While the Obama-esque image of Satan from Mark Burnett's History Channel mini-series The Bible is making headlines this morning, it's worth noting that the religious consultants on the project, at least the ones named in a TV Guide article on it, are a "Who's Who" of notorious evangelical homophobes:
Burnett and Downey approached History and
struck a deal, which included a sizable CGI budget to bring
state-of-the-art realism to the Great Flood, the parting of the Red Sea,
God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and other Bible stories. The
duo then formed an advisory board with some of America's top spiritual
leaders.
"We weren't qualified to teach the Bible, but we knew plenty of people who were," says Burnett, whose interfaith panel included pastors Joel Osteen, Rick Warren and T.D. Jakes, Bishop Michael Sheridan, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez.
"We weren't qualified to teach the Bible, but we knew plenty of people who were," says Burnett, whose interfaith panel included pastors Joel Osteen, Rick Warren and T.D. Jakes, Bishop Michael Sheridan, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez.
These advisers were also supposed to
appear on screen, since the original plan was to make The Bible a
docudrama — reenactments peppered with lots of talking heads. But things
went so well during the nearly six-month shoot in Morocco that the
miniseries took a different course.
That's Osteen, who said "I don't believe homosexuality is God's best for a person's life" and called it "sin" many times, Prop 8 supporter Rick Warren who compared homosexuality to poison
and compared acting on gay urges to assaulting someone, TD Jakes who
has called homosexuality a "brokenness" despite his son getting arrested
in a sex sting, Bishop Michael Sheridan who has called homosexuality "intrinsically evil" and told Catholics who vote for gay marriage that they can't receive communion, and Samuel Rodriguez, who teamed up with NY state senator Ruben Diaz to rally opponents of same-sex marriage, and Jim Daly, the head of virulently anti-gay Focus on the Family.A reader to Towleroad writes:
It's worth noting that not only does
every member of that panel have a distinctly anti-gay history, but that
the panel is entirely conservative. Mark Burnett has made quite a bit of
cash on the backs of gay contestants on his various shows, so I'm
curious why any progressive or GLBT voices are suddenly lacking when
he's looking for perspective this time around? It's 2013, and I thought
the media was improving at least a little bit in thinking that the only
religion that exists anywhere is right-wing religion, but apparently not
in this case. And why--particularly- did Burnett seek out Focus on the
Family for this, when FOF is not a church, last time I checked, but a
thinly-veiled anti-gay organization?
Can't speak for anyone else, but I've already sent an email to the History Channel (they are part of the A&E network) informing them I have blocked their channel on my cable box and wonder why they now support fundamentalist hate groups and give them a voice on their network?
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