I’ve done some pretty romantic things in my day. I don’t know if I’d call myself a romantic, but I’ve had some fun and wowed on occasion. Some I even did for my wife! But unfortunately they weren’t featured on tv nationally with enough romance
involved for her to want to make more romantic memories. Maybe if we had a soundtrack, unlimited amounts of money, sexy bodies, make-up artists, a host for our love and cameras capturing each of our moments together, along with documentary-type reflections to play back, our love would be more “reality.”
Reality tv takes normal people who were once part of real life and makes them become who they aren’t while making heroes and goats arbitrarily and sending people back to their reality anything like what reality was.
Cheap actors is what those folks really are. Sad, but true.
So back to my wife and other solid, Christian wives who spend more time being captivated by other peoples’ “love.” I can’t compete. I know it. But it makes me not even want to try, which is not what I want. There are a plethora of dating or romantic reality shows listed down below (Thank you Wikipedia). It probably all began with Chuck Woolery and the dating game way back when, but it’s intensified to the point where the line is crossed in the name of “love.”
One in particular, however, was the catalyst for this blog quite a while ago: The Bachelor. Or The Bachelorette. I can’t tell the difference. Either a bunch of guys trying to swoon a girl or vice versa. The hope (goal) is a proposal, but the reality of the marriage is a whole other ball of wax that reality can’t make pretty. No matter how much it tries.
Timothy Keller highlights early in his book The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God (p. 5):
The Bible begins with a wedding (of Adam and Eve) and ends in the book of Revelation with a wedding (of Christ and the church). Marriage is God’s idea.
Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives , just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church30—for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery— but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband (NIV, 1984).
Scripture echoes the mystery that marriage is, even though it seems to outline some basics above. But what about the beginning mystery mentioned: Is Reality TV ruining real marriages? 1 in 3 divorces are currently saying Facebook had part in their shambles. 
Facebookcheating.com, a site that’s been around for over half a decade, lists countless stories and allows those betrayed to share their own. I wonder if such a site exists for those whose marriage has been thrown into the rocks by Reality TV love shows. And I mean just for those who watch them and have their reality so misconstrued that the reality TV creates is one which they think they can actually possess. We know that the “contestants” are definitely turned upside down.
What about you? Do you think Reality TV love shows have an impact on marriages today?
Wikipedia’s current list as of Fall, 2014:
- Punch de Date (パンチDEデート) (1973) (Japan)
- Neruton Benikujiradan (ねるとん紅鯨団) (1987) (Japan)
- Ainori (あいのり) (1999) (Japan)
- Blind Date (US) (1999)
- Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? (2000)
- The 5th Wheel (2001)
- Chains of Love (2001)
- 12 Corazones (2006)
- Dismissed (2001)
- Farmer Wants a Wife (2001) (UK)
- Five Go Dating (2001) (UK)
- Temptation Island (2001)
- Who Wants to Be a Princess (2001)
- The Bachelor (2002)
- The Bachelor (UK) (2003)
- The Bachelor Canada (Fall 2012)
- Bachelorettes in Alaska (2002)
- ElimiDATE (2002)
- EX-treme Dating (2002)
- Meet My Folks (2002)
- Shipmates (2001)
- Streetmate (UK)
- Would Like To Meet (UK)
- Average Joe (2003)
- The Bachelorette (2003)
- Cupid (2003)
- For Love or Money (2003)
- Joe Millionaire (2003)
- Married by America (2003)
- Mr. Personality (2003)
- Room Raiders (2003)
- Three’s a Crowd (game show) (2003) (UK)
- My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé (2004)
- Boy Meets Boy (2004)
- The Littlest Groom (2004)
- Outback Jack (2004)
- The Player (2004)
- Playing It Straight (US – 2004, UK – 2005)
- Date My Mom (2004)
- Who Wants to Marry My Dad? (2004)
- The Ultimate Love Test (2004) (US)
- Celebrity Love Island (2005) (UK)
- How to Get Lucky (2005) (UK)
- Next (2005)
- Shopping for Love (2005) (Australia)
- Chantelle’s Dream Dates (2006) (UK)
- Estoy Por Tí (Spain)
- Flavor of Love (2006)
- I Love New York (2007)
- Parental Control (2006)
- Matched in Manhattan (2006)
- Age of Love (2007)
- A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila (2007)
- Rock of Love with Bret Michaels (2007)
- MTV Splitsvilla (2007) (India)
- Transamerican Love Story (2008)
- When Spicy Meets Sweet (2008)
- Tough Love (2008)
- Real Chance of Love (2008)
- Momma’s Boys (2008)
- Dating in the Dark (2009)
- For the Love of Ray J (2009)
- More To Love (2009)
- [V] Lovenet (2010)
- Seducing Cindy (2010)
- Excused (2011)