NBC evidently heard enough from it’s viewers to understand that the upcoming episode of Will and Grace scheduled to be aired on Good Friday was an affront to people all over the country and has now announced it’s plans to drop the “Cruci-fixins” plot line.
Am I relieved that the death of our Lord and Savior will not be mocked and belittled on Good Friday (or any time for that matter)? Of course! Do I see this as some sort of repentance and turning away from the Christian bashing that NBC has been engaging in? Not really. The foul stench of “The Book of Daniel” is still all too acrid in my nostrils.
In fact, NBC has continued to be defiant and dishonest when it responds to genuine Christian outrage at having our faith and our Lord mocked.
When NBC released their statement to address the Will and Grace issue, they referred to some "erroneous information" that was "mistakenly included in a press release describing an upcoming episode ... which, in fact, has yet to be written." The offensive reference to "Cruci-fixins" will not be in the show, the network went on to state, "and the story line will not contain a Christian characterization at all."
Unfortunately, as AFA (The American Family Association) has pointed out, the memo did not clarify that it was NBC itself that had issued the "erroneous information”. My first reading of the information was not through any Christian group but on the FOX news website in an Associated Press piece.
Oh for some Christian writers in Hollywood who would refuse to mock the faith of others and who would write with the talent that is required to provide good, funny, uplifting entertainment. And folks, it does require much, much, more talent to entertain without taking cheap shots, tearing others down, using every four letter word known to man as adjectives or going for the cheap laugh and thrill by using blatant sexual references. I am affronted by NBC’s recent programming first because it mocks my faith and second because it is simply poor and unimaginative writing. I guess the world just isn’t that interested in talent anymore!
“First, I want to remind you that in the last days there will be scoffers who will laugh at the truth and do every evil thing they desire. This will be their argument: "Jesus promised to come back, did he? Then where is he? Why, as far back as anyone can remember, everything has remained exactly the same since the world was first created."
2 Peter 3:3-4 (NLT)
A note to the reader - This is not my normal, gentle reflective entry. My passions have been aroused and I am compelled to share this with you and besides - it’s my blog and I’ll rant if I want to!”
I have been whipped into lather for the past month regarding NBC’s blatant disrespect for Christianity. For years I have seen this anti-Christian trend heating up and the boiling point happened when they tried to present “The Book of Daniel” as entertainment and not the tacky, blasphemous, poorly written piece of junk it was. I wrote to NBC, I wrote to my local NBC affiliate, I wrote to sponsors. My initial email elicited a response from the President & General Manager of my local NBC affiliate in Spokane, Lon C. Lee whose thinly veiled chastisement of my jumping on the Christian bandwagon to protest a show that had not yet aired was typical. He informed me that he had screened the first episode and that “The tone of the show focuses on how Daniel Webster deals with these every-day real-life situations in a caring Christian-like manner. “ Well folks, I don’t know what manner the Christians in your congregation deal with every day real-life situations but it isn’t by popping pain killers. And let’s discuss “real life situations”, one man of the cloth with an alcoholic wife, a sex-crazed teenage son, a homosexual son, a daughter that sells drugs so she can finance her budding career in Japanese erotic cartoons, a brother in law who steals from the church, a sister in law who is having a lesbian affair with the church secretary, a friend who is a Catholic priest and who is an active participant in mob activities…..and there’s even more that I am just too disgusted to mention. Can anyone explain to me how this is “every-day-real situations?!” It definitely isn’t where I live nor was it ever in the years I lived in L.A. If this is what Mr. Lee is experiencing as real life I think we need to charter a bus and go and lay hands on the poor soul!
But I digress. Mr. Lee challenged me in his email and said, “I hope you will have an opportunity to watch the first episode on Friday night. If you feel the same way you do now after watching the show, I would like to hear from you.”
I felt his point was valid and as much as I did not relish the task (for me it was a bit like putting on my wellies and mucking out a pig sty). I sat on my sofa at the appointed hour on the night of the debut of the show, pen and legal pad in hand. For the next seventy minutes (which is all I could stand); I watched, listened and made notes. All I can say is “Hallelujah” for commercials or I would have never made it through. I went over my copious notes and began to compose my “review” to send to Mr. Lee. I felt good, I had informed myself, the show was in fact worse than I had feared and I had taken steps to make my opinions known. After clicking “send” I felt much better. I waited for Mr. Lee’s response. I never received the courtesy of a reply.
