You crazy Christians...

[Goofball]

I just can't figure you out sometimes.

I can understand (if not necessarily support) you bullying TV stations or other forms of media to halt the airing of porn since that flies in the face of your ideas of morality, but what could you possibly have against a show about a pastor having discussions with Jesus?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...Entertainment/

Now, I am making one big assumption here, since I haven't seen the show. I am assuming that the show does not portray Jesus or Christianity in a negative light. If that is not the case, then all bets are off and I don't blame you for being offended by the show. Has anybody seen the show in question and if possible, can you shed some light?

By the way, I love this bit:

Duane Lammers, WTWO-TV's general manager, said he was exercising the station's right to reject network programming.
"If my action causes people in our community to pay more attention to what they watch on television, I have accomplished my mission," he said in a statement posted on the station's website.

Doubleplusgood thinking there. By not giving his viewers the opportunity to decide for themselves whether or not to watch a program, he is actually making them more aware of what they are not watching.

Nothing makes me happier than an idiot with a "mission..."

[Scurvy]

hmm, im not christian but in the Uk it does sometimes seem unfair that Christians can ever get anything stopped or banned or anything, while other religous faiths (eg. Islam, Judaism) seem to be able to stop anything appearing on tv, or in theatre etc.

[Goofball]

hmm, im not christian but in the Uk it does sometimes seem unfair that Christians can ever get anything stopped or banned or anything, while other religous faiths (eg. Islam, Judaism) seem to be able to stop anything appearing on tv, or in theatre etc.

I'm not sure I understand (even if it's true) what that has to do with the topic of this thread.

[Redleg]

Without seeing a trailer on the show - it does seem a little overblown on its face.

[Devastatin Dave]

Without seeing a trailer on the show - it does seem a little overblown on its face.

I agree, overblown, much like the thread title...

[Ser Clegane]

Here is AFA's statement on the issue

The main character is Daniel Webster, a drug-addicted Episcopal priest whose wife depends heavily on her mid-day martinis.

Webster regularly sees and talks with a very unconventional white-robed, bearded Jesus. The Webster family is rounded out by a 23-year-old homosexual Republican son, a 16-year-old daughter who is a drug dealer, and a 16-year-old adopted son who is having sex with the bishop's daughter. At the office, his lesbian secretary is sleeping with his sister-in-law.

If(!) this is an accurate description of the show I can undersand why some Christians might be offended.

PS: I agree that the thread title is a bit of a generalization...

[Redleg]

Here is AFA's statement on the issue



If this is an accurate description of the show I can undersand why some Christians might be offended.

I would l like to see a trailer before jumping to conculsions about the show. However it looks more in line with how the TV show Desperate Housewives is done. Entertaining to some, troublesome to others.

http://www.nbc.com/The_Book_of_Daniel/

[Crazed Rabbit]

Crazy? Hardly. An pastor-actually, not a pastor, but just an actor-talking to another actor pretending to be Jesus? That means they're going to pretend they can put statements in the mouth of Jesus.

NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly told The New York Times last month that the show was intended to be thought-provoking.

Huh, I just found a much more detailed description of this show that should put to rest any ideas that Christians are being too easily offended:

How do they portray Christians?

NBC touts the show as a serious drama about Christian people and the Christian faith. The main character is Daniel Webster, a drug-addicted Episcopal priest whose wife depends heavily on her mid-day martinis.

The network and other press reports state that Webster regularly sees and talks with a very unconventional white-robed, bearded Jesus.

The Webster family is rounded out by a 23-year-old homosexual Republican son, a 16-year-old drug- dealing daughter and a 16-year-old adopted son who is having sex with the bishop’s daughter. Webster’s lesbian secretary is sleeping with his sister-in-law.

According to an article by Religion News Service, the series is written by Jack Kenny, a practicing homosexual, who describes himself as being "in Catholic recovery,” interested in Buddhist teachings about reincarnation, and unsure exactly how he defines God and/or Jesus.

"I don’t necessarily know that all the myth surrounding him (Jesus) is true,” Kenny said at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2...8/114017.shtml

The prescence of Jesus, it seems, is hardly the begining of its offensiveness, and it looks like the person writing it has an axe to grind with Christianity.

