Silence Isn't Always Golden

Across the country, people have been angrily reacting to what Pastor Sean Harris of the Berean Baptist Church in North Carolina said from his pulpit... but what's gone largely uncommented on is why none of the people in his congregation protested his hateful rant.

For those who've somehow remained unaware, the Pastor found himself in hot water after a sermon in which he urged parents to "punch" male children if they acted effeminate and prevent their daughter from being too "butch" by making sure they looked attractive and "smell like a girl."

Listen to the congregation to the crowd the pastor -- who has issued the standard unapologetic apology -- addresses, and you can hear shouts of approval and laughter. But you know what you won't hear? A single person standing up to stop his homophobic rant.

So while pundits are taking the man of God to task for his unholy declarations, I can't help thinking they're missing the big picture. Because as indignant as many of us are at his remarks, where is the anger directed at the people sitting in that church who agreed wholeheartedly with his words?

It's easy to take to task the man whose words have echoed across the nation, but what about the people whose silence also speaks volumes? If actions truly speak louder than words, what are we to make of people who said nothing while listening to a man advocate such hateful behavior?

Airin’ The Laundry: COMMUNITY Edition

For a few years now, dramedy’s have been all the rage on television. But what works for DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES or NURSE JACKIE isn’t quote so appealing when it comes to real life. Just ask fans of COMMUNITY.

Surely, I can’t be the only one who was kinda bummed to find out that creator Dan Harmon and star Chevy Chase were engaged in an exceedingly nasty feud that involved temper tantrums, public displays if inaffection and the kind of mutual disrespect that we’d all like to think we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy.

When news of the bickering first broke, I couldn’t help hoping it was all some kind of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” stunt. But that quickly proved untrue, eventually leading to Harmon’s mea culpa, saying he wanted to “acknowledge my mistake and apologize to the fans.”

Unfortunately, you can’t unring a bell.

My household stopped watching 30 ROCK after star Tracy Morgan, during a comedy routine, joked that he would stab his son to death were the boy to be gay. In the weeks that followed, there was much debate in the media, including an op-ed piece from the actor himself insisting, basically, that we pick and choose what to be offended by. In that, at least, he was completely right. My household — aware that this was not Morgan’s first run-in with homophibic remarks — opted to take offense and, despite being big fans of 30 ROCK, express that offense by refusing to watch.

Clearly, the Harmon/Chase dust-up is an entirely different matter, as the nasty remarks being tossed about were flying back and forth between the two men as opposed to at the audience. But that doesn’t mean that for some, a little bit of the magic that is COMMUNITY won’t be tainted by what Harmon described as “the giant far with my name on it that you’ve been inhaling.”

Look, we’ve all read interviews in which a cast member from a hit show says, “I know you hear this all the time, but we really are one big happy family!” And most of us probably laugh, knowing full well that the soundstages on which shows are produced are no different than any other work environment, and that means there are by nature going to be some folks you like and others you don’t. But that little lie allows us to suspend our disbelief and picture the cast hanging out and having a ball behind the scenes when not laboring to entertain us, the viewing audience.

Then again, maybe this is what people really want… the scandal. The gossip. The titter-worthy tales of backstage backstabbing. We’ve become a nation obsessed with dirty laundry, whether it be that of Newt Gingrich or Kim Kardashian.

I, however, wouldn’t mind being kept in the dark about some of the scandals that rock my favorite shows. I don’t want to find myself watching COMMUNITY and wondering how much of Pierce’s dickish behavior is just Chevy Chase being Chevy Chase, or if that snarky line Jeff fired at Pierce is really Harmon taking a cheap shot at the star he has issues with.

How about this: I promise that if the cast and crew of my favorite shows agree to play the “we’re a big, happy family” game until after the show leaves the airwaves, I’ll buy each and every one of the illusion-shattering tell-all books they write after the fact. 

This post originally appeared at thetvaddict.com

Are Conservatives Bad For Television?

The following first ran at TheTVAddict.com.

I have a theory: I think Republicans are bad for television.

Specifically, conservative Republicans. And not faux conservatives like Newt “I’ve had as many wives as that dude on BIG LOVE but gay people will ruin the sanctity of marriage” Gingrich, but real conservatives like Rick “no birth control, abortion or gay sex for yo” Santorum.

See, here’s the problem: Conservative Republicans like to tell people what to do. More importantly, they really, really, really like telling people what not to do. Whereas liberals and Democrats tend to be of the mindset that we are adults who can make up our own minds about things (and, potentially, learn from our mistakes), conservative Republicans are of the belief that you need to be dictated to because, gosh darn it, left to your own devices, you’re gonna screw up.

What, you ask, does that have to do with them being bad for television?

Well, answer me this: Do you like television?

Obviously, nobody likes everything on television. Some people (like Barbara Walters) think THE BACHELOR is degrading to women. Others would rather poke their eyes out than sit through an episode of JERSEY SHORE. And absolutely everyone will agree that Jerry Springer’s show is a national disgrace that none of us would ever tune into. (Except, of course, hat its very longevity suggests that a whole lot of us do so regularly.)

The point is that no matter how trashy your taste, television will fulfill your needs. (And then, if you’re watching TWO BROKE GIRLS, make a wildly inappropriate joke about having done so.)