I sent a follow up letter. Still no reply. Despite the silence from KHQ-NBC Spokane, my faith in the American practice of activism was renewed when I found out that over 680,000 people had done what I had done and let their voices be heard. The show was cancelled after two episodes.
Although I rejoiced at the cancellation of the show, I still felt uneasy. The hissy fit thrown by the program’s creator did nothing to ease my mind that Hollywood had a conscience after all. He said, “AFA (The American Family Association) and bullies like them are hard at work to try and prevent you from seeing these beautiful shows," That is censorship, pure and simple -- and that is both un-Christian and un-American." Beautiful show?! It was a cheap imitation of Desperate Housewives with the addition of Christian and Christ bashing and a good amount of blasphemy sprinkled in. This show was far from beautiful and it wasn’t even written well enough to be called entertaining. Un-Christian? I have searched Scripture and nowhere do I find a verse that commands me to “tolerate filth and blasphemy” .
Knowing Hollywood’s blatant derision of all things Christian and NBC’s apparent furthering of these feelings, I waited for the other shoe to fall – and fall it did. I read the following in a January 31st Associated Press Article:
“Britney Spears will guest star on an episode of "Will & Grace," NBC announced Tuesday. The pop star will appear as a Christian conservative sidekick to Sean Hayes' character, Jack, who hosts his own talk show, on the April 13 episode, the network said. Jack's fictional network, Out TV, is bought by a Christian TV network, leading to Spears contributing a cooking segment called "Cruci-fixin's."”
NBC has chosen to air this mockery of the crucifixion on the night before Good Friday.
I can choose to ignore most of the drivel that is aired on television. I turn off the show and tune into a station that does not offend me or mock my beliefs or I simply turn off the TV. If I wrote letters about every anti-Christian and offensive show that aired I would seldom be able to leave my computer. This is the sad state of our world. But, when a network begins to show a pattern of more than mockery, but outright hatred and denigration of the things that are most sacred to my Christian beliefs, I am prompted to stand up and make my voice heard. A voice, I might remind the creator of The Book of Daniel that has just as much right to protest and access to freedom of speech as Hollywood. How interesting that Hollywood cries “freedom of speech” as often as they say “double mocha cappuccino” but their narrow little view of the world does not allow Christians the same freedom of speech.
As Christians we are called to a very specific standard of behavior and when we make our views known we must live up to the standard Christ set. But you don’t check your rights at the door when you are a Christ follower. Hollywood can’t hide behind the First Amendment when it defends pornography and then accuse Christians of censorship when they make their voices heard.
So NBC, what’s up? Is there someone with a lot of power at your network who has an ax to grind with Christians and with God? All things seem to point in that direction. A December 6th episode of “Law and Order, Special Victims Unit” raised a hue and a cry in the Catholic community with it’s lifting up of same sex parenthood by denigrating and demeaning the Catholic faith.
It is sadly amusing that NBC is so blindly arrogant that it cannot see how blatant its agenda is. This network pats itself on the back with their Public Service Announcements (PSAs) called “The More You Know". The script for intolerance contains these words:
“Make sure your children understand that prejudice and discrimination are unfair. Make it a firm rule that no person should be excluded or teased on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, accent, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or appearance. Take appropriate action against prejudice and hate. If another person uses bigoted language or acts in a prejudiced manner in front of your child, don't ignore it. Say something like "Please don't use such language in front of me and my child" or "That kind of joke offends me." Your children need to know that such behavior is unacceptable even if it comes from someone they know. “
I would respond by saying:
I agree that prejudice and discrimination are unfair and neither child nor adult should exhibit it or use their power as a national television network to promote it.
If NBC really believes that “ no person should be excluded or teased on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, accent, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or appearance “ why are they mocking and demeaning the Christian faith (I haven’t noticed them mocking any other religions).
I am “taking appropriate action against prejudice and hate” by voicing my opinions and voting with my wallet, despite Hollywood’s belief that I somehow have lost the right to do so. I will not support NBC nor will I support any sponsor who supports shows that portray my faith in a “prejudicial or hateful way”.
Not only do your children need to know that “such behavior is unacceptable even if it comes from someone you know” adults should be aware of this as well and understand that it is all the more unacceptable when a national television network uses it’s access to millions of homes to promote it.
