A Baptist preacher writing for Salon had this to say to his fellow Christians who think that “The Book of Daniel” was created to make fun of Christianity:
“Yo, brothers and sisters in Christ. They weren’t making fun of you. It’s much worse than that. The folks at NBC don’t care about you enough to make fun of you. They don’t even know you exist. You are not a part of their world. They want to make money, that’s all. This is no great mystery or secret. They’re not hypocrites; they’re capitalists. . . .
“Stop taking things so personally. You’re giving the rest of us Christians a bad name. Learn to laugh at yourself, or do what I did. Just turn off your TV, look at the person next to you, and say, ‘Well, that sucked!’ . . .
“And I’ve got news for you, Christian. If your faith isn’t changing your life enough to make a difference in the world, you’ve got bigger problems than NBC.”
Meanwhile, the Rt. Rev. Dean E. Wolfe, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, wrote a commentary on today’s Opinion page about the show. His take: “This series is intended as entertainment and not as a serious depiction of modern clergy life.” And he concluded that “most people will be able to understand the difference between truth and sensationalized fiction or farce.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
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23 Comments
Atkinson nailed it.My dog could write better television.
After reading the two letters in the Eagle Yesterday. I sent this to the “Letters to the Editor” e-mail.
In response to the letters “ It’s now acceptable to bash Christians” Jan.10, 2006. One letter writer said, “Christians are being targeted in every aspect these days; God is being made a laughingstock.” That is true fellow Christian, but it is you and those like you that are making a mockery of the teachings of Christ and the churches you attend. You are the ones giving Christianity a bad image. You are the ones showing the world that Christians are self righteous, a wise man once said, “Lord protect me from the Righteous!”.If you wish to look for the imperfect, you should look within yourself and the Pastor you follow for you have shown that truly “All fall short of the glory of God”. Hear this, it is not what the world see on a TV. screen that can destroy Christianity. It is only Christians that can end Christianity. I talk to Jesus everyday and yes Jesus talks to me everyday too. I hear the perfect voice of Jesus, you hear only the imperfect voice of Terry Fox.May God be with you.*****More then any thing said by any non-believer. More than a movie or TV. Program. I think the greatest danger to Christianity is Christians. I will say it again,”no otherside force can stop Christianity. Only Christians can do that.”I have noticed a change within the Christian community. It use to be you included God in your life. Now it seem some want to include your life in God.
NBCs “Law and Order” on Monday depicted a crazed Nazi family, compete with Swastika flags all over their house, ranting and foaming at the mouth, about how they hated the Jews and the { kike } detective, and the {Ni**er} detective { two of my favorite actors, by the way }.
But, of course, the big one was how much they especially hatred the Zionists controlled White House, which somehow was the center piece of their crazed rant.
Gee, golly golly, I wonder who wrote that show?
Oh, Somehow they forgot to mention: Bush wanting to bomb Aljazeera TV station { I guess they just forgot }.
Propaganda?….naw.
I watched the program out of curiousity after all the uproar. I have to wonder how many of those screaming “blasphemy” have actually watched it. I saw a depiction of a family of humans – what a concept. Yes, they lumped an awful lot of dysfunctionality in one family but that is typical television. Face it, we are ALL imperfect, including pastors.
The depiction of Jesus is precisely what I learned in Sunday School reading the Gospels. He knows I am a sinner; He knows I have problems; but He is here for me anyway. I am remonded of the poem about the footprints in the sand – mine and His side by side but sometimes only one set. “That, my son, is where I carried you.”
In the program Jesus appears as a loving, compassionate figure; always there to help. When asked why He doesn’t talk to others He replies “I do, they just don’t listen.”
Taliban Terry is one of those who does not listen. In his world Jesus is judgemental and unapproachable (expect through Terry). That is NOT the Jesus I read about in the Gospels.
Many of the fanatical christians are leftist liberals, so it doesn’t surprise me how they go about trying to ban everything in site that doesn’t show a good light on them.
Sorry Joe, but I gotta call B.S. on that one. Prove to us that most fanatical christians are leftest liberals. Geez, I thought we were all godless heathens. You right wingers cant have it both ways.
Personally, I would be ashamed to call myself a christian these days. Writerdog is correct. When we make fun of you, it is only because you act so all knowing and so self-righteous. All the world loves to skewer pomposity.
