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BY DON WILDMON | AFA Founder/Chairman
As I write this, NBC is preparing to begin a new series called
The Book of Daniel. AFA has been alerting Christians to the
series and has been successful in getting several NBC affiliates
not to carry the program.
The "Christian" characters in the program form a totally
dysfunctional family. But NBC feels they are representative of many
Christian families.
The program’s main characters include Daniel Webster, a drug-addicted
Episcopal priest; his alcoholic wife; his son, a 23-year-old homosexual
Republican; his daughter, a 16-year-old drug dealer; a 16-year-old
adopted son who is having sex with the bishop’s daughter; his
sister-in-law who is having a lesbian affair with her husband’s
secretary; and a very unconventional white-robed, bearded Jesus
who talks to the priest. Jesus is portrayed as a good-old-boy kind
of buddy, and assures the priest that his druggie daughter and promiscuous
son are good kids.
It 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," he said.
NBC received well over 600,000 e-mails asking them not to run the
series, but they told Christians to take a hike. NBC said it was
good drama. They would have been more correct if they had called
it good comedy.
Trying to take the steam out of AFA’s movement, several NBC
affiliates provided pre-screening for ministers in their local areas.
Their thinking was that if they could get these ministers in to
watch the show, the ministers would say how good it is and AFA would
be humiliated. But a funny thing happened on the way to wiping out
AFA’s credibility. AFA’s description of the program proved
correct.
After viewing the first episode at WBIR in Knoxville, several religious
leaders gave their views on the program. Brian Kearns, minister
at Lighthouse Christian Church, said, "I think it’s very
demeaning to Christianity. It’s an assault on the Christian
faith."
Rev. Tom Seay, of the Bearden United Methodist Church, described
it as "just a pretty sorry piece of work."
Dale Powers of the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville said, "You’re
portraying something as normal that is just absurd."
And Rev. John Stuart said, "What the show has done is demean
my faith. You’ve diminished the person I worship … you’ve
wounded me."
NBC lost millions when reputable advertisers ran away from the
program. But that mattered not to NBC. They had an agenda and losing
money was a non-issue.
That the media’s hostility to Christians and Christianity
runs deep is no longer a dirty little secret. It is now a well-known
fact.
It is time for Christians to demand that it end. And it is time
for Christians to get involved. No, it is past time.
These advertisers were
among sponsors of the January 6 premiere:
Mazda North American Operations
P.O. Box 19734
Irvine, CA 92623-9734
Toll free: 1-800-222-5500
E-mail: jamestoy@mazdausa.com
Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse
Corp.
1830 Rte. 130
Burlington, NJ 08016
Toll free: 1-888-223-2628
E-mail: Monroe.milstein@coat.com
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