NBC Abandons Plan to Attack Christians With Spears

by Jenni Parker
February 6, 2006

(AgapePress) - - Responding to pressure, NBC has decided to strike a particularly offensive segment from an upcoming episode of the sitcom, "Will and Grace," featuring a guest appearance by pop music star Britney Spears. The American Family Association (AFA) reports that the network cancelled plans to include a reference in the show's April 13 episode that would have offended Christians, both by its timing and its content.

According to AFA, a Tupelo, Mississippi-based pro-family group, NBC had previously announced its intention to air an episode the night before Good Friday, featuring pop music performer Britney Spears as a guest star. In her appearance, Spears was to portray a Christian conservative sidekick to homosexual character Jack McFarland (actor Sean Hayes), who has his own talk show on the fictional "Out TV" cable channel.

The Christian organization's research revealed that, in the planned episode, Jack's network was to be bought out by a Christian network, eventually leading to Spears' character appearing in a cooking segment called "Cruci-fixins."

AFA founder Don Wildmon says he believes the network's decision to mock the crucifixion of Christ with this title represented "an angry, knee-jerk reaction" to the pro-family group's role in spurring affiliate, consumer, and sponsor protest against the recently cancelled NBC show, "The Book of Daniel." Also, Wildmon contends, NBC's latest action exposes once again the network's "deep-seated anti-Christian bias."

However, NBC now says the description of the episode was a mistake. In a recent memo to its affiliates, the network referred to some "erroneous information" that was "mistakenly included in a press release describing an upcoming episode ... which, in fact, has yet to be written." The offensive reference to "Cruci-fixins" will not be in the show, the network went on to state, "and the story line will not contain a Christian characterization at all."

AFA officials feel the network's memo was a deliberate attempt to confuse the public with a misleading statement giving the impression the pro-family group had lied to its supporters. The memo did not clarify that it was NBC itself that had issued the "erroneous information," an AFA statement points out, but instead left readers with the impression that the "erroneous information" had originated with the pro-family organization.

Also, the AFA statement observes, "When NBC said that the script 'has yet to be written,' what they didn't tell you is that the 'story board' had been completed, and the offensive material was scheduled to be a part of the episode." This fact causes Wildmon to question the network's claim that the detailed report about the content of the episode was actually in error.

"NBC wanting us to believe they were mistaken in describing the segment, that they didn't know what was in their own press release, just doesn't hold water," the AFA chairman asserts. What he suspects really happened is, "Plainly put, NBC heard from their affiliates that they did not want to go through another 'Book of Daniel' situation while losing millions in advertising revenue," he says.

In the wake of reports about NBC's plan to air the offensive "Will and Grace" segment, affiliates nationwide had already begun to act in response. According to a Tyler Morning Telegraph news report, one local network official -- Mike Delier, general manager of the Tyler, Texas, NBC- affiliate station KETK-TV, said if such a segment exists, his station "would absolutely not run it."

And, having spoken with other executives at affiliate stations around the country, Delier said he could avow that he was not the only local official expressing shock and disappointment with NBC. The network, the Tyler station manager emphasized, employs many Christians and people of other faiths who genuinely desire to offend no one.

Randy Sharp, AFA's special projects director, says he believes the network's now aborted plan to air the distasteful and faith-mocking segment was its way of seeking revenge against the pro-family organization and its supporters. He credits AFA's efforts with forcing NBC to cancel "The Book of Daniel" after airing only three episodes; and he says the pro-family group was prepared to mobilize its constituency again after learning of this latest "Will and Grace" outrage.

"We were ready and willing to ask our three million online supporters to protest this latest denigration of Christianity," Sharp says. "Christians across America are fed up with attacks on their faith and their values."