No, this is not an introduction to the canonical book or an exegetical essay describing the 70 weeks therein. This is a critique and analysis of the new NBC program called ‘The Book of Daniel.’
Unfortunately, or should I say fortunately, I did not know that it was a two hour premiere so I only recorded the first hour. But within the first 5 minutes of the show it was obvious that all the articles I had read were telling the truth about the content of the show and the ‘issues’ Daniel’s family has.
Oddly enough, the show starts out with their daughter in jail at the local police station and her father, Daniel, picking her up. I thought the show was going to be some kind of comedy that mocked Christianity with a light tone. But right from the start you know that it is a satirical drama that is very dark with dry, even blasphemous, humor.
In essence you learn within the first 20 minutes that the family’s daughter is dealing drugs, one of the sons is a homosexual, the other son is adopted and very addicted to having sex with girls, and lastly, the father and mother are addicted to prescription drugs and alcohol respectively. Daniel, the father, is an Episcopal priest who sits under the leadership of a woman bishop. The daughter, Grace, is dealing drugs in order to raise enough money to publish her Manga (Japanese Animation) comic which just so happens to be a comic book version of her own family and all their problems. The homosexual son, Peter, is recovering from what seems to be a bad breakup with his boyfriend. The adopted son, Adam, is Chinese and his current girlfriend is 15 (about to turn 16) years old and very in to having sex with him on an almost daily basis. The family’s mother, Judith, seeks comfort from all of their family problems by drinking vodka to ease her frustration and pain. Lastly, we come to find out that Daniel is addicted to prescription drugs.
But the most outrageous and blasphemous part of the show is when Jesus appears (during various parts of the show) to talk with Daniel about a problem that Daniel is having and to discourage him from using the prescription drugs. Jesus appears only to Daniel. But the problem is that Jesus doesn’t care about the Bible and simply talks to Daniel in a very non-judgmental and condoning way about each situation Daniel is struggling with. Jesus’ main, and very telling, statement is that “your daughter is a good girl” or “don’t worry, just let it work itself out.”
This first episode involves a very bad scandal regarding Daniel’s brother-in-law who has disappeared with over 3 million dollars of the churches money that the church intended to start a school with. The brother-in-law is married to Daniel’s wife’s baby sister, but as the show progresses it is revealed that he has run away with not only the money but also his secretary. Daniel’s wealthy golf buddy who helped raise the funds takes him to play golf in order to threaten him with a church scandal if he doesn’t find the brother-in-law and get back the money for the school. His wealthy friend’s daughter is the girl Daniel’s adopted son is having sex with.
At the start of the show, on the drive home from the police station, Daniel, his wife, and his daughter all begin to shout and curse at one another. The pinnacle of the shouting match is when Daniel tells his wife and daughter to realize that they actually have a loving family and that they should be thankful for that because of how rare that really is these days. But in the process of making that entire statement he is yelling the whole time and using various explicatives throughout that I cannot quote on this Blog. Everyone becomes quiet and the rest of the ride home is in silence. But as soon as they arrive in the driveway Daniel tells them to get ready for church and acts as though nothing is wrong. He says, “Let’s not make a big thing out of this to your brothers, you can tell them later or not at all.”
So, what we come to find out in this first seen of the show is two fold. Positively, Daniel shows himself to be the head of the household, but negatively, he leads his household into sin and continually sweeps things under the veritable rug so as not to deal with them.
The family continually makes fun of one another or curses at each other and tells everyone to stop talking about it (whatever the problem is) and that they should all be quiet and leave well enough alone. Of course that is my edited way of saying how they tell each other off.
“Temptation, is it really a bad thing? I don’t think so. What I mean is if there were no temptation how could there redemption? If we never did anything bad how could we repent and be stronger for our weakness? Doesn’t good need evil in order to be good? Now obviously I’m not suggesting that we should go looking for temptation. But my brothers and sisters, if temptation corners us maybe we shouldn’t beat ourselves up for giving into it. And maybe, maybe we shouldn’t ask for forgiveness from a church, or from God, or from Jesus, or from anyone until we can first learn to forgive ourselves… [walks from the pulpit to the benediction table] Let us rise for the profession of faith. We believe in one God.”
This was the end of the Sunday morning service that Daniel preached before the intro theme to the show began.
