Nashville’s WSMV-TV recently pulled NBC’s new Christian drama The Book of Daniel from its schedule, joining six other NBC affiliates refusing to air the controversial program. The midseason replacement, easily one of the most intriguing new dramas of the season, centers around the life and family of Reverend Daniel Webster, an Episcopal priest who is addicted to painkillers and has occasional conversations with Jesus Christ. He has a gay son, his mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and he has found himself involved with the mob to build a new school after his brother-in-law stole funds from the church. These are only a few of the problems facing the good reverend. So perhaps the controversy surrounding the show is not entirely surprising.

Christian-themed products have been popular ever since publishers discovered that the close to 220 million Christian Americans have a great deal of money to spend. After all, the abundance of Christian voters supposedly won President George W. Bush the election in 2004. The apocalyptic Left Behind series based on a fundamentalist Christian view of the end of the world has been topping best sellers lists for years. And in case there was any doubt, nothing proved the profitability of Christian media more than Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ. Despite significant controversy over the film’s portrayal of Jews and intensely graphic violence, The Passion went on to become the highest-grossing R-rated film ever made.

Before The Passion, though, there was Touched by an Angel, which first aired in 1994 on CBS. With its message of hope and divine love, the program soon became one of the most popular dramas on television. But Angel is also a perfect example of the problem with so much of the media that is aimed at Christians—that is, it tends to be overly simplistic in its approach toward difficult problems. There is no denying that Touched by an Angel dealt with some serious issues during its run. Yet for any episode, no matter what the conflict facing the characters was, the answer always fell into the same painfully predictable cookie-cutter format of the angels lighting up to say, “Jesus loves you.”

In general, it seems to be the case that for a television show, film, or book about Christianity to really be successful, it must play it safe. In other words, the product cannot actually address the issues being dealt with because the purpose is not to deal with the issues. The purpose is to reinforce what the audience already believes. As such, it becomes little more than mass-produced media masturbation.

Other shows have attempted to go the route of providing more thoughtful and mature consideration of theological and philosophical issues facing Christians in the modern world. In 2003 ABC aired its paranormal investigation show Miracles. Sometimes referred to as a spiritual X-Files, Miracles centered around Paul Callan, a former employee of the Catholic Church whose job it is to investigate miracles. While it was perhaps only tangentially related to Christian belief, the show often took a hard, uncompromising look at the nature of God.

Then there was the much more lighthearted God, the Devil, and Bob, which aired on NBC in 2000. In the show, a notably Jerry-Garcia-like God decides he is going to destroy his creation unless one person, chosen by the Devil, proves to him that humanity is worth saving. Of course, the Devil chooses a person he thinks won’t have a chance—Bob Alman, a typical everyman working at an auto plant in Detroit. If Miracles was a spiritual X-Files, perhaps God, the Devil, and Bob could best be described as a spiritual Simpsons. Or an animated Book of Job. Though it was a cartoon show, God, the Devil, and Bob still provided often surprisingly thoughtful responses to theological issues, not the least of which was the problem of evil.

Finally, there was ABC’s Nothing Sacred in 1997. The one-hour drama featured Catholic Father Francis “Ray” Reyneaux as he dealt with the problems of his parish and questioned his own faith. For fans of the series, it is almost impossible not to make the connection between Nothing Sacred and The Book of Daniel. With a very similar format, Daniel seems to be a newer version of Nothing Sacred, only more Episcopalian and with a bigger helping of black humor.

Now, what do Miracles, God, the Devil, and Bob, and Nothing Sacred all have in common other than their subject matter? All three shows were cancelled within one season. In the last two cases, cancellation was due, either in part or in full, to negative protests from conservative Christian groups. Groups such as the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which targeted Nothing Sacred before it even aired. This despite the fact that many Catholics, including priests, said the show was realistic and not at all insulting.

Interestingly enough, the complaints regarding The Book of Daniel sound eerily similar to those launched against Nothing Sacred. Critics accuse the show of mocking Christians with its portrayal of its main character Reverend Webster. Again, this is in spite of the show having received the blessing of a number of Episcopal priests, including the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

Thus, we return to the essential problem facing creators of Christian-themed television programs. They can choose to make a well thought out point concerning matters of religion and philosophy in the modern world and take upon themselves the almost certain possibility of being cancelled after fifteen, or six, or three episodes. Or they can play it safe and choose not to say anything at all, which makes for very poor television. The success of Touched by an Angel notwithstanding, it seems doubtful that most producers would be able to keep a program going for nine years when every episode is essentially the same as every other episode.

Still, the saddest part of all this may not be that audiences are being deprived of outstanding television programs. It is that shows such as Nothing Sacred and The Book of Daniel are precisely the kinds of shows that people of faith need to see in this modern world. Too often, the most pressing issues facing Christianity today are pushed aside or ignored in favor of the repetition of archaic dogma written in and for a completely different time, now devoid of their original contextual setting.

Because of this, it is easy for people living today to think of the Bible, and of Christianity in general, as being an outdated set of teachings with no application to their own lives. And many may lose faith when confronted with modern problems that the writers of the Bible never considered, as happened a few years ago during the Catholic abuse scandal. This is why all religions must continuously change and adapt as the society within which they exist changes. Rabbinic literature, for instance, is constantly reinterpreting laws from the Hebrew Bible.

Dramas like The Book of Daniel are merely a modernized version of this phenomenon. They show people dealing with real world problems while maintaining their Christian faith. It shows that Christian belief can still play a role in a post-Enlightenment world. What’s important is that no matter how much the central characters may question their faith, when the credits roll they are still Christians. Far from being offensive, such work is the best kind of defense Christianity has.

Conversely, it seems almost more insulting to suggest that television cannot portray Christians struggling with modern situations without being a “mockery.” If simply considering one’s faith is enough to tear it apart, then there was not much faith there to begin with.

In the words of Father Reyneaux,

I can’t prove there’s a God. And I find that scary since I’m betting my life there is one. I can’t prove it, but I do catch a glimpse of him from time to time. I say “him” with apologies to Sister Maureen, but when I saw God last, he was a father reaching for a son. And for a second, I saw God. It didn’t make me feel any better. Maybe that’s not what God is for. But I saw him. And I believe I will see him today, and tomorrow, Tuesday. I don’t know. And that’s the adventure. So, that’s the best I can do. And that’s faith. If you’re looking for proofs, then you’re in the wrong business.