Jesus Shall Reign: Prayers at Primetime ("ER" edits the Messiah)

Breakpoint ^ | 21 April 03 | Chuck Colson

[Mr. Silverback]

Last fall, I told you about how the television show ER took advantage of a guest appearance by film actor Don Cheadle to propagandize in favor of embryonic stem cell research. That wasn’t the only time that ER viewers have been treated to a liberal sermon on controversial social issues. Both abortion and gay rights have received similar attention.

Pointing this out often brings denials that any such sermonizing is taking place and accusations that cultural conservatives are inferring a worldview that isn’t there.

Well, a recent story about how ER handled the most important religious question of all makes it clear that no one is imagining anything.

Barbara Nicolosi is a former nun who teaches screenwriting at the Act One program in Los Angeles. Act One’s mission is to prepare "writers to be apostles through their lives and work in the heart of the entertainment industry." As a result of her work, Nicolosi knows many of the Christians in the entertainment field.

One actor friend recently told her a story about his appearance on ER, which Nicolosi recounted on her website. Her friend was hired to play the minister officiating at the funeral for a character’s grandmother.

The first script he was given appeared to be copied straight from a prayer book. It included the traditional, Trinitarian ending for a prayer: "through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever."

When he got to the set, however, an edited script omitted the words "and reigns." Thinking it must have been an oversight, he added "and reigns" back into the prayer when he delivered the lines.

That’s when he learned that it wasn’t an oversight. The director showed him a copy of the script in which the words "and reigns" were "circled in red and crossed out" and told him, "We cut those two words out. You won’t be saying them."

Nicolosi calls the change "hugely revelatory" of the entertainment industry’s mindset. As she says, "Christ doesn’t get to reign here. . . . Even if the show is depicting a family where He probably does reign, it doesn’t matter."

Why? "There is just so much animosity toward Christianity, that [people in the industry] would rather look like bad researchers, than . . . allow Christ to reign for two seconds in primetime."

What can Christians do about this animosity? For starters, being aware of it can make us more intelligent consumers of media, more discerning of what we see on the screen. We need to learn to recognize when people are trying to sell us on something besides cars or dish detergent.

And more importantly, we can support the work of groups like Act One and Christian writers who are working to leaven the lump that is Hollywood. Television is a writer-driven medium. That means that even a handful of Christians who "are willing to pay the price that excellence, artistry, [and] professionalism . . . demand" can make a difference in what we see on the screen—maybe even the difference between propaganda and allowing Christ to reign on the primetime screen, as He indeed does in real life.

[Mr. Silverback]

Here's the commentary on the Doug Cheadle storyline that he mentioned.

Actually, I think ER is pretty much a mixed bag. It's not that they're even close to balanced, it's that the stuff that I view as pro-conservative is so much more forceful than any other show (especially the pro-life stuff) that I picture somebody like Kate Michelman watching it and writhing in agony. For example, characters often seek abortions on the show for reasons that horrify even most pro-choicers. They've had a woman who chose to abort because she already had "too many" small kids at home (then lied to her husband, claiming a miscarriage and agreeing to conceive again real soon) and a welfare recipient who faked abdominal pain to get an ultrasound so she could decide whether to have a sex-selection abortion. Most recently, a woman with virtually no chance to survive a fast-growing cancer chose to abort so she could have chemo, even though she was assured she would be dead in a few months either way. It's almost as if the writers are trying to consciously work the message in that many times abortions are performed for reasons that are stupid by any measure.

Also, the Doug Cheadle storyline made him out to be over-emotional and grabbing at straws while violating medical ethics constantly in an effort to get every terminal patient he came across to grasp at straws, too. His expectations of stem cells as a universal panacea seemed to come across as more of a belief in science as magic than anything else; he even talked about curing "every disease" if I recall corectly. Carter was portrayed as the voice of reason, just as concerned with the suffering of the patients but not willing to sell them pipe dreams.

[avalon]

I don't know why there isn't more talk about ADULT stem cell research. I think there is a lot can be done with adult stem cells, which I support.

Just a thought...

[Mr. Silverback]

Roger that. There is actually quite a bit of adult research going on, and the results are encouraging. In fact, there's one group that thinks they can convince adult skin stem cells to become anything just like the pro-death crowd claims we can do with fetal stems. In contrast, the largest study on fetal tissue grafts in Parkinsons patients shows that the treatment made them worse, and fast.

[Paul Atreides]

E.R. is pure dreck. I used to like the show, but the liberal preaching became too much to bear. What time they aren't promoting homosexuality and abortion, they are promoting more of the liberal dogma. I remember episodes in which one character, after having been attacked and beaten to a pulp, buys a gun. He is later confronted by some thugs and brandishes the weapon on them. After the punks run away, he throws away the gun, as if buying it was the most horrible sin imaginable. Also, if a white character is accused of racism, it isn't presented as the possibility that the accuser might be wrong. At first, the accused denies it, then, after some soul-searching, finally admits, that maybe he does have racist tendencies. Now, I hardly watch anything other than FNC.

