Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Mon, Jan 09 2006
The Book of Daniel
I got a chance to view NBC's The Book of Daniel this past weekend and I have to say I was not nearly as turned off by the presentation as I'd expected to be. There were folks practically foaming at the mouth with anger before the show even aired, so I suppose I thought they knew something about the project that I didn't know. I expected sacrilege of a most-hellish nature, but was met with a dysfunctional bunch of characters I think we can all say reminded us of people we've known in real life.
I'm not an Episcopalian, but I thought, as an outsider to that denomination, that they did a reasonable job of representing basic Episcopalian beliefs. The show is entertainment and was not intended to be an evangelical tool, from what I've read. One article in particular caught my eye, in which Jack Kenny spoke about the background of the show's premise. Whatever the other issues might be for Christians, I was extremely attracted to the idea that the character of Jesus does not ride pastor Daniel's shoulder with a whip and chair and is not even supposed to be Jesus at all. He's actually a sort of prayer in Daniel's imagination. The pastor invents conversations with a Saviour he hopes is as friendly and forgiving as Daniel and his fellow pastors have been preaching that He is.
I suppose if one watched the show with an eye toward catching them all at something bad there were plenty of opportunities to do that. But it concerns me that maybe this is also the way people sometimes see God—waiting to catch them at something bad. In our haste to make any portrayal of Jesus as holy and above reproach we sometimes forget that the real Jesus has a reputation for walking among humans to blow away all the tainted misconceptions they already had about a loving God.
With all the tawdry things we see in entertainment and in real life these days I'd say that this show was one of the least offensive things I've come across lately.
posted at: 08:30 | category: /Arts and Entertainment | link to this entry
I got a chance to view NBC's The Book of Daniel this past weekend and I have to say I was not nearly as turned off by the presentation as I'd expected to be. There were folks practically foaming at the mouth with anger before the show even aired, so I suppose I thought they knew something about the project that I didn't know. I expected sacrilege of a most-hellish nature, but was met with a dysfunctional bunch of characters I think we can all say reminded us of people we've known in real life.
I'm not an Episcopalian, but I thought, as an outsider to that denomination, that they did a reasonable job of representing basic Episcopalian beliefs. The show is entertainment and was not intended to be an evangelical tool, from what I've read. One article in particular caught my eye, in which Jack Kenny spoke about the background of the show's premise. Whatever the other issues might be for Christians, I was extremely attracted to the idea that the character of Jesus does not ride pastor Daniel's shoulder with a whip and chair and is not even supposed to be Jesus at all. He's actually a sort of prayer in Daniel's imagination. The pastor invents conversations with a Saviour he hopes is as friendly and forgiving as Daniel and his fellow pastors have been preaching that He is.
I suppose if one watched the show with an eye toward catching them all at something bad there were plenty of opportunities to do that. But it concerns me that maybe this is also the way people sometimes see God—waiting to catch them at something bad. In our haste to make any portrayal of Jesus as holy and above reproach we sometimes forget that the real Jesus has a reputation for walking among humans to blow away all the tainted misconceptions they already had about a loving God.
With all the tawdry things we see in entertainment and in real life these days I'd say that this show was one of the least offensive things I've come across lately.
posted at: 08:30 | category: /Arts and Entertainment | link to this entry
