NBC – The Narrow and Bigoted Channel
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)
