Being an old geezer, I got a bit tired of gun fights, car chases, and stupid comedies so I'm a bit picky about the television I watch. I like dramas that get in and dig. One of the best dramatic series' that American television ever offered was on ABC. It was called Nothing Sacred It was about a young priest, an old priest, another younger priest, and a feisty nun in an inner-city church. They dealt with real problems. It wasn't much like Touched by an Angel; most of the episodes where pretty gritty, and the problems they tried to deal with (sometimes unsuccessfully) didn't have pat answers. Sort of like real life. It debuted in September of 1997, it drew immediate flak from various conservative and fundamentalist religious groups, and was cancelled in March of 1998.

One reviewer described the show this way:

         It is a realistic (if somewhat fast-paced) show that takes real issues facing people today and puts a religious spin on things. It deals with AIDS, abortion, and charity to the poor, among other things.
         Perhaps the best aspect of the show is its unabashed belief in the existence of God. The main characters pray, and they talk about their faith. We see actual Roman Catholic liturgy in action. We hear homilies that drive the point home.
         While Nothing Sacred could perhaps be considered too liberal in some circles, it does a very good job of showing many sides of an issue . . . and the overwhelming message of the show is that we are to love and care for other people, just as Christ did when He was on Earth."

HERE we have a priest's guarded optimism about the show after seeing the pilot.

And HERE's a Baptist minister's response to one of the hairier episodes. He though it was very good. He used it as a jumping off point for a sermon.

One of my favorites was the Christmas episode, when all three of the priests participated in a protest demonstration, got arrested with a bunch of other people, and wound up in the slammer. This left only Sister Maureen to conduct the Christmas Eve service. Apparently a woman, even a nun, conducting a service, delivering a homily, and serving communion is a very big no-no! But—with a cathedral packed with Christmas Eve worshipers, there was no one else there to do it. So Sister Maureen stepped into the breech.

There was another episode in the can about a priest who was not only gay, but had contracted HIV.

The screeching reached air-raid siren decibels.

The apparently conservative Catholic League For Religious and Civil Rights proudly took credit for getting the show cancelled (civil rights? Freedom of expression, freedom of choice, and all that bleeding-heart liberal stuff. . . .)   Some of the most vociferous objections to the show came from Protestant fundamentalists who threatened a boycott of ABC and their advertisers, and through a vigorous letter writing campaign, managed to intimidate companies that regularly bought commercial time during the show to withdraw their sponsorship.

The sort of thing they objected to? In one episode, there's a scene in which a pregnant teen-age parishioner wants to get an abortion and she's trying to get some sort of approval from Father Ray. One person who criticized this particular episode said that Father Ray should have locked her in the church basement (completely ignoring the fact that kidnapping is a Federal crime, and unlawful imprisonment is highly illegal) until she delivered her baby! But instead, Father Ray said, "Look, you know the position the Church takes on this as well as I do. I can't tell you what to do. But let me remind you that, whatever you decide, you're going to have to live with the results of that decision for the rest of your life." Personally, I thought that was pretty good advice.

Many people, both Catholic and Protestant, including priests and ministers, followed the show for as long as it lasted and thought it was THE best television drama series they had ever seen. But they were outnumbered by the Pharisees and Philistines.

Who's running this place, anyway? A sort of self-appointed, self-styled "Christian" Taliban? Among Christians, these people are in a minority, but they are sufficiently loud and well-organized that they manage to scare the pee out of supposedly powerful network and corporate executives. Threaten their pocketbook and they fold up like a cheap tent.

Don Firth