The Christian who swapped lives with a Hindu on ABC TV’s new series Holy Switch says she’s glad she took part even though her church community was misrepresented in the documentary.
Holy Switch follows six young Australians, all with devout religious beliefs and entwined in their respective religious practices, as they swap lives for two week to experience a new faith, in a new family and in a different part of Australia.
On Sunday, Kim and Aakash’s swap went to air, which has since caused heated discussions on the ABC TV Facebook page about the accuracy of what was shown.
In the episode, Kim was seen to be having a great time exploring the colour, vibrancy and diversity of the Hindu culture, while Aakash appeared to be having a less positive time in Launceston, where he was told by Christians there was no way to God other than through Jesus Christ.
The editing of the episode has come under scrutiny, as Kim’s friends maintain Aakash had a great time in their community, and little footage was shown of his positive experiences of church or youth group, or the friendships he made.
On the ABC TV Facebook page Aakash has defended his newfound Tasmanian friends: “I was equally shown the love and affection by my host family and members of the Anglican society in Tasmania… My debate with the Anglican thought was purely philosophical, nothing to do with the way I was treated. I was treated very kindly and in the most welcoming manner. I made many friends and I thank them for making me a part of their life. I sincerely apologize if I have hurt any one’s feelings of [sic] beliefs.”
Eternity spoke to Kim about her experience and her perspective on what was shown.
ST: How did you come to be on Holy Switch?
Kim: A lady from church who I respect greatly actually approached me about it. She’d seen an article in the newspaper and she’s the type of person that you just don’t say no to, like I just had that respect and slight fear for her, that I thought, “Yes, sure, I’ll give that a go!” It’s pretty funny, because I hate cameras and things like that, but I thought, “What’s the worst that can happen? I’ll just apply and if it’s the right thing to do then God will open all the doors that need to be open for it,” and He did.
ST: Did anyone try and persuade you not to do it?
Kim: Everyone seemed very positive about it. They saw it as an opportunity to show a loving, healthy Christian community, because often our communities are put in a negative light in the media, so we were excited to actually show them what a healthy church looks like. Unfortunately that didn’t come across too much in the documentary.
ST: What were the things you think were inaccurate about the documentary?
Kim: They seem to have shown only the cold, harsh truth rather than all of the warm things that come from the gospel, which was sad. What you saw of me in Sydney is what my community is like. However, that wasn’t portrayed at all, and it didn’t come across at all. It seems cold and unwelcoming, which is so far from what I’ve experienced with this community. These guys are the ones that actually set an example of love to me in the first place.
ST: It’s hard though, if the person you’re given is quite confrontational, which Aakash seemed.
Kim: He asked good questions that were the big elephant in the room, but pretty much the only times he asked those questions were the only times that his conversations were aired. The rest of the time, people found a lot of common ground between Aakash and their own lives and lifestyles. And as a result of that, Aakash made a lot of really close, long-term friends and we still keep in contact with him. His parents actually came over to see us and visit Tasmania. And we had lunch with them, and we welcomed them into our community and got to have some good conversations with his parents.
ST: Are you in contact with Aakash?
Kim: I talk to Aakash on Facebook, but otherwise I actually only saw Aakash for about an hour or two hours out of the entire experience. So what I’ve heard is that he was a pretty loving, vibrant guy, and although he came across as arrogant and condescending in the documentary, he was really a loving guy as well. And like I said, he was able to make friends with us quite easily, so that’s a testament to him and us.
ST: Did you expect them to not portray the Christian community accurately, or had you hoped for better?
I had hoped that they would’ve shown the Christian community as open as the Hindu community, because we were. And the fact that we were telling the hard truth in front of cameras shows just how much we loved him, because we were actually willing to put a truth out there that makes us look bad, but really it was an act of love. I had hoped that the Christian community was portrayed more truthfully, but you’ve only got 13 minutes of the Christian side of things to show, so, a whole week condensed down into 13 minutes, you’re not going to get across all of the wonderful things that we are.
ST: How have your Christian community reacted to the show?
They nearly died when the saw the Father Abraham song put on there. They failed to give an introduction that that was actually what they did in Sunday school and some of them were probably forced to do it. It looked like that’s the type of worship we do every day. Oh gosh!
They were surprised and really shocked that they managed to get that cold a story from the experience that Aakash had while he was here. The tone was completely different to what was portrayed on TV which is disappointing, but hey, we’re in control of our response to it, not what was actually viewed.
ST: What were the hardest things about going on Holy Switch?
The hardest part was definitely recognising so much love in them. And on the surface, the difference between Christianity and Hinduism, just on the surface and in terms of appearance, they are very, very similar. But I think watching [Aakash’s family] and seeing all the good things they were doing, but knowing that it comes from a place of striving for acceptance by God, rather than in the Christian community, their love is a response from God’s love, because we’ve already been accepted. Knowing that they’re living, striving for heaven, or striving for enlightenment, it’s really hard, because there will be times when they don’t do well in life, and they’ll think it’s because of the wrong things that they’ve done. I just feel like, although it doesn’t seem like it on the surface, there’s just so much more freedom in Christianity that they’re going to miss out on.
ST: Did you get to talk about that much on camera?
Kim: More of the conversations that were pretty deep with the family actually happened in the car, behind the scenes. The director and the cameraman who were with me were really friendly and lovely and we became pretty good friends by the end of it, so it was okay. You kind of forget about the cameras at some points. During interviews, though, it’s hard.
The other thing I found hard was their accent. Because I’m used to speaking with people who are just so Tasmanian, and so Australian, going into that culture and trying to understand what they say all the time is really exhausting, because they have such strong accents. So I had a fear that there would be a problem in communication to begin with. It’s funny that one of the most simple things was actually one of the hardest things to deal with, to begin with.
ST: It seems like it was a pretty out of this world experience, living on the waterfront in Sydney. It was different for you, not just in terms of religion. How was it?
Kim: It was so exciting. I really was spoilt rotten. They were showing me how welcoming they were, and it was all legitimate, which I found really hard to believe at first. They were actually this loving and actually this giving and I couldn’t believe the lifestyle that they live in. It’s exciting, yeah, full of lots of glamour. On the surface it was full of glamour and it was wonderful and exciting, but there were deeper things going on that I don’t think the camera could capture.
ST: Are you glad you did it?
Kim: I was more than confident that God wanted us to do this as a Christian community, and He wanted me to go over there. I don’t know what He’s going to do with it, but I’m glad that we did it. And it helps me stand strong now when people are being kind of nasty or making unfair remarks it helps me to stay strong and joyful knowing that what we did was what God wanted. And we’ll be able to stand up in that and He’ll keep us strong in that.
The second episode of Holy Switch airs this Sunday at 6:30pm on ABC 1.
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