Culture Briefs

Smiting ‘Daniel’

“Writing earlier this month about the premiere of NBC’s controversial show, ‘The Book of Daniel,’ the Nashville Scene’s Liz Garrigan observed, ‘Something altogether anticlimactic happened. … God did not smite Middle Tennessee or cast into stone those viewers who find intriguing the character of a fallible Vicodin-addicted clergyman.’

“Maybe not. But the market sure did. ‘Daniel’ hath been smote. …

“NBC announced … that it has canceled the show amid a torrent of protest from mostly religious viewers outraged by its caricature of Jesus Christ and the panoply of dysfunction masquerading as the family of the troubled Episcopal priest. …

“Given the groundswell of protest, the show lasted only three weeks before NBC defrocked the comedic drama entirely.”

— Joel Miller, writing on “‘Daniel’ and the welfare queen,” Thursday in WorldNetDaily at www.worldnetdaily.com

Public miseducation

“So here I am facing another Minnesota winter, looking to expand my mind. Naturally, I turn to ‘The Winter & Spring 2006 Community Education Catalog’ of the Eden Prairie, Minn., public schools, where I see the very first course offering is:

“‘Da Vinci Code Historical Seminar — Did you find the historical events in the 2003 fictional best-seller interesting but too fantastic to believe? Actually, most of the background items cited in the book were tied to events purportedly recorded in history.’ …

“What really made me pause however was this line: ‘The Priory of Sion actually existed since 1099, and Opus Dei frightfully exists right here in the U.S.A. today!’

“The Priory of Sion … certainly did not exist since 1099 (or ever), being a 1960s fabrication of a convicted French swindler. Asserting in a public-school program — even one for adults — that it actually existed amounts to using the public schools to spread anti-Christian and specifically anti-Catholic propaganda. The line about Opus Dei’s very existence in the U.S. being frightening suggests the same, and then some.”

— Susan Vigilante, writing on “Opus Dei 101,” Thursday in National Review Online at www.nationalreview.com

Suing ‘Dora’

Story Continues →