Ted Lasso and the New Christianity
“Have you watched Ted Lasso?”
So many people asked me that question that curiosity got the best of me. So I watched, and I admit I got hooked. What’s not to love about Ted Lasso? In a time when television had become obsessed with the dark side of humanity (think Breaking Bad and Succession), here was a character who didn’t seem to have a dark side. Ted Lasso is funny, cheerful, goofy, perennially optimistic. In the COVID age, I needed that. We all did.
For those haven’t heard, Ted Lasso is an Apple Plus comedy series about a college football coach who gets hired to manage an English professional football (i.e., soccer) team, even though he knows nothing about English football. He accepts the job, leaving his wife and son to travel to England to coach a team that doesn’t want him for an owner who hopes he will fail. The press belittles him. The fans besmirch him. Everyone hates Ted Lasso, but that doesn’t dim Ted’s optimism one little bit. He repays insults with kindness. He greets pessimism with good cheer. When someone slaps him on one cheek, he turns the other.
Wait. Could Ted Lasso be…Jesus?
In fact, Ted Lasso seems to be our modern culture’s idea of Jesus. He’s nice to everyone, even people who don’t deserve it. He’s always ready with pearls of wisdom like, “Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing.” He puts up a sign in the locker room of his struggling team that says, “Believe.” He lifts up the downtrodden (“You say ‘Impossible’ but all I hear is ‘I’m possible’”) and rebukes the haughty (though always gently and with a big, mustachioed smile.) He works at developing his followers one by one until he has won over even the most hardened hearts (too bad there are only eleven players on a soccer pitch, not twelve). If not Jesus, he’s undoubtedly a saint.
Yet Ted Lasso also left his wife and young son to take a job thousands of miles away. It soon becomes clear that he’s having marital problems. No particular reason is given, other than his wife Michelle just isn’t in love with him anymore (she must be the only person on earth immune to Ted’s charms). Though Ted is upset about the situation, he still chose to move to another country rather than trying to save his marriage. Yet this is held up by the show as a kind of virtuous act—Ted sacrificing his own happiness to save Michelle. That the child may suffer appears to be no concern to anyone. Ted also has a one-night stand with a woman he barely knows. This, too, is perfectly fine and nothing to be ashamed of, as long as both parties are okay with it.
There is no reference to God, except when Ted calls Him a woman: “If God wanted games to end in a tie, She wouldn’t have invented numbers.” In the Christmas episode, he refers to Christmas as “Santa’s birthday.”
So even though Ted seems to be a kind of Jesus figure, an icon of Christianity, he’s not. And that’s the point. Ted Lasso wants to hijack the “good stuff” of Christianity—loving one another, caring for the underdog, treating others as you wish to be treated—while leaving out Christ. In other words, this is Christianity without sin, without judgment, without repentance.
What you are left with is a pseudo-religion of pithy sayings and virtue signaling. Biblical morality is outmoded, even bigoted. Personal behavior is not important as long as you’re nice. This pretty much sums up the Church of Ted: “If you care about someone, and you got a little love in your heart, there ain't nothing you can't get through together.”
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Ted Lasso is still a great show—warm-hearted, funny, brimming with wonderful characters you can’t help but love. (Trigger warning, swearing and sexual references abound.) Maybe we should consider its resounding popular success a win for the home team. People really do want to see shows about nice people learning to love and care for each other and working together toward something good. People who “believe,” even if only in themselves. Who says Christ isn’t behind it, after all?
Gina Detwiler’s newest novel, Forbidden, Part Four of the YA Supernatural Forlorn series, releases March 2022. In addition to Forlorn, she is the co-author of the middle-grade fantasy series The Prince Warriors with Priscilla Shirer. She’s also written The Ultimate Bible Character Guide for LifeWay.
