A couple of days ago I wrote a blog entry about the evils of television, but in the middle of my rant about the torture propaganda on all of the cop shows, I forgot about the original idea which sparked me to write the piece.
That is the Christian propaganda on TV. I’m not talking about the 700 Club, or the Hour of Power or stuff like that. Those are just televised sermons and if you enjoy watching them, God bless you. (I mean that as a figure of speech meaning something like blessings be upon you, may you fare well, I bear you no ill will. I am not, personally, a believer in the existence of a supreme being)
No, I’m talking about entertainment TV where the Santa Claus like mythology of helpful angels and a sweet afterlife are presented. Joan of Arcadia is probably the most glaring example. I’ve never been able to force myself to watch a whole episode, so I can’t claim to be an expert, but the shows very premise is that this average teenager sees God and he (or she) tells her what to do. I guess it’s a harmless enough premise, if you like that sort of thing.
Then there is The Ghost Whisperer. O.K., it’s about ghosts and they exist outside of, as well as in, Christian tradition, but her job is to persuade them to “go into the light,” i.e. heaven. There they will find love, and forgiveness, although usually she needs to find them some forgiveness here first. My kids just see it as a good story, and it’s about the raciest thing we’ll let them watch, I think my wife actually enjoys the schmaltz factor and I think Jennifer Love Hewitt is smoking hot, so everybody’s happy. Listening to a bit of sugar-coated Christian propaganda seems a small price to pay.
I was quite excited when The Others came out. It seemed to be a bit like The Ghost Whisperer, but with an expanded premise, i.e. a large group of people with various psychic powers, but it’s really just the Ghost Whisperer with an ensemble cast and the producers were obviously hoping that with this many actors at least one of them would have some charisma but, alas, that is not the case and the writers don’t have any original ideas either so it comes down to a whole lot of guiding dead people towards the light and sudden frightened looks and spooky music.
Actually, I guess it’s not that many and we should let the Christians have their fun but I just wanted to point out that their sales pitch is showing through.
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