Human sin should never be funny, but on “Parking Wars” on “A&E” (10 PM ET on Tuesdays) it is pretty hilarious. I love the show. I also think it is a perfect illustration of human attitudes toward sin. Watch it sometime and see what I mean. There are few illustrations of human depravity, about human attitudes toward sin, that are clearer than those you will see on Parking Wars.
Parking Wars takes place mostly in Philadelphia, though they also go to Detroit and other cities. It follows three aspects of the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA). Parking enforcement officers walk the streets and give tickets to people parked illegally. Then, the “booters” go out and put boots on cars that have racked up multiple tickets and heavy fines. Finally, they go to the impound lot where people come to retrieve cars that have been booted and towed.
And at every step of the way these people demonstrate typical human attitudes toward sin.
1) I should be allowed to do as I please!
The parking laws in Philadelphia are pretty well posted and yet people continue to ignore those laws. “This is a childcare facility – the laws shouldn’t apply here.” “I was making a delivery, the law shouldn’t apply to me.
When Satan tempted Adam and Eve, he implied that God was unfair to place restrictions on them. He gasped that God was so cruel that he limited their access to one tree. God’s goodness was turned into cruelty by Satan’s lies. God is so good to us, and yet we often see his laws as an unwelcome hindrance to our freedom. Instead of focusing on God’s goodness, we look at his laws as impositions, as oppressive.
We need to remember that thought God is good, he is also the rightful creator and ruler. The city of Philadelphia has the right to make and enforce parking laws. The God of Heaven has the right to be Lord of all, even our daily lives.
2) My sins aren’t so bad!
When the PEOs (parking enforcement officers) write tickets, they hear this one pretty often. “There are drug dealers and murderers out there, why are you picking on me?” “Don’t you have some real criminals you could catch?” They are not claiming that they are innocent, just that in comparison to others, they aren’t so bad.
We all would like to think that God grades on a curve. I will admit to a shocking secret right now. I enjoy watching “The Sopranos” (also on A&E in reruns, with the sex, nudity and cussing cut out). Don’t hate me. But I find the premise of the show interesting. Tony Soprano is a brutal killer who makes his living through gambling, prostitution, graft and other forms of corruption. But he is a “good man” we are often told. He is not as bad as others, not as bad as the really bad people. We love to justify our sin by comparing it to the sins of others.
But God does not grade on a curve. In the grand scheme of things, I’m not such a bad guy. I have never cheated on or beat my wife. I pay my bills and my taxes. I’ve raised four kids who are productive members of society. But I also know my heart, and I know that I have fallen short of God’s glory and deserve his judgment.
I have never, to my knowledge, met someone who claims to be sinless. Everyone will admit to their failings and flaws. Its comforting, in a way. “I’m only human.” But there is no real comfort in this. We have all sinned and cannot attain the righteousness of Christ on our own. We may comfort ourselves that we are better than others, but we all fall short of God’s standard.
3) “Kill the Messenger”
I pity the parking enforcement officers and the boot patrol. They are simply doing their jobs and enforcing the laws, but the abuse heaped on them by the citizens of the city is brutal. They are called names. They are ridiculed. They receive the single finger salute on a regular basis. I’m amazed at the patience and imperturbability of most of these PPA workers. They respond with kindness as citizens abuse them for enforcing the law.
One of the fundamental mistakes the modern church makes is trying to make the gospel palatable. It is an offense. Think about our message:
You are (like all people) a sinner who has flaunted the laws of God and is guilty before him. Because of your sins, you are under the wrath of God and destined for eternal hell. And there is nothing you can do about it. No religion. no charity work, no kind deeds will erase the guilt of your sin before God. But Jesus Christ did what you could not do. He lived a perfect life and earned the glories of heaven. Jesus paid for your sins on the cross and rose from the grave. If you will repent of your sins and trust Jesus Christ with your life, you will die to the life you had and be raised to a new life which is devoted to God.
That is offensive. It is also true. We can be kind and tactful, but our message is an offense. We slap people in the face with a truth they do not want to hear. No one want to see the officer writing a ticket that will enforce the penalties of the law. No one wants to hear the message of sin and redemption. But it is our job to proclaim that message nonetheless.
I believe there is a place for cultural sensitivity and relevance. There is no reason we need to be obnoxious or self-righteous as we share our message. But if we try to remove the offense of the gospel we will ultimately compromise the gospel itself.
4) I Shouldn’t Have to Pay!
Everyone thinks the fine are unfair. “Okay, I violated the law, but I shouldn’t have to pay the fine.” I have to admit, I think the Philadelphia fines are a little bit excessive. But the fines are set and they have to be paid.
Human beings do not like to consider the fact that they are going to face God’s judgment. We go about our lives trying to have a good time and get ahead. It is easy to forget that there is a unalterable appointment with eternity that awaits each of us.
