Of two minds on 'Sacred'

I find myself with decidedly mixed emotions about the ongoing campaign being waged by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights against "Nothing Sacred," the ABC series about priests.

On the one hand, I have been a long-time supporter of boycotts against advertisers that sponsor offensive programming. It's one way viewers can exercise power over television. The League's efforts to get businesses to refuse to advertise on the program proves again how much strength viewers can muster when they work together.

On the other hand, "Nothing Sacred" is not offensive and should not be the focus of such protests. On the contrary, it is the best weekly series about the Church ever to appear on network television.

Serious approach

That may be faint praise, given the dismal record of how TV has treated religion in general and Catholicism in particular, so let me put it another way: "Nothing Sacred," while hardly perfect, takes religion seriously, asks difficult questions about faith and social justice, and isn't afraid to remind audiences that God exists.

I thought that's what a lot of Catholic viewers wanted from TV instead of the masturbation jokes on "Seinfeld" and the bare behinds on "NYPD Blue."

Another of my mixed emotions concerns the League itself. Through the years, I have written several times about that organization, sometimes supporting it and sometimes criticizing it. When it's right about anti-Catholicism in the media, it performs a welcome service. When readers have called or written me asking for organizations they can join to improve the media, I give them -- along with other suggestions -- the address of the League.

Off the deep end

But if there is a deep end, William Donohue, the League's president, will go off it. He often sniffs out anti-Catholicism where there is only silliness; and on the subject of "Nothing Sacred," he has been almost completely wrong.

His criticisms of it are of the light-headed sort sometimes directed against other dramas: "Shakespeare must be endorsing violence because so many people die in 'MacBeth.'" I wonder what Mr. Donohue would say to those who charge that the Bible is offensive because of all that incest and all those beheadings.

But he's a smart tactician. He knew that poisoning the well early against "Nothing Sacred" -- before viewers had a chance to see it -- would be an effective strategy. He dumped the cyanide before most critics, religious and secular, got out the word that the show was worthwhile.

'Merit' seen

Ironically, while retaining his objections, Mr. Donohue later had to admit that "there were aspects" of one episode "that deserve merit," including scenes of the main character showing "genuine pastoral care" and behaving "priestly in the best sense of the word."

But his original slash-and-burn strategy led people to get riled up about something they hadn't seen and couldn't judge on their own as "deserving merit" and showing "genuine pastoral care." As a result, the League might succeed in getting "Nothing Sacred" canceled -- and ironically make the world safer for shows like "Friends" and its constant sexual titillation.

Television took half-a-century to decide that a serious program about a parish priest was worth trying. With the noise and problems the League has created for ABC, the group may have assured us that it will be another 50 years before religion appears on the tube. Meanwhile, we will get more and more sitcoms filled with breast jokes.

That's got to leave us all with mixed feelings.

(10-23-97)

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