{"id":2231,"date":"2011-07-03T23:47:33","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T03:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/?p=2231"},"modified":"2011-07-03T23:49:14","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T03:49:14","slug":"prime-time-tv-actually-features-a-normal-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/07\/prime-time-tv-actually-features-a-normal-christian.html","title":{"rendered":"Prime time TV actually features a normal Christian offering thanks, praying with friends"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
The character Lourdes chats with 11-year-old Matt, a fellow survivor<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

After decades of portraying Christians as hypocrites, crazies and bigots, Sunday night on prime-time TV, a main character actually prayed over her meal, then led others in a prayer of thanks “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”<\/p>\n

Actually, Christians regularly surface on reality TV, such as American Idol<\/em> or Undercover Boss.<\/em> That’s because real-live Americans actually do believe in God, do seek\u00a0His guidance,\u00a0and give Him thanks, as opposed to the fictional, totally secular Americans usually scripted by Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Sunday night on cable network TNT’s fourth episode of the science-fiction series Falling Skies<\/em> showed a central character, Lourdes, played by Seychelle Gabriel, pausing to say grace before eating — then later leading other characters in a prayer of thanks to the Lord.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Falling Skies<\/em>\u00a0was created by Robert Rodat and movie legend Stephen Spielberg, the show’s executive producer.<\/p>\n

The opening episode three weeks ago began\u00a0six months into an alien invasion that had destroyed 90 percent of humanity, shut down the power grid and destroyed the military. Fictional character Tom Mason, a former Boston University history professor, became the second-in-command of the “2nd Massachusetts Militia Regiment,” a group of civilians and fighters who escaped Boston’s destruction.<\/p>\n

Their name alludes to the\u00a01776 Massachusetts militia in which civilians led an impossible revolution against the greatest\u00a0military force\u00a0in the world at the time, the British.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The series premiered June 19. Its\u00a0two-hour premiere was watched by 5.9 million viewers, making it cable television’s #1 series launch of the year.<\/p>\n

The character Lourdes\u00a0is\u00a0a former college student who helps as a medic and has a crush on a 17-year-old main character, Hal.<\/p>\n

Here’s hoping we see a lot more of her — and that the scriptwriters don’t do their predictable\u00a0worst and turn her into a Scripture-chanting psychopath.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The character Lourdes chats with 11-year-old Matt, a fellow survivor \u00a0 After decades of portraying Christians as hypocrites, crazies and bigots, Sunday night on prime-time TV, a main character actually prayed over her meal, then led others in a prayer of thanks “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Actually,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155,293],"tags":[416,446,295,296,294],"class_list":["post-2231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians","category-entertainment","tag-christians","tag-entertainment","tag-falling-skies","tag-stephen-spielberg","tag-tv"],"yoast_head":"\nPrime time TV actually features a normal Christian offering thanks, praying with friends - On the Front Lines of the Culture Wars<\/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\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/07\/prime-time-tv-actually-features-a-normal-christian.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prime time TV actually features a normal Christian offering thanks, praying with friends - 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