Eric and Annie Camden have seven kids and a dog.  He is a pastor of a church.  One of his daughters is a youth minister – the only one on television. Rev. Camden lives in the fictional world of Oakdale on the CW series, Seventh Heaven.

I’m pretty sure that he is Christian.  But, I can’t get a handle much beyond that. On the rare occasions that a story takes us inside church or the pastor’s office, there are few religious symbols or icons to offer hints to the creed of the church of the Camdens. On a recent special episode, the Camden family discussed their concern regarding the genocide in Darfur.  They talked about aid agencies such as Catholic Relief Services and American Jewish World Service.  Not many clues there.

What denomination is Eric Camden?

And does it really matter?

I recently attended a second in a series of meetings of church professionals on the “faith identity” of their organization.  When they were pressed to discuss what they were doing well related to this area, they discussed:
> How their mission statements reflect faith,
> The predominance of “values” within their systems,
> Their commitment to service,
> Their efforts at transmitting faith,
> Their role within the greater community, among other issues

Being a polite guest, I did not directly confront them at that moment.  But, in all their talk of faith identity, here were words that were not used in the conversation
> God, Jesus, Spirit, Creator, Lord.
> Church, Catholic, Pope, Eucharist
> Catholic Social Teaching
> Paschal Mystery, Beatitudes, Sacraments
> Parish, Community

Not, I am not suggesting that the entire list should have been exhausted in our brief discussion. But, I was disappointed that not even one of these phrases seemed to be within the participants’ vocabulary of “faith identity.” 

Is there anything wrong with mission statements, values, and service?  Certainly not!  Am I judging harshly the loyalty of affiliation of a fictional character on television? Yea, I probably need a hobby.  Nonetheless, I think we all need to recognize that the homogenization of faith traditions leads to a bland flavor of belief.

In the 1960’s, black militant Malcolm X suggested, “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.”  If we stand for something, the words and actions we choose should reflect our identity.