Crazed Rabbit

[Goofball]

If(!) this is an accurate description of the show I can undersand why some Christians might be offended.

Perhaps, although there is still nothing there that portrays Jesus or Christianity in a negative light. If anything, the show's main character seems to be turning to Jesus for help in the midst of a serious personal crisis. Isn't that what JC is supposed to be there for?

PS: I agree that the thread title is a bit of a generalization...

Sorry if that title offended anybody. I meant it to be a kind of light-hearted joke, much like the title of another recent thread "you crazy canadians an ya sex parties," which, even though I am Canadian, I found to be quite funny and took in the spirit in which it was intended.

Edit: Changed "is" to "if"

[Goofball]

Crazy? Hardly. An pastor-actually, not a pastor, but just an actor-talking to another actor pretending to be Jesus? That means they're going to pretend they can put statements in the mouth of Jesus.

Much like all of the contributing authors of the New Testament.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Much like all of the contributing authors of the New Testament.

Somehow I don't think you're on Don Wilemon's Christmas Card list.

[Ser Clegane]

Perhaps, although there is still nothing there that portrays Jesus or Christianity in a negative light. If anything, the show's main character seems to be turning to Jesus for help in the midst of a serious personal crisis. Isn't that what JC is supposed to be there for?

That's certainly one way to see it (and to judge it either way one would of course have to actually see the show).

Of course by portraying the pastor's family as it seems to be the case one could also argue that the show is taking a cheap shot at Christian families by implying that Christian morale is just facade behind which Sodom and Gomorrha rule.

While protests might be premature or over-the-top, I think the rationale behind it is understandable.

[Goofball]

That's certainly one way to see it (and to judge it either way one would of course have to actually see the show).

Of course by portraying the pastor's family as it seems to be the case one could also argue that the show is taking a cheap shot at Christian families by implying that Christian morale is just facade behind which Sodom and Gomorrha rule.

Point conceded.

But now I really would like to watch this show. I'm predicting it will be much along the lines of Seventh Heaven (my wife's favorite show) but with more realistic characters with real life problems. I hope it's not (as Redleg predicts) done along the lines of Desperate Housewives, as I find that show to be just about unwatchable.

[Redleg]

Point conceded.

But now I really would like to watch this show. I'm predicting it will be much along the lines of Seventh Heaven (my wife's favorite show) but with more realistic characters with real life problems. I hope it's not (as Redleg predicts) done along the lines of Desperate Housewives, as I find that show to be just about unwatchable.

Unfortunately my prediction might be even more correct - the trailer I found even has the same starting music as Desperate Housewives

They could of had an interesting premise for a show as you stated, but we all know Hollywood often has its own ideas - often bad.

[Devastatin Dave]

Perhaps, although there is still nothing there that portrays Jesus or Christianity in a negative light. If anything, the show's main character seems to be turning to Jesus for help in the midst of a serious personal crisis. Isn't that what JC is supposed to be there for?



Sorry if that title offended anybody. I meant it to be a kind of light-hearted joke, much like the title of another recent thread "you crazy canadians an ya sex parties," which, even though I am Canadian, I found to be quite funny and took in the spirit in which it was intended.

Edit: Changed "is" to "if"

I was being lighthearted as well, forgot to put a smiley in there.

From what I've read in this thread and the article is that this show would be offensive to many Christians. Would it be fair to make a comedy show of a black family on welfare, a single mother addicted to crack, with 15 kids from 15 separate fathers that only eats a diet of fried chicken and greens? I have to wonder if they would make this show, instead of it being a preacher they'd made him an Imam or a rabbi? The creator of this show, in my humble opinion has an agenda and an obvious dislike for Christians. He almost sounds like BP in another thread where he found it great that some people of Faith have to go to court now to defend their beliefs before a government court. Seems to me like many of this ilk, since they can't throw Christians into pits with lions anymore, are trying to find other ways to demean people who are Christian.. If they want to air it, fine. It will just be one more show I don't watch. Not because its offensive, because it will be like any other show on TV today trying to be edgy but only achieving stupidity.
Let the show air, just don't watch it if you don't like it.

[solypsist]

yeah my first inclination on seeing this thread title was to shut it down.