Ah NBC, shame on you!
"When the world hates you, remember it hated Me before it hated you. The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don't. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? `A servant is not greater than the master.' Since they persecuted Me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to Me, they would listen to you! The people of the world will hate you because you belong to Me, for they don't know God who sent Me. They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin.”
John 15: 17-22 (NLT)
Last Sunday we lit the first Advent candle at church, the candle of hope. Hope. The dictionary defines it as: To wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment. Or To have confidence; trust. This talk of hope caused me to think about the hopes that I have. I decided that I could separate my hopes into three categories, trivial hopes, little hopes and huge hopes.
My trivial hopes would include the hope that the 30 minutes of shoveling I did yesterday morning at 7:00am would rack enough Weight Watcher activity points to mitigate any unauthorized eating I might engage in during the day. Or that we would have the job of garage organizing done in time to get both cars in the garage before the snow arrived.
A little hope, that would be the hope that my constant repeating of the phrase “jewelry is ALWAYS a tasteful gift” to my husband would be influential in his Christmas gift decisions. Or it could be the hope that Tucker, our cross-eyed Siamese mix would stay off the beautifully set Thanksgiving table (at least while my family and guests were present).
I had a huge hope that our moving to Northern Idaho would be a way for me to be a blessing to my mother who had sacrificed so much for her three children. It was so exciting to think about being in the same town with her and not so many states apart.
Placing our hopes in the things of this world is a toss of the dice. The world cannot be counted on and so our hopes can be quickly dashed or circumstances surrounding our hopes may require quick alterations of expectations.
For instance, I learned that my 30 minutes of vigorous shoveling amounts to a measly 2 Weight Watcher activity points…big whoopee.
Both cars are in the garage but my husband and I have come to the realization that a two car garage does not mean a 2 SUV garage. The payoff for having dry, warm cars are the contortions we have to go through to get in those warm cars. Only one car is accessible and to drive that one you have to climb in through the passenger seat. In order to drive the other car, one car must be moved and we have worked out quite a lovely choreography for garbage days in order move a car in order to get the garbage can out of the garage and on the curb.
My darling husband will probably still think that a practical gift of technology will be a much better way to prove his love than a frivolous piece of jewelry and the cat did indeed manage to choose the most inopportune moment (translation, in front of all my family and friends) to make a flying leap for the turkey platter.
And last year, on November 11th as we drove non-stop from southern California to our new home in Northern Idaho. My hope of fun filled days with my mother changed to a hope that we would just make it in time to see her before she passed away. She had been hospitalized unexpectedly the day prior to our scheduled move date and she died four days after we emptied the moving van and moved into our new home here.
People have had hopes since God created us. In some writing I did for Advent this year I talked about the Israelites and their HUGE hope. At the time of Christ’s birth, God had not spoken in a new way to His people for about 400 years. They had lived under the reign of Herod, a tyrant who tortured individuals and tore communities apart. The people were in utter poverty and in the 40 years prior to Christ’s birth hardly a day went by without someone being sentenced to death. They hoped for the advent of a king who would come and rescue them with swords blazing and soldiers riding at his side. Their hope was in an earthly king and that hope was not realized.
Hopes are not bad but what I realized in this little “hope inventory” I did was that as a Christ follower, I had another category of hope that had nothing to do with my expectations regarding the things of the world or my circumstances. That category is my “hope in Christ”.
When our hopes are tied up in the things of God, we don’t just have expectation, we have assurance. Assurance that He is working for good in our lives and that His will for us is so much better than our narrow view of what we want for ourselves.
I think about Naomi, standing at that crossroad, bereft and grieving. She had no earthly possessions and she had lost the most precious gifts God had given her, her husband and her sons. She was returning to the home of her youth as a widow, which was just about the lowest rung of the social scale at that time. Only men could own property and there were no men left in her family. She was walking toward a life where her very survival would depend on the good will of others. All the hopes she had at her wedding, the hopes she had for her children had dissipated like dust in the wind. As far as Naomi was concerned her glass was not half empty, it had been completely drained.