Our sins have to be paid for. If we repent of our sins and trust Jesus Christ, we accept his payment of our fine, our debt. Jesus paid it all. But if one does not trust Christ, he must pay the full debt of sin and that is too horrible to imagine.
In Philadelphia, if you want your car back from the impound lot, you have to make sure that all the fees and fines have been paid. In the same way, your sin must be paid for – every bit of it.
Thank God that Christ offered himself to pay that debt.
Great post. I’ve thought about trying to list all the biblical principles we see at work in “Hoarders.” I think it could be a pretty good exercise as well.
Dave, if you don’t mind, I’d like to reprint this in our church bulletin at some point in the future… would of course give you credit and the blog url too. Let me know if that would be ok.
Go for it.
Write up that piece on “Hoarders” and send it in here. We’ll start a new series called “Biblical Principles and Reality TV.”
Get enough of those together and Lifeway will market it for you.
And force it on the entire convention as a curriculum.
What is most abhorent to me about civilization is our obsession with writing laws which require lawyers to defend us against. It now generates a whale of a lot of money in “court costs” and fines. Cities and states strapped for cash are making sure no “crime” goes unpunished!!!
Think, too, about the amount of our time wasted on paperwork and waiting for the judge. It all seems more and more rediculous.
We have so many old laws about everything from horse buggy parking to poop on the street from your steed. Right now, after 200 years of American law, we could pretty well charge anyone with anything!
What would be the problem with a “10-year automatic flush rule?” All law must be dropped and renewed only if it is worthy of staying.
Our ancestors gladly left England and Europe for a new land of freedom and opportunity. It delt with religious freedom / ownership of land and business / the biggest word in the formula was “opportunity.”
In England, only the eldest son could inherit family property. The father, wanting to give his other children a chance at success, went to the King and paid for a “land grant” to his other children. Otherwise, they could only become a cleric / educator / spouse of a person of wealth / lacky of the royalty. From restriction they went to freedom.
Now, given 200 years of law-writing, we have pretty much re-created the culture our forefathers left: rich become richer / poor become poorer / taxes are high / those with money and a good lawyer can get out of just about anything these days. Lady Justice no longer has on a blindfold and a fair scale of balanced justice in her hand!
We become more hilarious with every passing year trying to rule our unruly selves when a good commitment to Christ and his way pretty well boils the law down = Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself!”
Two simple laws without lawyers to parse them takes care of a lot of rubbish creeping into every hometown these days!
Bold should be used sparingly.
Compared to his usual blathering, that was sparingly. 🙂
And here I am, just jealous that I have no idea how to bold…or emoticon.
I can’t even get an updated pic to gravatar.
I’m often guilty of over-bolding.
Fortunately, I am not over-balding.
If it has to be one or the other…
I wonder if this show came about because of the jokes about the ever-expanding police procedural TV spinoffs—Law and Order, Parking Enforcement!
Having not seen it, I can’t comment directly on the show, but I know my reality has seen these same factors. When I worked for UPS, we dealt with the same issues with employees and consequences for not doing their jobs. There’s always a tendency to drift and want to avoid the penalty for it.
Yeah. I would have never believed I would so enjoy a show about meter maids and meter men. But I just love watching the way grown ups behave like big babies when given parking tickets. Fascinating.
I think you are right that this same behavior is seen elsewhere as well.
Well, before we moved, I was addicted to the Food Network, as if I need to know how to cook foie gras. Around here, we just shoot the duck and eat everything but the quack.
I never would have thought we’d fall apart for ‘reality’ tv.
It makes you wonder, though, when you see shows like this, how many of those adults fuss about rebellious teenagers. Especially their own.
I’m addicted to food, but not the network. My daughter like some of those cooking shows. Something about an Iron Chef or something. My boys used to like the Japanese version of that.
The best cooking show which has shown up again on the new Cooking Chanel is Julia Child – she was an absolute hoot! The way she’d throw meat around and toss egg shells over her shoulder to the floor. Only Julia Child could get away with that!
Dave, I’ve seen this show several times. I enjoy it and it’s interesting, but it’s no where near as bad as Southern Baptist Wars!
😉
I think behaviors between the people ticketed on Parking Wars and those of Baptist bloggers sometimes do bear too much resemblance, don’t they?
Yes, and it’s not always clear who is play which role.
I haven’t watched the show, so I don’t know if they have mentioned this, but there are a lot of people here in the Philly area who claim that the PPA is corrupt and unfair in their dealings. Of course, a lot of those people are the ones who have received tickets or had their cars booted/impounded.
We do the same thing with God when we suffer the consequences of our sins or when things just don’t go our way. We scream “God isn’t fair!” or “God isn’t good!”
Yeah, I certainly wasn’t trying to imply that the PPA is pure as the driven snow. But I do notice that, as you said, the ones who squawk most about the PPA are the people who are being ticketed or booted.
If you see Garfield (one of the booters) tell him I said hi.