35. The Spy Who Lied to Me
Can a Christian work as a spy?
By David Hilder | May 28, 2019
Can a Christian work as a spy?
By David Hilder | May 28, 2019
Is Jason Whittaker a Christian? That may sound like a silly question. Of course he is. Jason believes in God. He’s even been known to pray and attend Bible study occasionally. Plus he designed those Bible arcade games. What’s more Christian than pressing a button to throw plagues on the Egyptians as you escape from slavery? On a more serious note, I think it’s safe to say Jason’s faith is important to him. If it wasn’t, he would have gone through with marrying Tasha, a non-Christian. Jason is a Christian, but he’s also lived his life as a secret agent. Do those two identities go together? Is it possible to be a Christian spy?
Spies are required to do some pretty underhanded things. They have to lie, cheat, steal, trespass, kidnap, and assassinate people. Sometimes they even have to do paperwork. It’s a hard life. You might be thinking to yourself that Jason Whittaker is different. He isn’t that type of spy, the kind who poisons the pastries of political leaders without batting an eye. He has values that he won’t compromise. But there are some things he is willing to engage in, such as lies and deception. Can a Christian do that?
To be a spy is to be untruthful. You can’t survive as a spy if you’re spilling your secrets to everyone you meet. You need to practice some discretion. Disguises are a necessity. Jason probably would not have gotten very far without posing as the Stiletto in the Green Ring Conspiracy or the Grinder in London. As a spy you need to lead people to believe what you know to be false. And therein lies the problem. As a Christian show, Adventures in Odyssey has a longstanding aversion to lying.
Sometimes we tell the truth, but not the whole truth. In the episode Nothing But the Half Truth (Album 42), John Avery Whittaker scolds Marvin, saying, “Even though technically you didn’t lie, your half-truth was designed to deceive me.” Another way we justify lying is by telling ourselves it won’t hurt anyone. Sometimes that blows up in our faces, like it does for Nick Mulligan when he breaks Whit’s trust in Sounds Like a Mystery (Album 43). But other times a lie is never found out. Even then, AIO takes a strong stand against lying. In The Tangled Web (Album 1), Whit notes that “a lie is a lie—even if the person you lied to never finds out about it.”
But in all those cases the people lying are trying to benefit themselves. That’s not why Jason Whittaker engages in deception. He has good reasons. He wants to save the world and put the bad guys behind bars. Does that let him off the hook? In the episode Rights, Wrongs and Reasons (Album 15) we hear a story from 2 Samuel 6 in which King David, after defeating the Philistines, tries to bring back the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. But the Israelites disobey God by placing the Ark on a cart. At one point the oxen pulling the cart stumble and Uzzah puts his hand on the Ark to keep it from falling. God strikes Uzzah dead for touching the Ark. The Israelites had good reasons for returning the Ark. They wanted to glorify God. But they did the wrong thing when they disobeyed God’s commands. Whit says, “There’s no doubt that everybody did what they did out of good intentions, but those intentions weren’t enough. They still acted wrongly. You see, God isn’t just interested in results. He’s also interested in how we arrive at those results.”
God lets the Israelites know they had acted wrongly by punishing Uzzah. But there are other cases in the Bible where God seems to reward people who act dishonestly. In Exodus 1 Pharaoh commands that all Hebrew newborn boys be killed. But the midwives, the women helping the mothers to give birth, refuse to follow Pharaoh’s orders. The midwives lie and claim that the babies are born before they can arrive to interfere. As a result, God looks favorably upon the midwives. Similarly, in Joshua 2 Rahab hides two Israelite spies in her home and lies to the city guards of Jericho, claiming that the spies have already left. As a result, God saves Rahab and her whole family from destruction. And what about the two Israelite spies themselves? Of course, these men were nothing like the secret agents we think of today. They were surveying the land and its inhabitants in advance of the Israelite army. But they were still engaged in deception. I doubt they were very forthright about their intentions to see Jericho overthrown.
Jason’s father, John Avery Whittaker himself, has been known to walk the line between honesty and deceit. In The Top Floor (Album 49), Whit, Jason, Eugene, and Leonard plan a heist to steal some important film footage from the nefarious villain Dalton Kearn. But something goes wrong. Dalton returns to foil the heist, forcing Whit to distract him. Dalton asks what Whit is doing in his penthouse suite, and Whit replies, “I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I said that I’m here to pay you a friendly visit.” When Dalton demands to know where Leonard Meltsner is, Whit feigns ignorance and replies, “Leonard who?” The AIO team seems careful about not having Mr. Whittaker speak an outright lie, but his obfuscations amount to the same thing. Whit withholds the truth from Dalton for a while hoping to delay him so that the theft will be successful.
