Hands off my remote!

Like anyone else, I enjoy a good TV show, but they are rare. The “reality” shows are everywhere, and there is always some endearing little sitcom, complete with canned laughter to fill a void. Imagine how delighted I was when the show The Book of Daniel aired. The characters were different, and the acting was excellent.

I especially loved the way the show portrayed Jesus Christ: soft-spoken and forgiving. The mother had a few martinis in a day, so she was considered an alcoholic. Hello! I have been a recovering drunk for 18 years, and I didn’t see her as a drunk. The surviving twin son was gay. Oh, horrors!

The adopted Asian-American son was in love with a girl in the church and didn’t want to wait to marry her to have sex with her. And it’s a good thing, because her parents were prejudiced and wanted her to marry a nice white boy. Great “Christian” attitude! Then there was the daughter, who sold marijuana to buy her computer programs so that she could animate her cartoon. There’s a wealth of young people who sell grass for school supplies. But this country simply sticks its head in the sand to ignore these problems!

Then the American Family Association (AFA), with its “holier than thou” arm, reached out and yanked the program off the air! This organization, headed by the Rev. Donald Wildmon and claiming to be supporting “traditional family values,” orchestrated a campaign against The Book of Daniel before the first episode even aired. Who needs a remote when the AFA will change the program for me?

I ask you, what happened to the “traditional family value” of free choice? Where did these people get the right to decide what you or I should be allowed to see? Do they get to say what we can and cannot watch? I don’t think so!

What will be next? Will CSI: Crime Scene Investigation be taken off because it is too graphic and violent? Wait—no, the problem seems to be with a soft-spoken and forgiving Jesus, not with graphic violence.

I think I speak for many—including my “traditional family”—when I say, “I can make decisions for myself on what to watch!”