Errata

It turns out that, in my rush to write an article about the West Wing episode, I misinterpreted at least one major line. Bartlet hadn't lost any of his literal sons, and was speaking metaphorically about the troops who'd died under his command, and particularly troops lost in a completely unpredictable hurricane.

Also, when I talked about Bartlet studying to be a priest at Notre Dame, I mean he was studying theology as an undergraduate at Notre Dame, IL. I've been informed that other interpretations were left open.

Also, one other vague area that I'd like to clarify: the point of the article was to explore the idea of "faith" and "works," continuing a long-term contemplation but triggered at the moment by West Wing. The show itself is far from a Christian show (though not perhaps as far as one might assume), and I am not endorsing its views of salvation. Even so, it goes to show how even a popular television show can serve one function of art by asking questions aesthetically that resonate at many levels. Perhaps soon I'll do an entry on contemporary television, its tendency to replace iron-clad answers with open-ended questions, and the relative merits of wrong answers and wrong questions in imperfect human art.