Closing The Book of Daniel.

After airing just four episodes, NBC dropped its new series, The Book of Daniel, amid dismal ratings and growing protests from upset Christians. The network and its commercial sponsors were inundated with mail, telephone calls, and e-mail after the American Family Association, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Focus on the Family, and other Christian organizations alerted their members to the anti-Christian theme and blatant degeneracy of the program written by homosexual activist Jack Kenny.

"Having previewed the pilot and an additional episode," said Focus on the Family's Bob Waliszewski, in a January 5 press release, "I find NBC's new television show, The Book of Daniel, extremely repulsive in its portrayal of Jesus Christ and intentionally offensive in its flippant attitude toward behaviors almost universally agreed upon as unhealthy to society, morally bankrupt, and, dare I say it, sinful. Adultery. Teen sex. Involvement in a menage a trois to spice up a marriage. Homosexuality. A pastor who expects, and supports, premarital intercourse. Drug use as a sexual boost. And the list goes on and on."

But what Mr. Waliszewski found "most egregious" about the program "is its portrayal of Jesus." "On Daniel," he noted, "the Individual believed to be the Savior of the world by nearly a billion people around the globe is cast as a wimpy, white-robed visitor who cares little about evil, addictions and perversity. This Christ glosses over a teenager's sexual romps with a, 'He's a kid, let him be a kid.'"

"I doubt NBC would consider portraying a Muslim cleric or Buddhist monk in the same light," noted Waliszewski. "And rightly so.

Why? Because to do so would he mean-spirited and insensitive. But for some reason, portraying Jesus as a namby-pamby frat-boy-guru is fine."

According to the American Family Association, The Book of Daniel featured "Daniel Webster (the series' namesake, played by actor Aidan Quinn) as a drug-addicted Episcopal priest, his alcoholic wife, a very unconventional white-robed, bearded Jesus, a 23-year-old homosexual Republican son, a 16-year-old drug dealing daughter and a 16-year-old adopted son who is having sex with the bishop's daughter. In the premiere episode, Daniel's brother-in-law Charlie ran off with Jesse, his secretary. Later viewers found out that Jesse was also having a lesbian affair with Charlie's wife." Nevertheless, NBC had the audacity to insist that The Book of Daniel provides "a positive portrayal of Christ and Christians."

Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented on NBC's portrayal: "The father dabbles in drugs, the wife is a boozer, the daughter is a dope dealer, one son is a homosexual, the other son is a womanizer, the sister-in-law is a bisexual, the brother-in-law is a thief, and the father's father is an adulterer. Just your ordinary Christian family--in the eyes of Hollywood, that is."

Of course, the mainstream media absolutely loved Daniel. Salt Lake City's Deseret Morning News called it "the best thing to hit TV this season." The Chicago Sun-Times described it as "well-written and well-cast." People said it was "more entertaining than offensive." Entertainment Weekly said it was "refreshingly intelligent." According to USA Today it was "wildly entertaining and superbly cast."

Donald E. Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association, hailed NBC's decision to pull the program as a demonstration of the power of the pocketbook and concerted action by Christians. "NBC didn't want to eat their economic losses," noted Wildmon in a January 24 press release. "Had NBC not had to eat millions of dollars each time it aired, NBC would have kept 'Daniel' alive. But when the sponsors dropped the program, NBC decided it didn't want to continue the fight. This shows the average American that he doesn't have to simply sit back and take the trash being offered on TV, but he can get involved and fight back with his pocketbook."