Have you watched the show God Friended Me? It comes on CBS on Sunday nights, and let me tell you, I love this damn show. I can’t tell you exactly why, but I do. For whatever reason, as on-the-nose as nearly every aspect of the show is, it just ... works.
Here’s the premise: An atheist named Miles (played with so much charisma by Brandon Michael Hall), who runs an atheist-centric podcast called The Millennial Prophet where he shares his views on his lack of belief in God, suddenly gets, literally, friended by God on Facebook. This sets off a series of events that results in him meeting potential boo-thang, Cara (Violett Beane), a journalist who must be so good that in the pilot she managed to go six weeks without writing a single article and still kept her job; together, with Miles’ co-worker/friend Rakesh (Suraj Sharma), they intend to find out just who the hell is behind the God account.
In the meantime, shenanigans ensue. During the shenanigans, Miles reconciles with his preacher father (Joe Morton, being awesome), talks with his sister, deals with Rakesh’s love life and does a whole lot of doing good. Miles may be an atheist, but the God account is testing both his faith and his belief in the existence of God, to pleasant and positive results.
It’s pretty cheesy and corny at times. And yet, it’s not over-the-top feel-goodism or cringeworthy. While every episode is basically Miles and ’em getting a new friend request from God, finding out how to help them, helping them and then feeling a collective hug descend upon your soul, each character seems so genuine that I want them to win. It’s one of those shows where the casting is so well done that I overlook some of the more 7th Heaven-esque moments. It’s definitely worth watching an episode or two.
But I’m not here for the recommendation (check it out, though). If you watch the show, you’re familiar with the God account and their quest to figure out who is behind it. That’s why we’ve gathered here today, saints and ain’ts. Just who is behind the God account? I have no idea if they will ever find out; maybe it actually is God. God with a Facebook account in 2018 makes sense to me (God is kind of old, only us old folks use Facebook, apparently).
I do, however, have some ideas about who might be in there running that account, bringing souls together in order to weave a tapestry bigger than Miles could ever understand. Hell, so far, the God account has turned Miles from merely an atheist to being an atheist who just might believe in something bigger than himself and who is willing to help people to find out even if he’s being manipulated.
So who do I think is behind it? Here are my thoughts.
1. God
I mean, its the most obvious possibility. Actual God and whatnot, too. Not like, Gawd.
2. Black Jesus
I feel like Black Jesus would pick a black dude named Miles to go out there and do the lawd’s work to prove to him that God (not Gawd) is true and livin’. I feel like White Jesus would have picked a white dude. Now, having Miles fall for a white woman named Cara can also go both ways on Black or White Jesus. What tips the hat towards Black Jesus is that Miles, Cara and Rakesh are out here helping Muslim families, too. Just saying, White Jesus seems to be a little racist based on his parishioners.
3. Jonathan Smith from Highway to Heaven
You remember how John Smith (Michael Landon) was an angel working to get his eventual reinstatement to heaven? Well, he got there back in the early ’90s. Maybe he got that itch to help people again and was like, well, why not find an atheist and change the game. #wallahmagic
4. Mark Zuckerburg
I mean, it is on Facebook. Talk about great publicity. How great is it for publicity if your social media platform is the one that ends up creating saints and what not?
5. Bagger Vance
I can’t prove that Bagger Vance knows how to use a computer but Miles’ quest feels like some Bagger Vance ass shit to do. Considering that we last saw him in 1931, it’s entirely possible that Bagger is long since dead. Then again, Bagger is a Magical Negro and I’m not sure if Magical Negroes Ever Really Die, ya know, MNERD. Even John Coffey, like the drink but spelled different, may be dead in the physical but lives on in the memory and spirit of Paul Edgecomb, who is probably still alive playing with Mr. Jingles, praying every evening to wake up dead the next day.
6. Demetria Lucas
It’s so funny how I find fun ways to throw Demetria Lucas into the fray, but fuck it, why not? Think about this: Do you see how she be helping folks with her Ask Demetria series? The shit she gets asked is INSANE. Maybe she decided to one-up the aid and assistance and found her an atheist to help before they asked. You can’t say it isn’t possible. Hell, with some of the questions I’ve seen asked, helping a woman with an autistic child get her son to smile and having Miles be the most improbable babysitter of all time is possible. Just sayin’.
7. Beyoncé
She has so much free time, trolling an atheist to worldly greater goodness is highly likely. Right? Bueller? Bueller?
8. Rihanna
Now Rihanna, on the other hand, this is explicitly some Rihanna ass shit to do. For the record, I love Rih-Rih so if she ended up being the surprise reveal at the end of the show, I’d loudly proclaim this is the greatest show of all time. Bitch betta have her money? Sure, but that sounds a whole lot like WWJD to me.
9. Kendrick Lamar
On To Pimp a Butterfly, he has a song called “How Much a Dollar Cost?” where he effectively ends up talking to God in the form of a homeless man who wanted a dollar. Kendrick refused him and then realizes that the cost of that dollar was a spot in heaven. That shit is deep. Maybe Kendrick is trying to get that spot back, in a Highway to Heaven way, but the 2018 version where instead of Kendrick going out helping folks trying to get his spot back in heaven, he’s directing traffic on social media. Man, that shit was actually deep right there. I vote for this.
10. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Because this show is like every part of that dream of his. In one.