NBC has been advertising their miniseries starting on Easter called AD: The Bible Continues by the producers of The Bible. I saw the trailer and it made me wonder how true they were going to stay to the Bible’s rendition of the Easter story. No, we don’t know how Jesus looks but almost every movie or show I’ve seen has Jesus looking handsome, things in the Bible enhanced to show more violence than may have been there (like the movie Exodus), or twisted to meet current “worldviews.” You be the judge…if you see it on NBC starting Sunday.
It seems like television is promoting more supernatural and religious shows from people returning from the dead to National Geographic’s Killing Jesus to finally this twelve-episode miniseries. Over the summer as we choose to watch or not watch these types of films, we should use them to discern the authenticity of religious portrayal on TV…or maybe have another tool to debate our liberal neighbor or atheist co-worker.
According to the most recent information from the U.S. Census Bureau, about three-quarters of the adult population — some 175,000,000 people over the age of 18 — describe themselves as Christian. A Gallup survey in 2010 found that about 43% of Americans regularly attend church services. That’s a ratings share that networks can only dream about.
So why have television networks, particularly the Big Four broadcasters, been so wary of religious programming?
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