Is 2006 over yet?

We are one week into the new year, and it feels as if months have elapsed! The eldest Arrows returned from Alabama spiritually super-charged to discover that their dad was in intensive care with extremely odd and life-threatening symptoms, my sister is recovering from pneumonia, one of the young adults from the church the Arrows attend on Saturday has been discovered dead, we have a contact from the Christmas outreach at Gresham attending church tomorrow, and the job search is still in progress with no immediate resolution in sight.

Is 2006 over yet?? It's been said that life is what happens while you're busy making other plans...{sigh}


I don't know how many of you wasted the necessary time to view NBC's new nighttime soap, "The Book of Daniel", but if you didn't catch it, you can be thankful. You didn't miss anything. Well, not anything but a comedic farce masquerading as a serious commentary on American society. Oh, and they made the central character an Episcopalian priest so they could generate publicity by the predictable outcry over the blasphemous and insulting content.

I daresay if the show included Muslims and Mohammed in place of "Christians" and Christ, this wouldn't even be an issue, because they wouldn't risk offending that minute percentage of the population. What I still can't fully understand is why it's supposed to be alright to offend the majority of Americans that claim the title (if not the lifestyle) of "Christian".

I performed my obligatory duty of contacting the local NBC station before the first airing. The response letter I received is as follows:

Greetings:

Thank you for taking the time to e-mail us your concerns regarding the
NBC show "The Book of Daniel". We appreciate your views and have forwarded your
e-mails to NBC executives.

It's important for you to know that the show is not as it's being
portrayed. I waited to respond to you until we had actually seen the first
episode. Yes, it is about an Episcopal priest with a dysfunctional family that
represents a composite of some family issues familiar to many parents and
children today. The priest has the ability to see and hear Jesus as he goes
about solving his family's and church's problems. Is it edgy? Yes. Is it
anti-Christian, disrespectful or blasphemous? We don't believe so.

After reviewing the premiere episode, we have decided it will air on
WECT this Friday as scheduled. We've spoken with a large number of General
Managers at NBC stations throughout the country, many of whom are deeply
religious, and, after viewing the pilot as we did, they have also decided to air
the program. As of this morning, not one NBC station in the entire country has
decided to censor this program. I understand the controversy that has been
created in anticipation of this show, but I really believe, in this case, the
vast majority of the residents of Southeastern NC and Northeastern SC prefer to
choose for themselves which programs they want to watch and which ones they
elect not to watch.

My suggestion to you is this…you really have two choices…you can watch
the program and make an informed decision for yourself…or you can choose not to
watch it. That's the way free choice works in this great country. If you don't
like a particular program, turn it off…vote with your remote...watch something
else. I'm not being flip. If enough viewers refuse to watch a show, the network
will cancel it. And that's the way it should work. I shouldn't be making the
viewing choices. You should. Because it's a free country and that's the way we
should keep it!

While we understand that some viewers will not watch the first
episode...or any episode...of "The Book of Daniel", we hope you will acknowledge
the many other fine programs provided by NBC and WECT, including WECT's 22 hours
of #1-rated local newscasts each week, our 24/7 weather channel WECT Weather
Plus, the locally-filmed NBC hit "Surface", ACC Basketball, The Downeast
Gardner, and, this February, the 2006 Winter Olympics from Torino, Italy on
NBC.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to communicate your
concerns…we really do listen. We may not always agree with each other, but you
can always be sure you were heard.

Warmest regards,
KD Karl Davis,
Vice President/General Manager
WECT-TV
322 Shipyard Blvd
Wilmington, NC 28412

Okay, so I followed his advice.

The Father (Daniel) is a pill-popping, cigar-smoking, foul-mouthed justifier of sin whose only redeeming quality is that he truly loves his wife. He makes one attempt at quoting Scripture in the entire two-hour pilot, and can't even do that right (the writers have him quoting from "Corinthians 10", apparently overlooking or being ignorant of the need to designate which one). He has regular visits from "Jesus" (usually in conjunction with popping his "Canadian headache pills with a small dose of codeine"), a vision that seldom says or does anything in character with the Lord and Savior that I know.

He has a Catholic priest friend (because apparently, the producers wanted to offend another segment of Christianity) who has mob ties, an alcohol-dependent wife, and more plot twists than should be in any long-running show. I don't see this show lasting very long, even if Christians don't keep pressure on the advertisers.

Daniel's daughter, Grace may have summed everything up perfectly when she said, "This is a family of freaks." If you want to know more about this idiocy, you can read about it here.


I'll end this now. I value your prayers: for our country, for our local brothers and sisters in the Lord, and of course, for us.