Similarly, Whit seems to have no trouble wearing disguises. The Search for Whit (Album 27) has him disguised as a very elderly gentleman who stops Eugene on the elevator and asks for his wallet. In the same three-parter, Eugene dons a turban in an attempt to escape into the crowd. Meanwhile, everyone thinks Whit found his mysterious parchment at the Aharoni dig, when he actually found it in the Kidron Valley. Whit says, “I let them think that. I figured it would keep the other site protected.” Again, not an outright lie, but definitely an action intending to deceive. And in The Labyrinth (Album 55) Dale Jacobs has no trouble pretending that Sue is his daughter, who he later hides in a suitcase, and distracting a Scotland Yard agent by pretending to notice someone in the hallway.
It might seem like being a spy is all fun and games, but that’s not really the case. Our AIO characters know something isn’t quite right. In The Search for Whit, it bothers Jason that Tasha likes “playing the game” so much. She seems to enjoy the cutthroat world of spies and deception. Tasha says, “Is it so wrong to like my job?” and Jason says, “When your job means weaving so many deceptions you don’t know the truth anymore, yeah, well I’d have to think twice about it.” She responds, “What is truth, Jason?” The world of spies seems like a sad world indeed. It’s dangerous and uncertain, which is partially why Connie decided not to marry Mitch. That would have meant joining a world where too often the truth gets lost and all that matters is having the upper hand. In The Search for Whit, Jason says, “The best rule of thumb is to trust no one.” That’s what his job requires, but that’s no way to live.
The Labyrinth culminates in a showdown between Jason, Agent Billings, and Mr. Grote. Billings wants to take revenge on Mr. Grote by killing him with his own deadly Coflax powder. But Jason stands up to Billings and saves Mr. Grote’s life. The Official Guide notes that in an earlier draft of the episode Jason stands back and lets Billings kill Grote. In another draft Jason assists in the murder. When I first heard about these earlier ideas, I was quite surprised that the AIO team actually considered using them. But I think I understand now why they might have gone down that route. The Labyrinth is quite a dark three-parter meant to bring Jason to his lowest point. It was designed to be a major turning point in his life. Mr. Grote’s killing would only have added to that. Although Jason saves Mr. Grote in the final version of the show, he admits that he too harbors a desire for revenge. His career in the world of spies has changed him. In a moment of clarity Jason sees where his life of spying has led him and he rejects it, choosing to return to Odyssey and get back to something close to a normal life.
The Green Ring Conspiracy (Album 53) foreshadows this moment in a conversation between Whit and Jason. Whit says, “How do you keep it all straight, Jason? Aren’t you in danger of getting lost in this labyrinth of lies?” Jason responds, “Somebody has to stop these guys. If I don’t do it, who will?” And then in The Labyrinth, Jason has a heart-to-heart with Dale Jacobs. Jason says, “That’s the labyrinth, Dale—to live in lies to save the truth. How’s a man supposed to do that? I mean, even for a good cause?” Dale acknowledges Jason’s struggles, saying, “The taste of lies is foul and it’s even worse if you get used to it. I know that good will win in the end. But I have to pray for forgiveness if I’ve taken a wrong step while fighting for what’s good.”
So can you be a Christian and a spy? Can you wear a mask as you fight for villains to be exposed? I would have to say yes. Somebody has to stand in the gap on our behalf. But that doesn’t make it easy. It's full of pitfalls and snares. And even if you get through, sometimes the necessary thing has a real cost. For example, in the Bible King David wasn't allowed to build the temple. That task was given to Solomon instead because David had been a warrior and shed too much blood. One of the great things that Adventures in Odyssey has done with Jason’s character is to show the massive toll that spying has had on him. If he didn’t think lying was a big deal there would be no problem. When was the last time James Bond or the heroes of Mission Impossible thought twice about engaging in deception? Outside of the Christian world lying is seen as perfectly normal. But Jason is different. He follows God, the God of truth, in whom there is light and no darkness at all.
Jason understands the importance of fighting for truth. At the same time, we live in a messy world where the right thing to do isn’t always so obvious. In Album 53, Jason disguises himself as the Stiletto and Whit asks, “How do we pray that a deception will work?” Jason responds, “We have to pray that the truth will ultimately win over the deception.” Whit says, “Well, that’s fine. So long as we know the difference between the two.” That line is perhaps a reference to one of the themes of Album 53—that a counterfeit is designed to look as much like the real thing as possible. You can only be effective at uncovering deception if you have knowledge of the truth. And that means spending time with the Truth, time with God. That’s what Jason was missing out on. He admits to Dale that he’s neglected his prayer life and when he returns to Odyssey he finds it difficult to spend time with God. But thankfully for Jason, he doesn’t have to do this alone. God designed for us to be in community, to support each other, and I’m sure the good people of Odyssey are up to the task.
