As with way too many in life, I was raised without a father. As such, my mother worked upwards of 4-5 jobs at a time to get us by. The direct result of this was that, in many ways, I was raised by what I chose to watch on TV. And, as it happened, your show was the primary one I watched and learned from. In many ways, Rob Petrie was a father figure to me in my early childhood and the effects of the show, and my love for it, only grew as I matured into manhood.
In fact, as I have ruminated over the quirks of life, you have shared two other highlights in my life. First of all, we share the same birthday. At least, according to IMDb we do. Secondly, as you've aged into your twilight years, you've come to remind me more and more of my own grandfather. Both in look and humor, you and he are very much alike. That, as can be expected, endears me to you even more.
However, this brings me to my reason for writing you. As I sat reading your autobiography last night (My Lucky Life in and out of Show Business) I was struck down by a certain theme that seemed to course through it. Before I reveal what I am talking about, allow me a brief aside. This is the second book I have started reading of yours. The first being Faith, Hope, and Hilarity, which seems to be your own comedic rumblings as a Sunday School teacher. Now back to the point: In your chapter entitled Family Values (Chapter 14), you go to great lengths to talk about the way in which you made sure that your movies and portrayals would be something that you could take your kids to. I applaud this aspect of your career. I have always admired you for this and for your seemingly unstoppable positive attitude (did I mention I have your CD with the Vantastix and that it is a great record to put on when I'm feeling down).
However, one short discussion in the chapter sunk my heart. I have no qualms with telling you that it put me in a sort of a sad funk for most of last night and much of this morning. What I am referring to, of course, is your commentary on "religion." Specifically, if I am honest, the line where you say, "Was there one way? No, not as far as I could tell - other than to feel loved, to love back, and to do the things that make you feel as if your life has meaning and value, which can be as simple as making sure you spend time helping make life a little better for other people. I decided if I could manage that I wouldn't have any serious problems were there to actually be a Judgment Day" (p125).
Let me step back for a moment, as I began to read the work, I seemed to notice a subtle dismissal of "religion" early on. However, remembering portions of Faith, Hope, and Hilarity, I quickly figured that you would come back with an affirmation that this was just what you felt at the time and that you later, as an ELDER in your church, found true faith in Christ, not simply "religion." So, to find this line and short discussion in your book put me in a quandry.
First of all, I recounted the stories you've told in your books (both of them mentioned) that you and your wife were Sunday School teachers for some number of years. Then I recalled your recounting of being an elder in your church and even addressing the congregation now and then... and as I sat and thought about this, I could not help but be saddened that a man whom I have looked up to for many years of my youth and adult life could be missing the whole point so drastically.
I know from your discussions in Faith, Hope, and Hilarity that you have studied the words of Christ. As a Sunday School teacher, and one who self-professedly has read the Bible cover to cover, you must have come across the words of Paul in Romans, as well as the words of Christ... Yet you seem to dismiss them. You seem not to have Christ at all, but only a fondness for what "religion" may have done for you to make you a better person.
What disturbs me the most is that your dismissal, in your own words above, are so much so based on feelings. You use the word several times. However, you must know if you have studied the teachings of Christ that our feelings LIE to us. They can very often mislead us. If we were to only appease our feelings, we would not become good nor sane men, but anything from tyrants to hedonists. Faith and feelings often have nothing to do with one another. A man who says he "felt" God, but then leaves Him behind because he could no longer "feel" His presence is not a man who has encountered the living Christ. Faith, at least in the Biblical sense, is based on truth and facts, not on feelings.
However, the more grave error comes from your idea that "if there is a Judgment Day" you will be fine because you have been a good person. Any man who has been in church for as long as you have, and especially been an elder in the church, ought to know that a relationship with Christ (as opposed to a religion) has nothing to do with how much you have done right. In Paul's letter to the Romans, he attests that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Regardless of the good we've sought to do in life, we stand guilty before a holy God of Love. Good works cannot bridge that gap. That is the heart and soul of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have been made blameless before a holy God, not by our own good works (lest anyone should boast), but by the free gift of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.
So I conclude. I write this (knowing you will likely not ever come across it to read it, and may possibly be offended if you do) simply because you are on my heart. As someone I see like I see my own grandfather, and as someone who admits himself that he is "circling the drain," I cannot bear to think that you would miss the most important relationship in life. And on the Judgment Day that will come to pass for all of us, I fear that you will stand before God and try to tell him that you've been a good person. That's not the answer to the test, if you'll indulge that simple imagery.
And perhaps, most hopefully, I have assessed your words wrongly, or you amend them in a later chapter (as I am still reading). Perhaps in your self-proclaimed study of Bonhoeffer, and your reading of the Bible, you have come across the truth of what the Gospel REALLY is. Not that it is a key to being able to live a good life (though that is, as it were, often a "fruit" of it), but that we are sunk without a relationship (not a religion) with Jesus Christ.
I write to you, Mr. Van Dyke, because I admire you, and it breaks my heart that a man such as yourself, with all of your intelligence, wit, charm, and positive smile that has warmed millions of hearts (including my own), could miss the point so entirely. If you are truly "circling the drain," I can think of no quest nobler or more pressing than to get to know the God who Is for Who He REALLY is. Because, if you're wrong and your good works do nothing for you before God, then your life, for all its merits, has been in vain. And if I (along with thousands of years of others who have called on the name of Jesus Christ) am wrong and your good works are truly enough, then you have not wasted your twilight years circling the drain in getting to know the Creator of the Universe better.
As you may be prone to say, it is a positive win-win.
So, to a man who has impacted my life since childhood. I leave you with this last statement. It is the gift of God through His Son Jesus Christ that we are made blameless before God. If He is truly Holy, He cannot accept even our good works as payment for our sins. Yet, if He is truly Love, then only He can/could provide a payment sufficient for the debt of those same sins. And that is the Gospel, that Jesus Christ alone provides this payment. And that salvation is not found in the hallowed halls of "religion" but in the God made flesh that offers us a personal relationship.
With Love,
Lee Whosoever Brown
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