Apologist Wes Huff and Christian YouTuber Ruslan recently offered their thoughts on the potential pitfalls and benefits for Christians watching “The Chosen.”
While both acknowledged the danger of assigning more theological weight to the series than is appropriate, both also had positive things to say about the multi-season show depicting the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
Wesley Huff, who serves as the Central Canada director for Apologetics Canada, recently became a household name after appearing on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast to discuss the defensibility of the Christian faith and the reliability of the Bible.
On Monday, Ruslan posted a video clip featuring himself and Huff at an event hosted last month by Apologetics Canada. In the clip, Ruslan and Huff take questions from conference attendees.
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One attendee asked the pair to weigh in on series like “The Chosen” and “House of David,” which both portray biblical events but also take creative liberties in their portrayals.
Huff began by acknowledging that he knows “people who love ‘The Chosen’ and people who hate ‘The Chosen.’” Before sharing a caution, Huff said, “I can appreciate something like ‘The Chosen’ for what it is in that there’s artistic license.”
“I had a friend who started watching ‘The Chosen,’ and the way he described it to me was that when he started reading his Bible…he started picturing Jonathan Roumie,” Huff said, referring to the actor who portrays Jesus.
“And that concerned [my friend]. And the way that he described it is, he said that when he watched the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies and then he read the books…these thoughts popped up in his mind where he was like, ‘That didn’t happen. That’s not how that narrative goes,’” Huff said. “And he was confusing the source material.”
“And I think that I know people who have really benefited from looking at the artistic license in something like ‘The Chosen,’ and I know people who, in their minds, for better or for worse, have started confusing the source material,” Huff continued.
“And so I think there’s wisdom in pausing and looking at ‘The Chosen’ or any of these other artistic depictions like [‘House of David’], for what they are and not trying to make more of them than they’re actually trying to portray,” Huff argued. “I think there are dangers in that, but I think there’s also an aspect of humanizing it.”
