Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

My family does not subscribe to HBO. I’m sure people could give me excuses as to why they do subscribe but as a Christian I can’t justify any channel that brings cursing and sex into my home. So excuse me if this is a little late. I’ve heard about the show Curb Your Enthusiasm for years. I’ve never seen it and really have no idea what it is about. From what I understand the character Larry David is a jerk on the small screen. But does being a jerk as a character give you the right to offend on purpose?

In a recent episode, Larry David urinates on a painting of Jesus. It is amazing that Curb and HBO have managed to unite Christians, Muslims and Jews. They even managed to offend people in Hollywood. Maybe this is part of HBO’s plan.

Can someone explain to me how urinating on anyone’s Savior, prophet or God is funny? What happened to tolerance that we have been hearing from Hollywood? What happened to uniting our nation? If this is funny then I guess I have no sense of humor.

[Fox News]

If you tuned in to the soap “One Life to Live” this week, you may have noticed there’s been a change of character. One character in particular.

Actress Patricia Mauceri says she was fired and abruptly replaced for objecting to a gay storyline because of her religious beliefs.

Mauceri played the recurring role of Carlotta Vega on “OLTL” for the last 14 years. But when she objected to how the writers wanted her deeply religious character, a Latina mother, to handle a storyline involving homosexuality, she objected. And for that she claims she was fired.

Mauceri, 59, a devout Christian, told FOX News that character Vega’s gay-friendly dialogue was not in line with the character she helped create by drawing on her own faith.

“I did not object to being in a gay storyline. I objected to speaking the truth of what that person, how that person would live and breathe and act in that storyline,” she said. “And this goes against everything I am, my belief system, and what I know the character’s belief system is aligned to.”

Read more here.

[From me]

I don’t know about the firing but I wonder how a devout Christian could be on a soap opera in the first place. Maybe she has been a light in a dark world. But every Soap I remember seeing was nothing but smut.

What do you think?

[Yahoo]

What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists?
Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers. The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion — Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists. But religious authorities in Muslim but secular Turkey are not amused by the twist on the popular reality game show format and the Religious Affairs Directorate is refusing to provide an imam for the show.

“Doing something like this for the sake of ratings is disrespectful to all religions. Religion should not be a subject for entertainment programs,” High Board of Religious Affairs Chairman Hamza Aktan told state news agency Anatolian after news of the planned program emerged. The makers of “Penitents Compete” are unrepentant and reject claims that the show, scheduled to begin broadcasting in September, will cheapen religion.

“We are giving the biggest prize in the world, the gift of belief in God,” Kanal T chief executive Seyhan Soylu told Reuters.
“We don’t approve of anyone being an atheist. God is great and it doesn’t matter which religion you believe in. The important thing is to believe,” Soylu said.

Read more here.

[From me]

The first line sounds like a joke as does this program. I wonder if the Christian contestant can convert the Muslim and Buddhist too?

What do you think?

[Contact Music]

JERRY SPRINGER is baffled his U.S. TV show has stayed on air so long – because it is “awful”.
The 65 year old has hosted The Jerry Springer Show since its debut in 1991 – but he’s mystified as to why viewers are so hooked.

He says, “We’ve been doing this show for 19 years now and I’m really sorry for that. No one had any idea that it would last all these years.”
And Springer can’t help but cringe when he watches back his very first episode: “That was pretty pathetic but it’s not as if it’s got any better, it’s still awful.”

Read article here.

[From me]

We’ve all known this for years. I wonder what took Jerry so long to realize it.

[The Biz]

The muckety-mucks at PBS headquarters are looking closely at instituting a rule that would strip a public television station of its PBS affiliation if it broadcast any religious shows.

It seems strange that PBS would be so strict about what the local stations air (even considering that PBS and organized religion share a special gift for pestering members for donations).

There has been a fair amount of controversy around PBS stations using New Age personalities and popular alternative medicine gurus to power their pledge drives. A recent piece in Salon discussed a PBS show hosted by Mark Hyman, a doctor whose “UltraMind Solution” package of books, DVDs and home questionnaires, is built on the belief that “diseases don’t exist.” 

Read more here.

[From me]

I don’t see the need for PBS in the first place.  Why do we need it?  There are lots of profit TV stations that do the same thing they do.  Their children’s programs could go on Disney or Nick.  Their news programs don’t give me anything I can’t get from CNN or Fox News. 

What do you think?