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The Best Publicity We've Had in Awhile? ABC's "The Book of Daniel"
by Nina George Hacker
"Why not? After all, our church has an openly gay bishop!" is how an Episcopal priest counsels his son who is struggling over whether to go public about his homosexuality. This is only one of the many, many things about the premiere of NBC-TV's new show; "The Book of Daniel," that were either downright offensive, or just plain idiotically wrong.
"Daniel," starring Aidan Quinn as the Rev. Daniel Webster, purports to be about the life of an Episcopal priest in upstate New York, but looks more like an Episcopalian version of ABC's campy soap opera, "Desperate Housewives." The rector is addicted to prescription painkillers; his wife drinks too much; one son is a homosexual; the other is promiscuous; and their daughter has just been arrested for selling marijuana-which the housekeeper smokes. And that's just the immediate family! To branch out: The rector's father, a retired bishop, is committing adultery with his current female bishop because his wife has Alzheimer's, and Daniel's sister-in-law-a widow whose husband ran off with the church's $3 million building fund-turns out to be a lesbian having an affair with her spouse's secretary, who is also suspected of embezzlement. Daniel turns to his friend, a cartoonish Catholic priest, who helps him find the missing money-with the help of the Mafia.
Apart from the melodrama of perverse family dynamics, the show's inattention to correct ecclesial details was insultingly moronic. Even the most casual pew sitter knows that in a Eucharistic service of worship, we do not say, "the affirmation of faith"-it's called the Nicene Creed. And on a Sunday when the bishop visits, he or she would not likely sit aside while the rector preached-or, drop by the rector's office every other day, as does Bishop Beatrice Congreve (Ellen Burstyn).
The only character who refers to the priest as "Father Daniel" is the single black person on the show, who appears not to be an Episcopalian. Everyone else addresses him casually as "Rev," not generally acceptable in a real parish. When Fr. Daniel goes to the hospital to be with a family who must shut off their loved-one's life support, he merely makes the sign of the cross on the woman's head and says, "It's okay to say goodbye," then she dies.
Although he is wearing a full white Eucharistic stole-hospital stoles are actually pocket-sized versions in reversible white and purple cloth-no Eucharist is celebrated. In fact, the priest doesn't even pray for the patient or with the family, or administer last rites. He is shown leaving the hospital still wearing that ridiculous huge stole, with nothing else-not a Bible or even his Prayer Book-in his hands. And the way this clergyman counsels a couple preparing for marriage-by first asking them how great is their sex life-was possibly one of the most abysmal segments of the show.
While "Daniel" has cast Garret Dillahunt as Christ, to whom the priest talks on a regular basis, this hippie Jesus is so phlegmatic, flippant, and nonjudgmental, he comes across as some sort of touchy-feely therapist, rather than the Son of God.
This Anglican viewer didn't know whether to laugh or cry. My first reaction was, "How dare they present the life of one of our priests and his family in such a disgraceful way?" But upon reflection, I concluded that as depraved a picture of the liberal Episcopal Church as this depicts could be a real booster shot for devout, orthodox Anglicans! Spread the word, people-THIS ISN'T WHO WE ARE! And yet, it may very well be a fairly accurate metaphor for the spiritual corruption in our Church that has resulted from the liberal "gospel" that has been taught for so long in the revisionist ECUSA.
Oh . . . the show's creators did get one thing right: The rector drives a Volvo.
---Nina George Hacker is a Eucharistic Minister at of All Saints Episcopal Church, Chevy Chase, Maryland and a member of the American Anglican Council of Washington DC, is a Doctor of Ministry student at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry. She drives a Volvo.