[MHT]

My "relationship" with the show ER ended one night several years ago when they had an expectant mother die from a blotched C-section. I couldn't stomach it anymore. Life is full of enough tragedy, why seek more? After all, isn't following the agenda of the Democrats in the Senate enough of an emotional roller-coaster?

[annyokie]

ER lost me as a viewer when whatshername, the gippy b*tch doc came out as a lesbian after she had an affair with a guy who was trying to woo her into his HMO program.

[Paul Atreides]

I washed my hands of it when they decided to make everyone a homo. First, there was the lesbian doctor, then the homosexual male nurse, then the homosexual male ambulance driver, then they turned a heterosexual doctor into a homosexual. That is not counting the unending amount of homosexual patients coming through the hospital.

[Paul Atreides]

That's when I left too. They are just too concerned with P.C. on that show.

[annyokie]

That's for sure. And Julianna Margulies having George Clooney's twins and everyone acting like that was just ducky. Too whacky for me.

NYPD Blue lost me over all the alcoholics and perverts. When they showed a decapitated corpse with his head on his lap (a homosexually motivated murder, conveniently done by a schizophrenic) I said that's enough of this sh*t!

Pardon my language, I got a tad passionate there.

[Wilhelm Tell]

I guess that is Hollywood's version of "reality" -- virtually everyone is either a homosexual or having abortions.

[annyokie]

Homosexuals having abortions? A bit of an oxymoron? ; )

[Paul Atreides]

I remember a baby-themed episode of E.R. in which a doctor is labor. It turns out that she has cancer. She suspended her chemotherapy so that she could carry the baby to term. Some of the other medical personnel act shocked over it. She tells them that she only has a few months to live, but her baby has its whole life ahead of it. It is a very powerful, very touching moment, after she gives birth and holds her baby. However, as another aspect of the episode, they have two lesbians having a baby that was fathered by a homosexual man. I thought to myself about how they had to take an otherwise beautiful aspect of the show and ruin it.

[annyokie]

There have been many beautiful and touching moments on that show that have been marred by the percieved need to insert the PC aspect of (insert topic here).

The propensity of the writers to kill off small children, be they the unborn, infants, youngsters, is appalling.

[lucky7]

Paul for me all the TV shows have become pure dreck, I cannot believe the advertisers are not demanding a better vehicle to deliver there product to the pop corn eating public. As for ER, watched half of the first show and turned it off, as you said its dreck.

[mwyounce]

FYI: The mentioned scene should be this Thursday. Dr. Carter's grandmother died on last Thursday's show, and in the "Next Week on ER" they showed a scene from a funeral.

[Mr. Silverback]

remember a baby-themed episode of E.R. in which a doctor is labor. It turns out that she has cancer. She suspended her chemotherapy so that she could carry the baby to term.

Ironically, they did the reverse a couple of weeks ago and the staff (at least Corday and Malique) were just as shocked. This particular patient had a super-aggressive abdominal cancer. At first she was advised that she was probably going to die, but would have a very rough course either way. Then, when they got into surgery to do a biopsy, Corday finds that the stuff has spread all over the woman's innards and is the worst type of this particular kind of cancer. If she refuses treatment, she will be able to have the child and die two or three months later. If she has the abortion, she'll be dead almost as soon. Corday explains this to the Husband while the wife is still under, because he can reverse her decision. He refuses. Corday was staring at him with this mix of horror and "I could slap the crap right out of you" that came through very well even though her eyes were the only thing we could see.

[Future Snake Eater]

I remember episodes in which one character, after having been attacked and beaten to a pulp, buys a gun. He is later confronted by some thugs and brandishes the weapon on them. After the punks run away, he throws away the gun, as if buying it was the most horrible sin imaginable.

I remember that one very well, too. I started yelling at the TV, "You've gotta be kidding me! That gun probably just saved your life! Or at least kept you from being beaten to a bloody pulp AGAIN!"

That show has had several anti-gun messages thrown in throughout. Unless you count the gun-toting lesbian doctor that was on the show briefly...

[Sister_T]

Yeah, I got tired of ER for that reason also. Too many homos! And who's the heterosexual doctor that they made into a homo? Is it Mark Green? I heard that was coming a while ago before it happen, if indeed he is the one.

[doosee]

And who's the heterosexual doctor that they made into a homo?

I think it is the limping female chief of staff. She started the kissyface relationship with the female (hispanic type) ambulance nurse technician. Cute!!!!

[mcsparkie]

Remember the teen girl who was part of an epidemic of cervical cancer being spread by some guy? Completely unscientific bunk.