Thursday night on prime time television, two Catholic priests, huddled at the back of a soaring gothic sanctuary, exchanged the following hushed words:
Priest one: “This is what I want.”
Priest two: “But you must ask: Is this what God wants for me?”
In network television entertainment, where characters are usually either gazing at their navels or showing them off to viewers, this is a rarity–a convincing moment of spiritual seriousness.
In fact, it is unusual even in the premiere episode of “Nothing Sacred,” a new series on ABC that examines the life of a priest and has already provoked a measure of controversy.
But be prepared–prime time is primed for more God talk.
Led by “Nothing Sacred,” the hourlong melodrama about a young Roman Catholic priest and his parish, mainstream television is devoting an unprecedented amount of air time to spirituality and religion.
The number of shows with overtly religious settings or premises has jumped from one in 1995 to four last season to seven this season. Some are sitcoms, some are dramas; all are a far cry from Sally Field’s 1960s vanilla farce, “The Flying Nun.”
In the real world of faith, many welcome this sudden flowering of religion on the air as overdue acknowledgment of the importance of God in people’s lives. It is, they say, an indicator of religion’s growing influence in America’s public conversation.
Several conservative groups, however, are actively protesting what they feel is offensive treatment of religion.
And some believers think that popular culture would be better off with no prime-time religion at all, if the alternative is a nightly recitation of sectarian stereotypes.
The latest test case is “Nothing Sacred,” which features a hip, young pastor and parish ensemble who portray Catholics roughly the way “ER” depicts medics and “NYPD Blue” reflects police officers–handsome, highly kinetic, given to oversimplification, but in the end, successful.
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a New York organization that publishes annual lists of what it considers Catholic-bashing, has launched a campaign against ABC parent company Disney, complaining that “Nothing Sacred” promotes “trendy positions of dissenting Catholics” over church teachings.
(The Catholic League first proposed a boycott of Disney in 1995, after Disney’s Miramax studio released the controversial movie “Priest.” The Southern Baptist Convention and other denominations have since called for their own boycotts of Disney on other grounds.)
Other early samplings of Catholic reaction to “Nothing Sacred” have ranged from liberal sociologist-priest Andrew Greeley’s warm praise for the show–“Catholicism lives in all its richness”–to a mixed review from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“I think serious approaches to religion are valuable,” said Henry Herx, director of the NCCB’s Office for Film and Broadcasting.
Like many reviewers, Herx believes “Nothing Sacred” is a step up from most of the faith-oriented prime-time programming that has popped up recently. But he also cautioned that it is does not closely reflect everyday Catholicism.
“The nuances are kind of lost,” he said.
What “Nothing Sacred” misses in depth, the pilot tries to make up for in breadth. Subplot themes stack up like a catalog of modern Catholic controversies: abortion, celibacy, the role of church hierarchy, conservative lay groups, crumbling buildings, neighborhood politics, feminist language in the liturgy and the shortage of priests.
“What we were trying to do,” said executive producer David Manson, “was to explore real characters and real issues in a complex way. And I think that people hold certain assumptions about clergymen that, in a way, don’t allow them the humanity that, in fact, they possess.”
Manson, a veteran television and movie producer, created “Nothing Sacred” with a Jesuit priest who is using the pen name Paul Leland. Other priests serve as advisers. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has also reviewed scripts for technical accuracy, but the archdiocese has withheld its blessing, according to Manson.
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Kevin Anderson, the native Chicagoan who plays the protagonist, Father Ray, said that he has gotten an excellent informal response from the church, however.
“Every priest I’ve talked to has found the pilot very encouraging,” Anderson said. “A lot of times when you see these types of people in movies and TV, they’re either these completely perfect people, or these sick evil priests in these thriller movies.”
So why is television taking a different, and longer look at religion all of a sudden?
Answers range from grand philosophy to pure economics, but all of them nod to a single precedent: the surprise hit show “Touched by an Angel.”
Premiering two years ago on CBS, “Touched by an Angel” was viewed as a long-shot attempt to bring the book-publishing craze for angels to the small screen, perhaps with a lighter touch.
Producer Martha Williamson, however, went the other direction, making God the unseen co-star of her show. “Touched by an Angel” does indeed feature angels coming to Earth to intervene in human dramas, but they never leave without delivering an unambiguous message of belief.
” `Touched by an Angel’ is successful because we didn’t compromise anything,” Williamson said. “We knew that pandering to testing and projections and all sorts of the usual ways of developing a television show didn’t matter.
“We decided we might as well go for it,” she said. “We might as well take a stand and say, `Hey, God exists, God loves you.’ “
The show was joined the following season by its spinoff, “Promised Land,” about a family that travels the country spreading faith, and “7th Heaven,” a drama on the WB network revolving around a married minister and his five children.
“Soul Man,” an ABC comedy with “Saturday Night Live’s” Dan Aykroyd as a widowed preacher, came on the air earlier this year.
This season, in addition to “Nothing Sacred,” there are two new religion-based comedies, “Good News,” a UPN series about a young pastor, and ABC’s “Teen Angel,” about a young man who dies and returns as the guardian angel of his buddy.
In the past, religion was usually played for laughs (“The Flying Nun,” “Amen”), or atmosphere (“The Father Dowling Mysteries,” “Lanigan’s Rabbi”). Rare were shows such as the Michael Landon vehicle “Highway to Heaven,” which dared to wear its religion on its sleeve.
Williamson said that the secret to the success of “Touched by an Angel” is simple–showing respect for “people of faith who have been looking to see themselves on television for a long time.”
The secret to its successors is equally simple, if less noble, she said.
“Show business is a business, and I think that (the networks) clearly recognize that something was working,” said Williamson.
Even if “Nothing Sacred” wields the tools that make television entertainment successful–good writing, acting, direction and promotion–there is still a question about what kind of religion it is people want to see on TV.
“Father Ray lives more in the gray,” said Anderson, the actor. “And to me, that’s really what it’s about. We all have to follow our own calling, our own soul, our own conscience. That’s truly, in my opinion, what is truly holy.”
But it’s not what made “Touched by an Angel” a hit, Williamson warns:
“People who are really searching for spirituality don’t want to struggle along with the character. They want answers. Or they’ve found the answers, and they don’t want to be offended.”