Need I say anything else? Well, after the sermon the Bishop meets him in his office and begins to tell him that he shouldn’t say those things, especially since the Episcopal Church is in crisis for their liberal policies. And Daniel responds be saying that we are a country in crisis and that he’s entitled to his interpretation. When he tries to quote the Bible the bishop tells him not too because of all the degrees in religion and philosophy she has. So, from that point on in the show we see that the Bible has no real importance in the church or in people’s lives and that college and doctoral degrees negate it as the chief authority.
After that potion of the conversation, Daniel asks if we are really supposed to expect people to not give in to temptation. The bishop responds by saying that that is the business they are in with Daniel’s reply asking, “I thought this wasn’t a business.” But the bishop responds by telling him to take a closer look at his expense account.
The show does not get any better and even worsens when we hear the conversations between Daniel and Jesus as they talk about things one on one.
In closing I would like to highlight a few of the conversations between Daniel and Jesus…
In Jesus’ first appearance to tell Daniel not to take anymore prescription drugs Daniel begins to tell Jesus that he doesn’t know what to do about Grace. Jesus responds by telling him not to worry about it and that Grace is a good girl.
Later in the conversation Daniel says, “You know I been meaning to ask you… Have I been chosen?” Jesus replies by saying, “No,” with a smile on his face. Daniel says, “Well, why do you talk to me then?” Jesus answers, “I talk to everybody.” Daniel says, “Well few mention it.” Jesus says, “Few hear me. Tell me what they want. Most don’t listen.” Daniel says, “Huh.” And the conversation ends.
Daniel has another conversation with Jesus later in the show...
Unfortunately, or should I say fortunately, I did not know that it was a two hour premiere so I only recorded the first hour. But within the first 5 minutes of the show it was obvious that all the articles I had read were telling the truth about the content of the show and the ‘issues’ Daniel’s family has.
Oddly enough, the show starts out with their daughter in jail at the local police station and her father, Daniel, picking her up. I thought the show was going to be some kind of comedy that mocked Christianity with a light tone. But right from the start you know that it is a satirical drama that is very dark with dry, even blasphemous, humor.
In essence you learn within the first 20 minutes that the family’s daughter is dealing drugs, one of the sons is a homosexual, the other son is adopted and very addicted to having sex with girls, and lastly, the father and mother are addicted to prescription drugs and alcohol respectively. Daniel, the father, is an Episcopal priest who sits under the leadership of a woman bishop. The daughter, Grace, is dealing drugs in order to raise enough money to publish her Manga (Japanese Animation) comic which just so happens to be a comic book version of her own family and all their problems. The homosexual son, Peter, is recovering from what seems to be a bad breakup with his boyfriend. The adopted son, Adam, is Chinese and his current girlfriend is 15 (about to turn 16) years old and very in to having sex with him on an almost daily basis. The family’s mother, Judith, seeks comfort from all of their family problems by drinking vodka to ease her frustration and pain. Lastly, we come to find out that Daniel is addicted to prescription drugs.
But the most outrageous and blasphemous part of the show is when Jesus appears (during various parts of the show) to talk with Daniel about a problem that Daniel is having and to discourage him from using the prescription drugs. Jesus appears only to Daniel. But the problem is that Jesus doesn’t care about the Bible and simply talks to Daniel in a very non-judgmental and condoning way about each situation Daniel is struggling with. Jesus’ main, and very telling, statement is that “your daughter is a good girl” or “don’t worry, just let it work itself out.”
This first episode involves a very bad scandal regarding Daniel’s brother-in-law who has disappeared with over 3 million dollars of the churches money that the church intended to start a school with. The brother-in-law is married to Daniel’s wife’s baby sister, but as the show progresses it is revealed that he has run away with not only the money but also his secretary. Daniel’s wealthy golf buddy who helped raise the funds takes him to play golf in order to threaten him with a church scandal if he doesn’t find the brother-in-law and get back the money for the school. His wealthy friend’s daughter is the girl Daniel’s adopted son is having sex with.
At the start of the show, on the drive home from the police station, Daniel, his wife, and his daughter all begin to shout and curse at one another. The pinnacle of the shouting match is when Daniel tells his wife and daughter to realize that they actually have a loving family and that they should be thankful for that because of how rare that really is these days. But in the process of making that entire statement he is yelling the whole time and using various explicatives throughout that I cannot quote on this Blog. Everyone becomes quiet and the rest of the ride home is in silence. But as soon as they arrive in the driveway Daniel tells them to get ready for church and acts as though nothing is wrong. He says, “Let’s not make a big thing out of this to your brothers, you can tell them later or not at all.”
So, what we come to find out in this first seen of the show is two fold. Positively, Daniel shows himself to be the head of the household, but negatively, he leads his household into sin and continually sweeps things under the veritable rug so as not to deal with them.
