Posted on 02/25/2005 1:08:38 AM PST by NYer
During the February 22 episode of the NBC-TV sitcom, “Committed,” two non-Catholics are mistakenly given Holy Communion at a Catholic funeral Mass. Nate, who is Jewish, and Bowie, a Protestant, don’t know what to do with the Eucharist, so they make several failed attempts to get rid of it. For example, they try slipping it into the pocket of a priest, dropping it on a tray of cheese and crackers, etc.
At one point, the priest, who is portrayed as not knowing the difference between the Host and a cracker, goes to grab the “cracker” from a tray of appetizers; he initially balks when he discovers that it is the last one. Then he changes his mind, saying, “Oh, what the hell.” By far the most offensive scene occurs when Nate and Bowie accidentally flush what they think is the Host down the toilet.
Catholic League president William Donohue commented on this today:
“It’s been quite a while since we’ve been deluged with as many complaints as this episode of ‘Committed’ fielded. To say that Catholics are angry about this show would be an understatement—the outrage is visceral and intense. The complaints have come from bishops, college chaplains, pastors and the laity, and they have come from all over the country. With good reason: NBC has made a direct frontal assault on Roman Catholicism, choosing to mock, trivialize and ridicule the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
“What happened was deliberate. According to a January 2 story in the Cincinnati Enquirer, the writers for the series, Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline, have been encouraged by NBC executives ‘to push the limits of comedy.’ For obvious reasons, the writers of ‘Roseanne,’ ‘Murphy Brown’ and ‘Ellen’ chose not to push the buttons of homosexuals (or some other protected group), so they decided to play it safe and stay in good standing with their bosses by bashing Catholics.
Thinking I'm going to be writing some nasty letters tomorrow. GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
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NYer, you're up late?
No ... I'm up early :-)
I can't sleep either. Hate it when this happens.
I dunno, I can imagine the situation was kinda funny.
And it's not as if they had been using consecrated hosts in the filming.
This was an incredibly insensitive anti-Catholic NBC program, and they wouldn't dare make such crude jokes about Judaism or Islam. They'd lose their jobs or receive death threats if they did.
I may be totally wrong, but I bet the author of this show is an ex-Catholic. And a liberal, of course.
When was the last time you saw Judaism being poked fun at, or gays, or lesbians, or minorities. The only people who are fair game are Catholics and evangelical Christians.
I've never even heard of the show
I have enough righteous anger about reporting in Iraq that maybe I should intensify this, and make NBC my whipping boy.
For the sake of keeping people from being deceived by this Satanic non-sense, it is time for me to take off the gloves with Satan and his pals at NBC...
The show was not bashing just Catholicism, but ALL Christians. For protestants, celebrating communion, the body and blood of Christ, is central to our worship as well, not just to Catholics. Catholics are Christians, and the protestant denominations are Christians, we all need to be standing together against these attacks and stop letting denominationalism and nomenclature stand between us. Conservative Jews should be standing with us as well, because they should know and understand that, at the very least, most evangelical Christians, are staunch supporters of them.
I haven't heard of the show until just now but here are some of the things I'm going to do: 1.) e-mail NBC and explain politely that their ridicule of my church amounts to persecution and that such behavior cannot be ignored, 2.) discover the sponsors of this program and NBC's biggest sponsors, contact them and explain that I will not support their products in the future because of the blatant insult gratuitously given to me and my fellow Catholics through their support of this kind of programming, 3.)introduce an item into my local church bulletin explaining the situation and asking my fellow parishoners to join me in my action, 4.) contact the bishop of my diocese, explain the situation, and ask him to take whatever steps he deems necessary to amend the situation, 5.) ask my protestant and jewish friends to join my campaign for simple respect and justice. In the meantime, NBC is Xed from my controller until I discover elsewhere (perhaps on Free Republic) if they plan to do anything but snicker at what clever comedies they offer.
As perky katie kooric tries to bury the traditional pope by day, her network insults practicing catholics and other persons of good will by night.
"EX" being the operative word here. No wonder - they had absolutely NO concept whatsoever as to what the Eucharist is.
This is over the top bad. Any person with an ounce of fundamental decency will not find this funny.
I never heard of this stupid show until this and now I have. I guess that's the point. If you can't be known for being funny be known for being offensive.
I'd like to hear Michael Medved discuss this on his show. He's really succinct in his commentary on Hollywood. Christians and Jews alike will reject this attempt to trash faith.
"And it's not as if they had been using consecrated hosts in the filming."
The point is that the fellows in question - and the producers, by extension - acted as if a communion host was not worthy of any modicum of respect.
Let me rephrase that - they acted like it required some respect, but they weren't man enough to give that respect so they tried all these stunts.
It's more of the 'oh, look at those crazy Catholics and their funny piece of bread.'
Damn sure they wouldn't pull this gig with a yarmukle (say, using it as a frisbee), or an Islamic veil.
It used to be if the host fell on the floor, the priest had to clean the spot himself.
Hm.
Yup, last time I checked, Protestants did indeed know what to do with communion wafers.
This one sounds really offensive.
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