With all due respect to Emily Post, I believe polite company should discuss politics and religion. In my family once we reached a certain age it was no longer acceptable to discuss the lives of the fictional characters on a television show at the dinner table. Current events were always discussed at our dinner table, and it's hard to discuss current events with out touching on politics and religion. Not everyone in my family shares the same political or religious point of view so whoever was speaking was not exactly preaching to the choir.
The same can be said about TV today. It's hard to discuss television these days without touching on politics and religion. Recently I wrote in a review of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, "My hope is that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip becomes the next great water cooler show. Unlike other water cooler shows where people just talk about what the characters did, here we can shift the topic of conversation to the issues discussed on the show." I don't think that we can afford not to have these discussions and my patience runs thin whenever people use Emily Post's advice to hide their ignorance or apathy.
Now I want to be respectful with my next comments towards those with opposing religious or political points of view. Recently I was watching the Saturday morning news on the local NBC affiliate. When the news was over the animated series Veggie Tales came on. I knew that the Veggie Tales were a series of Christian cartoons featuring talking vegetables. I was surprised to see this show on network TV. Within the few minutes I had to watch the show, I did not notice any religious message. I assumed that the show was altered to meet network standards and practices.
I promptly forgot about the Veggie Tales broadcast until a few days later when I heard that the American Family Association accused NBC of anti-Christian bigotry. Stating in their AFA Action Alert that NBC finds the Bible verses in Veggie Tales offensive, but not Madonna's mockery of Christ's crucifixion, The Action Alert uses my favorite new show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, to illustrate a recent pattern of anti-Christian programming on NBC, stating that the network also doesn't mind offending Christians in their new program Studio 60 with a segment called Crazy Christians. The Action Alert also provided readers with a template for a letter that you can send to NBC Chairman Bob Wright.
Article comments
1 - Ozzyols
I had heard the same thing and was suprised at the the attacks by the AFA and ADA in relationship to both Veggie Tales and the show I was more interested in Studio 60.
Veturing forth onto their website, my friend and I discovered the "Suggested" letter campaign to encourage readers to hammer the message home to the advertisers.
Free speech is paramount and should be embraced by all. So we used our power of free speech and emailed everyone man job of those advertisers and told them that as LONG as they kept advertising with Studio 60 - they would keep my custom.
And guess what. We didn't even have to do any research to get the information to send out letters. Because the very helpful web-folks at ADA had kindly provided all the necessary links for us, so it was just a case of cutting and pasting. Cheers Guys!
I'm a christian too and if I see something offensive ony my screen I do what God gave me free will to do... I turn it off and don't watch again.
It's not up to a minority to dictate how the rest of us should live our lives!
2 - Erin
I used to collect the VeggieTales videos (Josh and the Big Wall being my favorite), but I didn't know they were on NBC. But that's not really the point of this comment :) I LOVE Studio 60. Love. It. And while reading your article a quote from the pilot came to mind: Judd Hirsch saying "sometimes living with free speech means you get offended." How true! Great article, very well written!
3 - Nigel
I too am a Christian, and have to agree with parts of the other comments. I am not familiar with the show studio 60, frankly I just don't have time to seek out more shows to watch until the ones I do watch get cancelled, raising 5 kids is time consuming. This is where my point stems from, my wife and I spend our time parenting our kids, not letting the TV parent our kids. We monitor the amount of TV and what they see on the TV. We are not extreminsts, we allow the older ones to watch the simpsons (and we ourselves watch family guy when they go to bed).
I very much understand how difficult it is for busy families to find things for kids to do so they stick them in front of the TV, but there lies the catch 22. The more TV they watch, the harder it is for the kids to think for themselves of activities to do, the more stressful it is for the parents to have the kids always saying "I'm bored, entertain me" so the more TV they let them watch. But at some point the parents have to dicern when to say stop.
However, I also see the need for groups like the AFA. If they did not call the networks on the little stuff, the networks would just keep pushing too far, same goes for the out-of-TV-land. They are like kids in that sense, if you let them get away with too much little stuff, they would go too far too often. I too choose what I will watch or not, but how dissapointing would it be if every show went too far and I didn't get to watch any TV because it was too much effort to find a show that didn't offend me. I like to numb my mind, it relieves stress. to quote the great bart simpson "Thanks to TV, I can't remember what happened 3 minutes ago".
4 - Bill
I am not familiar with "Studio 60" but I think rolling any issues with this show and/or the Madonna special into the equation only (and perhaps purposefully) blurs the real issue here. I liked that you said neither cut of Veggie Tales violated the standards, and that's the point. Offend Christians, I'm OK with that, but to neuter "God" from the message of Veggie Tales betrays what the show was even about. Sure, we want God's values, just not God. I'm glad no one is offended.
5 - Dr. Paul Irwin
Office of the President
American Bible Society
November 9, 2006
Dear Editor:
Quite often good things happen, but seldom do they receive public recognition. This letter gives credit as credit is due.
Recently, the NBC television network used its internal employee decision-making apparatus to strip references to the Bible â€" and to God â€" from a beloved children’s show, Veggie Tales. As President of the American Bible Society, you can imagine how I became troubled and set about discerning how to respond.
Last month, I sent letters to GE’s (owner of NBC) Board of Directors protesting the decision and requesting a dialogue on why these decisions were made. I also directed our network of supporters to write NBC management protesting this decision. NBC has now begun to restore the deleted footage to Veggie Tales.
While I seldom believe in boycotts or condemning the network’s right to air certain programs, I could not accept censorship of the Bible either. Specifically, I could not accept censorship of a children’s program making available the Bible, while soap operas and a multitude of other shows created for evening entertainment portray characters whose behavior exemplifies little moral consideration and ignores such ethical parameters as laid out in the Ten Commandments!
I firmly believe the Bible to be foundational to the makeup of America. The character of our nation’s shared future depends on if and how we engage the Bible’s life-changing message.
NBC, the American Bible Society applauds your decision to let stand the mentioning of God and verses of the Bible in Veggie Tales. Soon, I hope that NBC will put words with their actions to begin repairing the harm incurred by every American who respects and appreciates the religious freedoms our Constitution affords, which includes the freedom to broadcast and hear the Bible.
Sincerely,
Paul G. Irwin
President
American Bible Society