The family continually makes fun of one another or curses at each other and tells everyone to stop talking about it (whatever the problem is) and that they should all be quiet and leave well enough alone. Of course that is my edited way of saying how they tell each other off.
“Temptation, is it really a bad thing? I don’t think so. What I mean is if there were no temptation how could there redemption? If we never did anything bad how could we repent and be stronger for our weakness? Doesn’t good need evil in order to be good? Now obviously I’m not suggesting that we should go looking for temptation. But my brothers and sisters, if temptation corners us maybe we shouldn’t beat ourselves up for giving into it. And maybe, maybe we shouldn’t ask for forgiveness from a church, or from God, or from Jesus, or from anyone until we can first learn to forgive ourselves… [walks from the pulpit to the benediction table] Let us rise for the profession of faith. We believe in one God.”
This was the end of the Sunday morning service that Daniel preached before the intro theme to the show began.
Need I say anything else? Well, after the sermon the Bishop meets him in his office and begins to tell him that he shouldn’t say those things, especially since the Episcopal Church is in crisis for their liberal policies. And Daniel responds be saying that we are a country in crisis and that he’s entitled to his interpretation. When he tries to quote the Bible the bishop tells him not too because of all the degrees in religion and philosophy she has. So, from that point on in the show we see that the Bible has no real importance in the church or in people’s lives and that college and doctoral degrees negate it as the chief authority.
After that potion of the conversation, Daniel asks if we are really supposed to expect people to not give in to temptation. The bishop responds by saying that that is the business they are in with Daniel’s reply asking, “I thought this wasn’t a business.” But the bishop responds by telling him to take a closer look at his expense account.
The show does not get any better and even worsens when we hear the conversations between Daniel and Jesus as they talk about things one on one.
In closing I would like to highlight a few of the conversations between Daniel and Jesus…
In Jesus’ first appearance to tell Daniel not to take anymore prescription drugs Daniel begins to tell Jesus that he doesn’t know what to do about Grace. Jesus responds by telling him not to worry about it and that Grace is a good girl.
Later in the conversation Daniel says, “You know I been meaning to ask you… Have I been chosen?” Jesus replies by saying, “No,” with a smile on his face. Daniel says, “Well, why do you talk to me then?” Jesus answers, “I talk to everybody.” Daniel says, “Well few mention it.” Jesus says, “Few hear me. Tell me what they want. Most don’t listen.” Daniel says, “Huh.” And the conversation ends.
Daniel has another conversation with Jesus later in the show...
Daniel says, “Why is it so easy to talk to you?”
Jesus replies, “I’m a good listener. Plus I never burden you with my problem.”
Daniel says, “You have problems?”
Jesus maintains the focus by saying, “Now we’re talking about you problems.”
Daniel gives up and says, “Tell me what to do. I don’t know what to do anymore.”
Jesus replies, “Yes you do. It’s just hard. Life is hard, Daniel, for everyone. That’s why there is such a nice reward at the end of it.”
Daniel then says, “I know that’s supposed to be comforting. But it’s not. Aren’t you supposed to comfort me?”
Jesus says with sarcasm, “Oh, where did you read that? Some Episcopalian self help book?”
Daniel laughs.
Jesus continues, “That’s good. You should laugh more. Hey, have you that… ‘Jesus’ guide to a comfortable life’? Very comforting, that one is.” (with sarcasm at the end)
Daniel laughs and responds, “No, but I have read ‘Men are from Mars, Jesus is from Heaven.”
Jesus mentions another, “My Tuesday with Jesus.”
Daniel mentions another, “I’m okay, you’re divine.”
Jesus replies, “That’s my favorite!”
And they both continue laughing and chuckling at what each other says.
Lastly, another obviously un-Biblical stance the show takes is near the end of the first hour where Daniel and Judith are talking about their gay son and Judith says that it is genetic. Then they start blaming it on their families past history and discuss the various instances of homosexual males on both sides. They continue laughing and go to bed for the night.
With all this said I will end this post. But I will post again with a much more critical and Biblical response to the issue soon.
Lastly, another obviously un-Biblical stance the show takes is near the end of the first hour where Daniel and Judith are talking about their gay son and Judith says that it is genetic. Then they start blaming it on their families past history and discuss the various instances of homosexual males on both sides. They continue laughing and go to bed for the night.
With all this said I will end this post. But I will post again with a much more critical and Biblical response to the issue soon.
In Christ and In Defense of the Faith,
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