Hell on Wheels

I’ve been watching the AMC series Hell on Wheels. It has a varied cast of characters, played by fine character actors. It’s nice to see Colm Meaney finally given a real acting role, after falling into the black hole of a Star Trek engineer. 

The series has a Christian motif, although it remains to be seen how that will be developed. There’s an abolitionist turned evangelist–the Rev. Nathaniel Cole. He mentors a Cheyenne convert to the faith–Joseph Black Moon.

I expect Black Moon is doomed. He’s shunned by both the whites and the Indians. My best guess is he will revert after he becoming bitterly disillusioned. The screenwriters will probably kill his mentor, which Black Moon will be unable to forgive. We’ll see.

I have forebears on my father’s side of the family who fought for the Union, as well as forebears on my mother’s side of the family who fought for the Confederacy, so watching a show like this makes me ponder what life was like back in the day.

Although I doubt the show is altogether realistic, I think it illustrates how truly grueling life was back then for so many. How hard it was just to survive.

Nowadays we have pampered men and women who profess the Christian faith for a time, then turn their back on the faith when they suffer some personal tragedy or mere disappointment.

It’s important to remember that our Christian ancestors expected life on earth to be one long grind. They didn’t nurse any illusions about what life in a fallen world has to offer.

If you and I are better off, that’s one more thing to be thankful for. But it’s not a given.