{"id":445,"date":"2006-07-25T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2006\/07\/the-messengers-return-to-sende.html"},"modified":"2006-07-25T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-07-25T12:00:00","slug":"the-messengers-return-to-sende","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/07\/the-messengers-return-to-sende.html","title":{"rendered":"The Messengers: Return to Sender?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

“The Messengers<\/a>,” a new eight-part series on The Learning Channel featuring 10 of the nation\u2019s up-and coming inspirational speakers<\/a>, left me somewhat less than inspired. In the premiere episode, the contestants are left to live for 24 hours on L.A.\u2019s skid row, after which they are given a few minutes to expound upon the night\u2019s chosen topic in front of the voting, studio audience. This aspirational American Idol has its own panel of judges: Richard Greene, a communication coach dubbed “The Master of Charisma” by the Sunday Times (UK), and Robert V. Shuller, pastor of emergent ministries of the Crystal Cathedral Ministries. The winning \u201cmessenger\u201d will be rewarded with a publishing contract and a television special on TLC.<\/p>\n

The show attempts to establish a sense of gravitas with its opening montage of Buddhist monks praying, rabbis reading from the Torah, and yogis practicing their craft to the tune of Depeche Mode\u2019s \u201cPersonal Jesus,\u201d as interpreted by the late Johnny Cash. The contestants range from an ex-Raiderette cheerleader turned spiritual seeker to several Christian pastors.<\/p>\n

We never really got to know the contestants before they were taken to skid row, and so watching them try to connect with the homeless felt prurient and almost exploitive, in a way. As one angry woman said when a contestant approached her, \u201cGet your hands off me! We don\u2019t have homes… you do! I\u2019ve been on the streets since I was 11 year old.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in the studio, we hear each person\u2019s take on that night\u2019s topic of \u201ccharity.\u201d Both the pastors, Robert Rutherford and Darryl Van Leer, do very well, and Angelica Osborne, the quirky apartment manager from Alabama, is clearly a front-runner. Platitudes were abundant (\u201cCharity is not what I can do for this homeless man, but what he can do for me.\u201d), but there were also some lovely turns of phrases and some truly engaging deliveries. I was disappointed, however, that we didn\u2019t get to see the full speeches of at least three contestants, including Iman Mafi, a Muslim youth lecturer, and Zahava Zaidoff, a former Orthodox Jew, and that their deliveries were so short.<\/p>\n

I wholeheartedly agree with panelist Greene that rhetoric is quickly becoming a lost art, although I might not go as far as to say that it\u2019s \u201cimportant for the soul of our country.\u201d Then again, I\u2019m not \u201cThe Master of Charisma.\u201d But does inspirational rhetoric make good television? So attuned are we to the vicious \u201cvote-them-off-the-island\u201d mentality of reality television, that it somehow feels wrong when a reality show pits people against each other in a spoken-word battle of feel-good messages.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the producers counted on Floyd Nolan, student of spiritual development, to shake things up. Floyd strutted onto the stage and sat down, saying: \u201cI don\u2019t have a lot of time and that\u2019s mostly because I have to pee.\u201d To which Richard Greene responded, \u201cYou call that a speech?!\u201d and waved his hand dismissively (or at least the film was edited to appear that way). Unfortunately, Floyd was voted off and no other \u201ccharacter\u201d has yet emerged. While the format is odd, the show is intriguing in what it is trying to accomplish.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The Messengers,” a new eight-part series on The Learning Channel featuring 10 of the nation\u2019s up-and coming inspirational speakers, left me somewhat less than inspired. In the premiere episode, the contestants are left to live for 24 hours on L.A.\u2019s skid row, after which they are given a few minutes to expound upon the night\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Messengers: Return to Sender?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/07\/the-messengers-return-to-sende.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Messengers: Return to Sender?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“The Messengers,” a new eight-part series on The Learning Channel featuring 10 of the nation\u2019s up-and coming inspirational speakers, left me somewhat less than inspired. 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