Spies are required to do some pretty underhanded things. They have to lie, cheat, steal, trespass, kidnap, and assassinate people. Sometimes they even have to do paperwork. It’s a hard life. You might be thinking to yourself that Jason Whittaker is different. He isn’t that type of spy, the kind who poisons the pastries of political leaders without batting an eye. He has values that he won’t compromise. But there are some things he is willing to engage in, such as lies and deception. Can a Christian do that?
To be a spy is to be untruthful. You can’t survive as a spy if you’re spilling your secrets to everyone you meet. You need to practice some discretion. Disguises are a necessity. Jason probably would not have gotten very far without posing as the Stiletto in the Green Ring Conspiracy or the Grinder in London. As a spy you need to lead people to believe what you know to be false. And therein lies the problem. As a Christian show, Adventures in Odyssey has a longstanding aversion to lying.
Sometimes we tell the truth, but not the whole truth. In the episode Nothing But the Half Truth (Album 42), John Avery Whittaker scolds Marvin, saying, “Even though technically you didn’t lie, your half-truth was designed to deceive me.” Another way we justify lying is by telling ourselves it won’t hurt anyone. Sometimes that blows up in our faces, like it does for Nick Mulligan when he breaks Whit’s trust in Sounds Like a Mystery (Album 43). But other times a lie is never found out. Even then, AIO takes a strong stand against lying. In The Tangled Web (Album 1), Whit notes that “a lie is a lie—even if the person you lied to never finds out about it.”
But in all those cases the people lying are trying to benefit themselves. That’s not why Jason Whittaker engages in deception. He has good reasons. He wants to save the world and put the bad guys behind bars. Does that let him off the hook? In the episode Rights, Wrongs and Reasons (Album 15) we hear a story from 2 Samuel 6 in which King David, after defeating the Philistines, tries to bring back the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. But the Israelites disobey God by placing the Ark on a cart. At one point the oxen pulling the cart stumble and Uzzah puts his hand on the Ark to keep it from falling. God strikes Uzzah dead for touching the Ark. The Israelites had good reasons for returning the Ark. They wanted to glorify God. But they did the wrong thing when they disobeyed God’s commands. Whit says, “There’s no doubt that everybody did what they did out of good intentions, but those intentions weren’t enough. They still acted wrongly. You see, God isn’t just interested in results. He’s also interested in how we arrive at those results.”
God lets the Israelites know they had acted wrongly by punishing Uzzah. But there are other cases in the Bible where God seems to reward people who act dishonestly. In Exodus 1 Pharaoh commands that all Hebrew newborn boys be killed. But the midwives, the women helping the mothers to give birth, refuse to follow Pharaoh’s orders. The midwives lie and claim that the babies are born before they can arrive to interfere. As a result, God looks favorably upon the midwives. Similarly, in Joshua 2 Rahab hides two Israelite spies in her home and lies to the city guards of Jericho, claiming that the spies have already left. As a result, God saves Rahab and her whole family from destruction. And what about the two Israelite spies themselves? Of course, these men were nothing like the secret agents we think of today. They were surveying the land and its inhabitants in advance of the Israelite army. But they were still engaged in deception. I doubt they were very forthright about their intentions to see Jericho overthrown.
Jason’s father, John Avery Whittaker himself, has been known to walk the line between honesty and deceit. In The Top Floor (Album 49), Whit, Jason, Eugene, and Leonard plan a heist to steal some important film footage from the nefarious villain Dalton Kearn. But something goes wrong. Dalton returns to foil the heist, forcing Whit to distract him. Dalton asks what Whit is doing in his penthouse suite, and Whit replies, “I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I said that I’m here to pay you a friendly visit.” When Dalton demands to know where Leonard Meltsner is, Whit feigns ignorance and replies, “Leonard who?” The AIO team seems careful about not having Mr. Whittaker speak an outright lie, but his obfuscations amount to the same thing. Whit withholds the truth from Dalton for a while hoping to delay him so that the theft will be successful.