Try acting like reasonable, compassionate humans, and we might not find you so funny…or sad. Try to exhibit some servant leadership instead of working to kill or marginalize anyone who doesnt blindly agree with you. Try upholding freedom of or from religion instead of cramming your personal beliefs down our throats ever more viciously. The jokes might stop if your words and deeds actually matched up.
GREAT SATIRE JOE! TALIBAN TERRY FOX AND PHARISEE PHRED PHELPS AS LIBERALS! MAN, YOU SURE CAN SPIN A GREAT YARN!!!!!!!
Rather than jumping to conclusions, consider one similarity.
Liberals like big government, and encourage the government to legislate more and more laws to ‘protect’ us. The gay marriage ban by the religious zealots is a law to ‘protect marriage’.
Is that a valid similarity? I don’t personally care for the labelling, but in one instance anyway, there is a commonality of purpose–more government, more laws, more ‘protection’.
Except…I wouldn’t mind if my sister married a Liberal…I would probably shoot her if she even dated a self professed, narcissistic ‘holy man’ like Terry Fox.
Thanks Ray! That is how I look at it. Leftist use government for their ends. They want more regulation, more political correctness, more taxes, more power of the government. They also strive for everybody having a single view. Radical christians are the same. They are no different from Leftist.
You show me a radical christan who is for less government, less taxes, less regulation, and tolerant to other people’s view, and I’ll show you great ocean front property in Utah. Sorry! Radical Christans and Leftists are basically the same minded people.
What’s the matter, Ed? Hit a little too close to home?
The only people who should be upset in this bland little piece of TV are Italian Catholics for the depiction of a mobbed-up priest.
Joe – there are some big differences, at least from my perspective. I favor regulations upon your behavior where that might effect me. For example, if you pollute my air that should be regulated. As for political correctness; I am probably one of the most politically INCORRECT people around.
I am VERY different from the Taliban Terry types in that what you do in the privacy of your home is of no concern to me. They seem to consider that to be more important than anything in the universe.
Joe’s correct, most of the evangelical conservatives came over to the Right in the 70s-80s, and they came from the Democrat party.
Not Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, but definitely James Dobson. The vanguard of this shift, from Democrat to Republican, included young guys like Ralph Reed and Jay Sekulow. Anybody know about Jesus Freaks, from the 70s? Jesus Freaks were Dem liberals who eventually crossed over to the Republican party.
Peggy Noonan (among many others) has written extensively about the secular reasons why the Dems have hollowed out in the last generation, but in my opinion the secular reasons she lays out explain well the cultural shift in the Democrat party which led to this evangelical diaspora (all of her writing is political but it’s not all polemic; in fact, she sounds so much like a Dem that her writing often brings out the paranoia in self-described Liberals).
ksfarmgrrl..I am a Christian and not a bit ashamed of it. When one claims Christ, it does not mean we necessarily claim the actions of anyone else.
I agree with ksfarmgrrl, if the religious extremists would quit providing their detractors with so much great material, the jokes would probably stop. They are their own worst enemy.The hypocrisy is just too delicious!!!
flike – you have to keep in mind that these cross-overs realli did not come from the Democratic Party. They came from the DIXIEcratic Party. That was the old southern party of George Wallace etc.
I grew up in Georgia; that is why I was a registered REPUBLICAN back then; the GOP was the party of change.
“A Baptist preacher writing for Salon had this to say to his fellow Christians who think that “The Book of Daniel” was created to make fun of Christianity:”
My God . . . common sense: finally. Can it be true?
Ben, Those Vidalia onions are so sweet, you can eat them like an apple.
True Ben, but when they tally the votes there is no Dixicrat column; the only D is Democrat. If they ain’t a D, then they gotta be R. ;)
“A Baptist preacher writing for Salon had this to say to his fellow Christians who think that “The Book of Daniel” was created to make fun of Christianity:”
For paranoids prone to insight (I personally have met very few of that type of creature) the argument is: “You are not important enough to persecute.”
I would wonder how many ultra-right Christians would be caught dead reading Salon. Further, if they did read it, would they be able to process the information?
The then Eagle-Beacon supported not showing the Amos ‘n’ Andy TV show because it demeaned Blacks. Now the Eagle supports the showing of Daniel because it demeans Christians
WRONG JOE. The show does NOT demean Christians. That myth onyl exists in your sick mind.
Ben Huie,Talk about a sick mind, you can not even spell “only”. For a person educated in “trash” you sure can put it out.Is that the reason they didn’t want you on the CPO?