I agree, overblown, much like the thread title...

[Xiahou]

Much like all of the contributing authors of the New Testament.

*cough* cheapshot *cough*

[GoreBag]

Denis Leary's Rescue Me has all the same elements to it. Why is this show so special?

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I read a (radical Christian moralist) review of the show and one of the complaints was that Jesus was depicted as essentially approving of the negative (from a traditional Christian standpoint) behavior of some of the characters.

And the main character's father is also a pastor and is having an affair.

This is the review I mentioned.

Since Daniel has such a direct line to "Jesus," who often appears to him out of thin air, the priest naturally asks for advice. What he gets in return are either platitudes or benevolent expressions of tolerance. What does Jesus say about Grace selling drugs? "She'll be fine, she's a good girl." About Adam's high school sexual romps? "He's a kid, let him be a kid." About Kevin sleeping with a girl because he's too nervous to tell her he's gay? "Kids, huh!?" That counsel is a long way from the holy compassion found in the Lord's instructions to the woman caught in adultery (in John 8): "Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin."

[Quietus]

While I learned from the .ORG that Christianity and Criticism don't mix, I do agree that portrayal of Christians in general in this show is thoroughly inaccurate and extremely negative, therefore untrue, unfair and eventually offensive.

This is regardless whether the Bible came from God or Man, the context and modern culture is not compatible with the program at all.

[Byzantine Mercenary]

yet again another example of chrisitans being criticized in a way that would be unacceptable were it aimed at anyother group.

[Al Khalifah]

I've seen a bit of it. It's almost like Family Guy, with Jesus as Brian.

I say almost, because its not funny.

Like a lot of television these days I suspect they are depending on an amount of shock value to generate viewers.

[Geoffrey S]

Does Life of Brian get shown on US tv?

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

I was just reading the Bush bashing, very left wing alternatiuve newspaper around here.

They say the show is incredibly obnoxious and crap.
Note that this is a newspaper that merrily mocks Christians most of the time.

[Navaros]

Perhaps, although there is still nothing there that portrays Jesus or Christianity in a negative light.

Of course it is portraying Jesus in a negative light. The main characters of this show, like the main characters in any show, are supposed to be seen by the audience as "good guys" who you are supposed to root for. Hence linking such vile behaviours to "good guys" and then implying that Jesus himself would condone them is incredibly derogatory to Jesus and everything that God stands for.

Putting Jesus in any show where his presence is not supported by Bible-based information is in and of itself; sick. Because that just means that a twisted, evil human man (or group of men) are trying to put their own evil messages into the mouth of Jesus.

The fact that this show not only does that, but does that with a premise based on flagrantly spitting upon everything God stands for: makes this show go well beyond sick and into the realm of far too obscene to be made or viewed.

[Strike For The South]

navaros youre so silly

[Samurai Waki]

Wow. Navaros, I thought Christianity, the Bible, and Jesus were all a matter of personal interpretation, you really showed me differently.

In all seriousness though, this show does look kind of dumb.

[Tachikaze]

That means they're going to pretend they can put statements in the mouth of Jesus.

This seems to be one of the main activities of Christianity since Day One. Goofball said something similar, and he was right-on.

This does not mean I disagree with Crazed Rabbit's complaint. But I have the same complaint about the majority of Christian sects.

[kataphraktoi]

I know there are some people who have negative views about Christianity. No surprise there. WHat about Jesus of Nazareth? ANy negative views about him here in the org?

If he was here today speaking what he said in the New Testament, I'd say all the progressive Christian clergymen who accept gay marriage would call him intolerant :D
Not only that, they'd say he was bigoted and not inclusive of people of different "örientations".
In fact, they'd condemn Jesus.

FUnny that innit?

[Reenk Roink]

I know there are some people who have negative views about Christianity. No surprise there. WHat about Jesus of Nazareth? ANy negative views about him here in the org?

If he was here today speaking what he said in the New Testament, I'd say all the progressive Christian clergymen who accept gay marriage would call him intolerant :D
Not only that, they'd say he was bigoted and not inclusive of people of different "örientations".
In fact, they'd condemn Jesus.

FUnny that innit?

I never thought of it that way...