NBC Feels the Pressure

I have just finished reading the article in the Florida Baptist Witness which shares the some of the details related to NBC's decision to delete the scene of Madonna hanging from a cross while singing the song "Live to Tell." (NBC axes Madonna's crucifixion scene)

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, states in the article, "NBC did the right thing, but the fact that it did not say why the offensive part of Madonna's concert was cut shows cowardise." He went on to say, "What NBC should have done is to admit that since it refused to air the Danish cartoons that Muslims objected to earlier this year, it felt obligated not to treat Christians i a discriminatory manner."

The article goes on to say that some 750,000 people contacted NBC to state their disapproval of the networks decision to air the blasphemous scenes from the concert.

Madonna is quoted in the article as saying the scene "is not a mocking of the church" and "is neither anti-christian, sacrilegious or blasphemous."

I applaud NBC for yielding to the majority position on this issue. Whether Madonna says so or not, the scene would have been, and as a matter of fact is, offensive, blasphemous, and sacrireligious in nature and character. This is the mentality that we as Christians face, and I feel, IMHO, will continue to become even worse in this post-modern world in which we live. The cry for tolerance in this country and around the world needs to come with a warning label that reads, "Tolerance is given to any and all, excluding those who would call themselves 'Christian'." The most noticeable discrimination seen, through my eyes, is that which is "lavished" on the Church today.

In Florida this discrimination was felt in the lawsuit brought against the "Church" by the Wiccan movement, asking that tax-exempt status be taken away from Churches because it breaks the Constitutions "Separation of Church and State" clause. Thankfully the Florida Supreme Court ruled against the Wiccan suit. But I wonder if people really understand what the writers of the Constitution meant when they penned those words. History seems to imply that those men wrote that portion of the Constitution to keep the State out of the Churches business rather than the Church out of the State's. The Founding Father's implored the Church to be actively involved in engaging culture, just as I feel it imperative that we who make up the church today be actively involved in the joy and stress of engaging our culture with the "Good News" of Jesus Christ.

If we fail in this matter, then there is no hope for this country and the world. See you on the front line.

Serving Him,
Mike