and the title of “Sole Survivor.”  It’s something that he’s wanted for over 10 years, and now, he’s got it.  The crazy thing, though, is that last night’s finale showed me a scary side of our culture, one that brought me back to a book I read years ago when I was in graduate school, and made me wonder if Rob really won what matters most.

Peace Child is a book that details the saga of Don Richardson and his work among the Sawi tribe in Western New Guinea.  It’s a great read, especially for those who are interested in cross-cultural stuff, and in it Richardson shares the frustration of trying to explain the concept of Christ’s love to a culture that held treason and betrayal up as virtues instead of vices.  Think about that for a moment.  A culture totally turned upside down.  A culture that exalts the bad and diminishes the good.  Missionary historian Ruth A. Tucker wrote about Richardson:

As he learned the language and lived with the people, he became more aware of the gulf that separated his Christian worldview from the worldview of the Sawi: “In their eyes, Judas, not Jesus, was the hero of the Gospels, Jesus was just the dupe to be laughed at.”

This year on Survivor, I started seeing that gulf more and more.  The ones on Survivor who tried to uphold the teachings of virtue and honor became the punching bags, and the ones who orchestrated the betrayals – the “blindsides” – which have become such an integral part of the game, were lauded with praise.  It is so evident that, after a season in which Rob admitted to multiple blindsides and treachery, host Jeff Probst said Boston Rob had played “as close to a perfect game as anybody’s ever played on ‘Survivor.’ ”

In other words, the qualities that all of us try to work out of our children are now the same ones which allowed Rob to play the perfect game of Survivor, and the qualities which we would want to be strong in our children – honesty, integrity, etc. – are the ones which come under fire.  I’m reminded of Paul’s words to the Romans:

Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. (Romans 14:16)

It’s interesting that Paul wrote those words after a pretty lengthy discussion concerning outward actions that we may differ on that really don’t have anything to do with the foundation of the faith.  In other words, we’ll draw lines over trivial things like our opinions, but we won’t draw lines over issues of substance, like a culture that is growing more and more comfortable with our heroes having a dark side.  One must ask the question: what allows us to blindly follow the culture as it runs the good of Christ’s message into the ground?  My answer?

A winning smile.

As I watched Survivor this season, I kept finding myself liking Boston Rob more and more.  Maybe it was the smile, or the “aw shucks, who me” demeanor.  Whatever it was, I found my defenses dropping the more I watched, and I wasn’t even in the game with him.  (Apparently, Boston Rob won over America, too, as he took home the most popular player award and another $100k.)

If you were like me, every Wednesday night you’d find yourself hoping that someone – anyone – in the game would blindside the blindsider, but we forgot that they had been won over by the seemingly innocent smile and drivel, as well.  Funny how the people on the opposing tribe could see Rob for who he was, but those closest to him couldn’t.  There’s a lesson in there about distance and perspective, but I’ll let you hash it out.  We’ve still got a bit to go on our current idea.

Now, before you start bashing me for hating on the lovable Boston Rob, let me write what I know you’re thinking.

“It’s only a game.”

To some degree, I think that might be true.  But what degree would that be?  When does the line between the game and the true character of the player become so blurry that there is no longer a distinction between the two?  Isn’t that in part what Grant was getting at in the live finale?  These 2 guys were close on the island, but have no relationship now because Rob stabbed Grant in the back, and Grant started seeing that maybe there’s a reason why someone can do that so easily in a game.  Perhaps it’s actually just a part of who they are.

I don’t know Boston Rob.  He seems like a nice enough guy, but isn’t almost always the nice guys that do the most damage?  They’re the ones that can get in close, and at just the right moment, hurt us the most.  Isn’t that probably why the devil doesn’t actually wear red long-johns and carry a pitchfork?  He’d be way too easy to spot and guard against.  Instead, the Bible say that he masquerades like an angel of light. That’s right.  Apparently, the devil seems to be a real nice guy, too.

In a culture that is driven by art (which ours is), there comes a time when the artist has to be aware that the artwork is a piece of him or herself.  It isn’t always enough to do whatever we want and then sweep it under the rug with “it’s a game” or “I’m just acting out a role.”  If you can portray something that is totally opposite of who you say you really are, then I suspect that you don’t really know yourself that well, and upon further examination you may be surprised to find out that you are more like what you portrayed than you think.

All of us fail in this area.  It is not just Boston Rob, or Natalie, or the Federal-Agent-Stealth-Bomber dude.  We all see things in our own lives that are 180° from what we want to be, and instead of doing the hard work of the soul, we shrug it off with a simple, “That’s not who I really am.”  Really?

Perhaps the greatest lesson that can be learned in this season of Survivor is that bringing your values into every circumstance is difficult, and at times we will fail.  But in the end, the struggle to maintain faith and integrity in every arena we find ourselves in is worth it.  Just ask Matt, who heard Mike say with tears in his eyes during the live finale that Survivor had transformed him through the conversations he’d had about God and faith with Matt during the game.

Matt was tested.  Did he do everything perfectly according to his convictions?  Maybe only the cutting floor knows for sure, because we don’t get to see every second of the game, but my guess is that his head is high this morning because of the witness he was for Jesus, faith, and character.

The tension between faith and culture is hard, and it makes me appreciate people like Matt and Mike who are willing to live in that tension instead of taking the easy way out and allowing the situation – or “gameplay” –  to dictate what they’ll believe and when.  In the end, of course, they lost.  Didn’t they?  Because Boston Rob won.  Didn’t he?

His prize? One million dollars, the “Sole Survivor” title, and a glaring, soul-burning question:

“It was just a game, wasn’t it?”

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