Unless, of course, you want to watch a show like, say, ALL AMERICAN MUSLIM, and a group of conservatives decide that it sends a message they disapprove of and work to get it yanked off the air. Or maybe you find ABC’s new show GCB hysterical… as opposed to the folks at OneMillionMoms.com (you know, the folks who thought Ellen was “too gay” to be representing JCPenney), who want advertisers to yank their support, which is, in essence, saying they want the show gone.

As far as conservatives are concerned, you shouldn’t be allowed to watch shows that they disapprove of. It’s not enough that they take control of their lives and families by turning the channel; They want to take control of your family by making sure that you don’t even have the option of watching something they find offensive.

As the various GOP candidates fight for the right to be the Republican nominee for president, there are a lot of issues being debated. Foreign policy, birth control, how to get the economy back on track. It’s not as if anyone is asking them their positions on regular Parents Television Council whipping-boy Peter Griffin and his FAMILY GUY playmates. But it doesn’t take much to venture down the slippery-slope conservatives live in fear of and realize that a group of people who spend every minute of every day on the front lines of the culture war they created will eventually get around to declaring that little box that resides in every single American home public enemy number one.

All Revved Up

I was hit by a car recently.

Hey, I'm not THAT fat!

The driver did a rolling stop through a red light, looking to her left for on-coming traffic as she turned right. Had she looked both ways — you know, the way every mother tells every child to do when crossing a street — she’d hve seen me in the crosswalk. She was at a red light. I had the right of way.

But the best part of the story is that after hitting me — not hard; I was more scared than scarred — she pulled over… and proceeded to yell at me for having gotten in her way.

Seriously.

As a constant pedestrian, I know from first-hand experience that these kind of man-meets-metal throwdowns happen far too often and, for the most part, only avoid turning into tragedy because the person not tooling around in a ton or more of metal is on the alert.

With that in mind, it might be time to draw up a Pedestrian Bill Of Rights.

I propose that as pedestrians, we should have the right…

… not to be plowed down by those driving along merrily. Seems obvious, but hey, this is a country where Congressman need to be told that it’s not okay to yell at the president when he’s in the middle of a speech.

… to be a bigger priority to those behind the wheel than is the person to whom they are speaking on their cellphone. I realize that it’s very important to find out what’s for dinner or whether little Johnny finally peed in the pot as opposed to Daddy’s shoes, but maybe that can wait until you get home. At the very least use a hands-free device, because let’s face it: It’s tough to look both ways for pedestrians when you’ve got that phone jammed into the crook of your shoulder so you can talk, drive and smoke at the same time. By the way… since most people can’t text and walk down the sidewalk without plowing into someone, what the hell makes some of you think you can do it while driving?

… to not be turned into streetwalkers of the non-sexual variety by homeowners and businesses who refuse to plow their sidewalks after a snowstorm, forcing pedestrians to walk on the roadway to avoid breaking their necks.

… to not be hit by the cigarette butts you flick out the window. Every car in this country has an ashtray. If for some reason yours is unuseable (as in you haven’t emptied it since the first Bush presidency), do what normal people do: put the butt in a can of coke.

… to have some slack cut to us on rainy days. Look, even if you’ve got the right of way as you sit there in your warm car, sipping coffee, why not stop and wave someone through who is struggling to keep their umbrella from turning inside out? And for pete’s sake, don’t be the asshat who sees a puddle and steps on the gas, pulling as close to the curb as possible in an attempt to play “Splash The Walker.” Not cool.

In short, how about having a little respect for the people who are out there walking — whether we’re doing it for the exercise or out of some crazy notion that maybe we’re helping counterbalance the environmental damage caused by your gas-guzzling Hummer. Better still, try literally walking a few miles in our shoes. A few close calls of your own might help you see things differently.



No Girls Allowed!

This meeting of the He Man Woman Haters Club shall come to order!

We have a busy agenda this month, so let's get right down to business. First up? We'd like to congratulate our members from the state of Virginia for passing legislation requiring that women seeking an abortion be vaginally probed against their will. There are some questions as to how we'll manage to get around the fact that doing so basically constitutes rape, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

On a similar note, everyone should take a moment to thank future He-Man Woman Haters Club President Rick Santorum for taking such a brave stance when it comes to the evils of this nation's real problems, most of which involve silly women not knowing what's good for them. He knows that birth control is only used by sinners "seeking license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be" and that if women are put on the front lines of a military operation we He Men, despite hating them, might get all ooey-gooey inside and feel the need to protect them. We are, after all, only human!

We also need to give a big shout-out to all of our members who've been out there doing their darndest to advance the "personhood" agenda (which would basically outlaw all abortions and most contraception), which will go a long way toward making sure that gals stay barefoot and pregnant, the way God -- who is, after all, a man -- intended them to be.

Next, we need to give a big shout-out to some of the little ladies who have helped drive up our membership numbers even while they sabotaged their own kind. That includes Callista "Stand By Someone Else's Man" Gingrich, Michele "I Set The Idea Of A Female President Back A Century" Bachmann, and Arizona Governor Jan "Off With Their Heads" Brewer.

Last, but far from least, we want to give a special welcome to our first Honorary Dude, Ann Coulter, for her recent comment that “all pretty girls are right-wingers.” She does the GOP… er, I mean the He-Man Woman Haters Club proud.