The eCrozier

This week I read that an organization called the Florida Family Association (FFA) convinced the Lowes home improvement company to withdraw its advertising from a show called All-American Muslim on cable’s The Learning Channel (TLC). The FFA claimed this show did not depict Muslims accurately. The show apparently views Muslim-Americans living in Dearborn, Michigan as having arguments with their teenage children, going to the doctor for a medical condition, and trying to balance work and family life, among other things. In other words, pretty much what all of us do. But the FFA said the show is “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda.”

I’ve never, to my recollection, watched any show on TLC, so I went to the channel’s website and watched clips of All-American Muslim. I found just another voyeuristic “reality show.” I can’t see how anyone would find it threatening, or for that matter, want to watch it. Watching grass grow is more compelling (and more intellectually engaging). While I was on TLC’s website I saw other shows the channel offers. Here’s a sample: “Toddlers and Tiaras follows families on their quest for sparkly crowns, big titles, and lots of cash.” Watching a few clips of the show made me ill. Mothers were rehearsing their five year-old daughters to “shake their bottoms” for the pageant judges. “Strange Sex” is a show where “individuals divulge the obstacles and frustrations they face as they cope with unique sexual conditions.” These were things I didn’t want to know. “Freaky Eaters follows individuals who must confront their strange food obsessions.” I can’t even tell you how much I didn’t want to know about any of this. I felt embarrassed for these poor people exposed to the world and exploited for financial profit.

My question is this: Why isn’t the FFA seeking to get the advertisers on these shows to pull their ads? Toddlers and Tiaras is the closest thing I’ve seen to televised child abuse. It sexualizes kindergartners! When we baptize a child, parents and godparents “renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.” These little girls are being corrupted. The other two shows exploit sad, pathetic persons for the entertainment of a voyeuristic TV audience. The Germans have a word for this. It’s Schadenfreude, the pleasure we derive from the misfortunes of others. In our baptismal covenant, we promise to “respect the dignity of every human being.” But apparently, the FFA thinks these shows are just fine, or at least not worthy of their ire.

Now the FFA has every right to do what they are doing and Lowes has every right to advertize only where they want to, but I have trouble seeing how the show All-American Muslim will ever “corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.” It will bore the creatures of God, but not much else. These other shows, however, provide the real danger, because they continue to desensitize viewers to the corruption and degradation of the children of God. In fact, the shows suggest we should somehow delight in it. The FFA is clearly struggling against the wrong enemy. And anyone who watches these shows needs to do some serious self-examination (not to mention, get a life), because as St. Paul writes in Galatians, they are feeding themselves on the works of the flesh and not on the fruit of the Spirit.

+Scott