For all practical purposes, this is a pagan country. Watch the Mardi Gras celebration, catch the Super Bowl, turn on your television for more than thirty seconds, listen to the radio, or just take a trip on the subway. Part of our problem is that we sleepwalk through all of this, imbibing it and accommodating our behavior and, worse, our faith to the thoroughly amoral, godless sludge that is our culture. What were until very recently considered matters of common Christian consent are now shunned as the most radical of Orthodoxy. My own Catholic Church is absolutely no execption.

Unless and until we realize that 1) our faith is really, really true, not simply “true for me” and 2) we are very much behind the lines of spiritual battle here in the US, we will continue to delude oursevles with fanciful notions that only a minor adjustment here, a friendly judge there will cure what ails our dying civilization. The proper role of the small-”c” church is and always will be counter-cultural. We must embrace this fact with the same fervor and joy as any crank Marxist revolutionary, and live lives of entirely Christ-like disregard for the consequences.

We must.

Let’s just say that on this day, a million years ago, a dude was born that most of us think was really magical, and if you don’t believe in him, that’s ok too…but we’re probably right.

Firstly, I will concede that the program was by no means an evangelical outreach, nor could it be considered a primer on Biblical theology or hermeneutics. That said…it was far from being offensive to even a stolidly Bible-believing Christian, and certainly should not be considered heretical.

Bland pabulum at times? Yes definitely. There was frequently as much of an emotional appeal in the bones and meat of the plot in many episodes (what I call ‘gut-wrenching slop’) as there was a call to Christian moral values and/or spirituality.

Contrary, however, to the conclusion you were willing to draw from having viewed two or three episodes, God and Christ (and the enemy) were clearly and definitively identified in a number of episodes. Moreover, their spiritual “roles” and agendas were never portrayed ambiguously.

Viewing any single episode separately, rather than as a part of the overall body of work is taking the value of the program (and the concepts it promulgated) out of context. While this is clearly nowhere nearly as risky an error in judgment or practice as would be taking any portion of the Holy Scriptures out of context – nonetheless, it can have the result of “selling short” the potential value of the program. I think it was constructed around the basic premise of “entertaining angels unaware…” found in the Scriptures of the N.T.

Some clear principles I drew from long-term regular viewing were:

a) the angels were always obedient/subservient to, and dependent upon God, (ergo the messenger never superseded the Primacy of the Sender and His message),
b) The angels were created beings (not humans who died and returned to earth to “watch over us”- a trendy, New Age-old lie of satan),
c) the message was always targeted, not at what the human recipient thought they wanted/needed or what the angel of limited understanding might have wished it – but rather, what an Omniscient Omnipotent Omnipresent God (as their Creator)knew it should be.

The angels were represented as creatures possessing freewill (not far out of line, given that our adversary began as a “Sheltering Seraph”) and as such on occasion, they made errors in their own judgment and disobeyed what they knew perfectly well they ought to follow.

Surprise! Their behaviour netted them serious consequences – a concept rather foreign to Hollywood (okay, to our ‘modern Roman’ society in general) and few punches were pulled.

Yes, I offer a spirited defense of what was after all, a television program – but it was just that. It was never a Sunday morning nor Wednesday evening homiletic, a treatise on salvation. It was however, acceptably wholesome family entertainment which did not assault nor offend Christian moral sensibilities.

God and His Son were reasonably portrayed in more than a few episodes (I am tempted to summarize at least one example; for brevity I won’t). Hope I have been helpful!

Kyrie Eleieson

Justinian (of “AmericanArchConservative”)

Here’s the breakdown:

22 percent of religion depicted on TV was positive
24 percent was negative
The other 54 percent was neutral

Now, if the PTC is looking for some kind of thesis aruging that religious depictions on TV is skewed in this country, it need to look at its own report.

I’m fine with neutral presentations of religion on TV. I don’t mind when they’re presented in storylines.

Particularly, the PTC seems upset that Law & Order continues to portray Catholic priests in a negative light. If the priests would stop bringing it upon themselves, then perhaps Law & Order would have to go find another “ripped from the headlines” storyline.

There’s only a two percent difference between positive and negative depictions. Hardly a landslide for the PTC to push forth with its thesis.

Whitewashing religion out of public eye is a totalitarian tactic of which we will all benefit from fighting against.

If I’m wrong for praising my God, as the Bible prescribes, then you do not read the same Bible as I do. I do not serve a DEAD God and I will NOT give him DEAD worship and praise. Shabach, Barak, Halal, are these all foreign to you? Are the methods of praise outlined in Psalm 150 too ‘outrageous’ for you?

I recall what happened to David’s wife when she chided him for praising his God when the Ark of the Covenant returned to Israel. Or perhaps, you’ve never read that story.

David — ‘highly emotional’. Ha! Curse him for loving God so!

Just as you say ‘icky, emotional praise’, I cannot stand a DEAD church with DEAD people bound by tradition and a desire to be locked in a cushy routine that neither sets the captives free nor heals the blind.

With that being said; good day. Adios. Perhaps I’ll e-mail you one day. *tips hat*

I am an evangelical Christian and have a son who has rejected his faith, claiming he is grown up now and no longer believes. My wife and I pray for him. That’s all we can do. We cannot even bring up the subject.

And I agree with La Shawn earlier. We live in a fallen world and really should not be surprised by this. In addition to being full of stereotypes, Christianity is full of anachronisms: first will be last, die to live, lose to find, etc. Christ told us to expect difficulty and persecution. No maybe about it.

The main problem is that as Christians we are called to evangelize and/or proselytize to the four corners of the earth. That bugs people. We cannot be Christians without accepting the Great Commission. Unfortunately evangelism is seen by the unchurched as one of the following: the kind we see on TV (groan), someone getting in your face asking if you’re saved, someone passing out tracts, etc. We on the inside know it can be different, but from the outside looking in, it’s pretty awful.

Also, most other religions are content to co-exist peacefully, with possibly the exception of extreme Islamic fundamentalists. You do your thing. I’ll do my thing. Also, we must admit that religion in general has a pretty bad record of going around starting wars and killing people over the centuries. And aren’t the established churches messed up? How many hundreds of denominations are there? We can’t agree on many huge issues such as gay marriage or abortion. And, the real killer: are Christians lives really that different from most people?

No, Hollywood is probably being pretty accurate. Unfortunately. As Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

PS. La Shawn , I really love this blog!