In the first chapter of Ruth we hear the desolation in her voice when she urges her daughters in law to return to their homes, "Go back, my dear daughters. Why would you come with me? Do you suppose I am still able to bear sons who would become your future husbands? Go back, dear daughters—leave me and return to your homes where you still have a chance at a full life. Even if a miracle happened and I had sons would you wait around until they were old enough for you to marry? No, dear girls, this is a bitter pill for me to swallow God has dealt me a hard blow, He has forsaken me, my life is over."
Naomi had placed her hope in her circumstances and therefore she felt abandoned by God, hopeless. But God was moving in His own way and in His own time, and His plan made Naomi’s grandson the great-grandfather of David. Naomi’s small hopes of shelter and a decent life were so small in comparison to the reality of what God blessed her with.
The Czech playwright Vaclav Havel wrote, “Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.” Our hope in Christ is an absolute certainty: a certainty for today and tomorrow. And knowing that our God has plans for us that are only good, we can be certain that the circumstances in our lives make sense, regardless of the outcome or the circumstances we find ourselves in.
Because our hope is in Jesus Christ, we have the assurance of eternal life. And that life is not something deferred until our lives on earth end. Eternal life begins at the moment of salvation, living in the fullness of Christ in the here and now. That hope should shine out of us like a beacon, lighting up the world around us and throwing such a beacon of light on the truth of Scripture that those who are blind will be able to see it and claim it for themselves.
In this advent season and in all seasons, my prayer and my hope is that our beacons continue to burn so bright that the world will see the immensity of the glorious way of the life Christ has in store for all who follow Him.
Father, I pray that my hope will never rest on the shaky ground of the things of this world. Help me to know and understand the amazing hope that only comes from You. And let that hope shine from me and light up the world around all those I encounter..
"Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God." ! Peter 1:21 (NLT)
Our adopted robin whose nest graces the curve of the gutter spout by the dining room window is gone. I cannot believe how much I miss her and how sad I was the first morning I discovered she and her little ones had left.
Each morning I would take my coffee cup into the dining room and open the blinds to check on “Momma’s” progress. There was an inordinate amount of time of nest sitting but then finally we could see eggs in the nest. Almost overnight it seemed as though the eggs had turned into 4 little eternally hungry birds.
Momma worked day and night to feed her brood. She would race down to the lawn after the evening sprinkling session and gather up as many worms as possible. When we worked in the back yard, she would always be on the alert, flying to the fence, drawing attention away from her family. Her vigorous scoldings left no doubt that though she might be little, she was fiercely protective.
And so the days passed, Mamma constantly working, watching and defending and I their self appointed guardian keeping a close eye on our adopted avian family.
And then one day I saw the "not so little ones" on the ground near the fence, furiously flapping their wings with Mamma on the fence above, chirping encouragement. I wanted to stay and help. My husband told me to let nature take it’s course and that intervening would do more harm than good. An appointment called me away and when I returned home there were no little birds, no Mamma, only an empty nest. I was bereft and amazed that I was feeling such a loss. “What’s this about I wondered as tears filled my eyes and a heavy sadness settled on my heart.” I didn’t understand and finally prayed a quick prayer; “Father, this seems like such an extreme reaction. What is going on in my heart? Why am I so sad? Please reveal to me what the true source of this pain is so I can deal with it.”
God in His grace and mercy answered immediately and placed the knowledge in my heart. I so identified with that little robin because she reminded me of my own mother. A woman, who raised three children alone, worked two jobs for many years and always put us first. A woman with incredible strength, wisdom and love who sacrificed much to provide for us. An amazing woman who could laugh as hard as she worked. As I gazed at that empty nest, I mourned her sudden passing 9 months ago, I mourned for our loss and for the many dreams she must have had that went unfulfilled while she encouraged us to realize ours. Recognizing that my little robin “Momma’s” leaving had opened that wound in my heart I was reminded again how much I miss my mother. And so I cried some more but these tears were cleansing tears, tears of release and tears of thankfulness to God that He had provided my brother and sister and I with such a “Momma”. Thanks Mom for all your sacrifice and care and thank You Lord for calling her Your own. What comfort to know that she is no longer bound to an earthly nest but is now flying on angel’s wings.
Dear Jesus, thank you for tears that cleanse and a heart that remembers. Thank You for your comforting words and your grace and for beautiful things from Your creation that remind us of Your blessings..
"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; He rescues those who are crushed in spirit."
Psalm 34:18 (NLT)