Similarly, Whit seems to have no trouble wearing disguises. The Search for Whit (Album 27) has him disguised as a very elderly gentleman who stops Eugene on the elevator and asks for his wallet. In the same three-parter, Eugene dons a turban in an attempt to escape into the crowd. Meanwhile, everyone thinks Whit found his mysterious parchment at the Aharoni dig, when he actually found it in the Kidron Valley. Whit says, “I let them think that. I figured it would keep the other site protected.” Again, not an outright lie, but definitely an action intending to deceive. And in The Labyrinth (Album 55) Dale Jacobs has no trouble pretending that Sue is his daughter, who he later hides in a suitcase, and distracting a Scotland Yard agent by pretending to notice someone in the hallway.
It might seem like being a spy is all fun and games, but that’s not really the case. Our AIO characters know something isn’t quite right. In The Search for Whit, it bothers Jason that Tasha likes “playing the game” so much. She seems to enjoy the cutthroat world of spies and deception. Tasha says, “Is it so wrong to like my job?” and Jason says, “When your job means weaving so many deceptions you don’t know the truth anymore, yeah, well I’d have to think twice about it.” She responds, “What is truth, Jason?” The world of spies seems like a sad world indeed. It’s dangerous and uncertain, which is partially why Connie decided not to marry Mitch. That would have meant joining a world where too often the truth gets lost and all that matters is having the upper hand. In The Search for Whit, Jason says, “The best rule of thumb is to trust no one.” That’s what his job requires, but that’s no way to live.
The Labyrinth culminates in a showdown between Jason, Agent Billings, and Mr. Grote. Billings wants to take revenge on Mr. Grote by killing him with his own deadly Coflax powder. But Jason stands up to Billings and saves Mr. Grote’s life. The Official Guide notes that in an earlier draft of the episode Jason stands back and lets Billings kill Grote. In another draft Jason assists in the murder. When I first heard about these earlier ideas, I was quite surprised that the AIO team actually considered using them. But I think I understand now why they might have gone down that route. The Labyrinth is quite a dark three-parter meant to bring Jason to his lowest point. It was designed to be a major turning point in his life. Mr. Grote’s killing would only have added to that. Although Jason saves Mr. Grote in the final version of the show, he admits that he too harbors a desire for revenge. His career in the world of spies has changed him. In a moment of clarity Jason sees where his life of spying has led him and he rejects it, choosing to return to Odyssey and get back to something close to a normal life.
The Green Ring Conspiracy (Album 53) foreshadows this moment in a conversation between Whit and Jason. Whit says, “How do you keep it all straight, Jason? Aren’t you in danger of getting lost in this labyrinth of lies?” Jason responds, “Somebody has to stop these guys. If I don’t do it, who will?” And then in The Labyrinth, Jason has a heart-to-heart with Dale Jacobs. Jason says, “That’s the labyrinth, Dale—to live in lies to save the truth. How’s a man supposed to do that? I mean, even for a good cause?” Dale acknowledges Jason’s struggles, saying, “The taste of lies is foul and it’s even worse if you get used to it. I know that good will win in the end. But I have to pray for forgiveness if I’ve taken a wrong step while fighting for what’s good.”
So can you be a Christian and a spy? Can you wear a mask as you fight for villains to be exposed? I would have to say yes. Somebody has to stand in the gap on our behalf. But that doesn’t make it easy. It's full of pitfalls and snares. And even if you get through, sometimes the necessary thing has a real cost. For example, in the Bible King David wasn't allowed to build the temple. That task was given to Solomon instead because David had been a warrior and shed too much blood. One of the great things that Adventures in Odyssey has done with Jason’s character is to show the massive toll that spying has had on him. If he didn’t think lying was a big deal there would be no problem. When was the last time James Bond or the heroes of Mission Impossible thought twice about engaging in deception? Outside of the Christian world lying is seen as perfectly normal. But Jason is different. He follows God, the God of truth, in whom there is light and no darkness at all.
Jason understands the importance of fighting for truth. At the same time, we live in a messy world where the right thing to do isn’t always so obvious. In Album 53, Jason disguises himself as the Stiletto and Whit asks, “How do we pray that a deception will work?” Jason responds, “We have to pray that the truth will ultimately win over the deception.” Whit says, “Well, that’s fine. So long as we know the difference between the two.” That line is perhaps a reference to one of the themes of Album 53—that a counterfeit is designed to look as much like the real thing as possible. You can only be effective at uncovering deception if you have knowledge of the truth. And that means spending time with the Truth, time with God. That’s what Jason was missing out on. He admits to Dale that he’s neglected his prayer life and when he returns to Odyssey he finds it difficult to spend time with God. But thankfully for Jason, he doesn’t have to do this alone. God designed for us to be in community, to support each other, and I’m sure the good people of Odyssey are up to the task.
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