ABC's "The O'Neals is a savagely anti-catholic sitcom

One other thing worth noting is that four out of the eight writers on the show identify as Catholic. It might be such that they are nominal or former Catholics who want to take a shot at Catholicism. It's pretty common. Much in the same way I think Christianity gets targeted a bit more in these things because the writers are nominal or former Christians who want to take a shot. There are probably not many nominal or former Muslims writing American television, so the subject is going to come up less. Which is why there's either a deliberate attempt at breaking stereotypes or a deliberate attempt to embrace them.

I had a friend who was an Evangelical who became an atheist. He became very angry at his former religion and took every chance he had to point out how stupid it was to him and all the flaws he saw. He didn't lash out much at any other religion other than to call them foolish superstitions. Something worth putting a thought toward.

Embittered former Muslims don't get to write for Middle Eastern TV either, though. This is pretty much a Western phenomenon, where you can use your job to take jabs at an entire religion and nobody bats an eye because they're all so enlightened and post-everything.

[To be distinguished from anti-Christian or anti-Jewish sentiment in the Islamic press, which isn't really about cheap shots for entertainment as it is about reinforcing the sentiment common in societies that see their Islamic identity as being threatened by the very existence of non-Islamic groups, who of course must be up to something bad, since they're not on board with the common vision of society...hmmmm...where's the parallel of that mindset in Western media? Shows like "24" and fear-stoking news broadcasts about how the terrorists are all coming to get us from some vaguely brown Muslim-y country, perhaps? I hope the irony is not lost on several posters here.]

dzheremi said:

Embittered former Muslims don't get to write for Middle Eastern TV either, though. This is pretty much a Western phenomenon, where you can use your job to take jabs at an entire religion and nobody bats an eye because they're all so enlightened and post-everything.

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Well, no, because in many Muslim nations leaving Islam is an offence where you get jail time or worse.

Mikhael Disciple of Christ said:

Well then, since it didn't happen here, I guess it isn't a problem and has never happened before. People and places being shot up and bombed, people being threatened and living their lives in hiding, for daring so much as to draw Mohammed or insult Islam, must not be a real thing since "it didn't happen to Little Mosque on the Prairie."

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They'd never make a sitcom about Muslims! !!They'd be attacked like Charlie Hebdo. ..Never!

There waa a sitcom about Muslims, resulting in no attacks

That doesn't count!!! Charlie Hebdo!

So, back to the OP, I watched episode 2. Yes, it's disrespectful. No one is going to accuse the producers of taking a serious shot at Catholicism or Christianity. It's just stupid. And the writing and acting is horrible. It won't last.

Mountain_Girl406 said:

They'd never make a sitcom about Muslims! !!They'd be attacked like Charlie Hebdo. ..Never!

There waa a sitcom about Muslims, resulting in no attacks

That doesn't count!!! Charlie Hebdo!

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Welcome to OBOB.

benedictaoo said:

get the... outta here. It's about network and cable TV owned by homosexuals who are known to hate the Church because of Church teaching and the fact that homosexual lifestyles are a mortal sin. That's what's under attack. Church teaching.

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they don't hate the church because of church/christian teaching, they hate how they are treated. some christians (and not just catholics), and too many in my opinion, are using church teachings to justify bigotry and bigoted behavior. bigotry is not a church/christian teaching.

some of you may be interested in seeing four lions. four incompetent british jihadists set out to train for and commit an act of terror. its a comedy...about incompetent jihadists...making fun of them. rated 7.3/10 stars with over 54,000 votes on imdb.

imind said:

they don't hate the church because of church/christian teaching, they hate how they are treated. some christians (and not just catholics), and too many in my opinion, are using church teachings to justify bigotry and bigoted behavior. bigotry is not a church/christian teaching.

some of you may be interested in seeing four lions. four incompetent british jihadists set out to train for and commit an act of terror. its a comedy...about incompetent jihadists...making fun of them. rated 7.3/10 stars with over 54,000 votes on imdb.

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Impossible! They would never make a movie that made light of practitioners of Islam!

imind said:

they don't hate the church because of church/christian teaching, they hate how they are treated. some christians (and not just catholics), and too many in my opinion, are using church teachings to justify bigotry and bigoted behavior. bigotry is not a church/christian teaching.

some of you may be interested in seeing four lions. four incompetent british jihadists set out to train for and commit an act of terror. its a comedy...about incompetent jihadists...making fun of them. rated 7.3/10 stars with over 54,000 votes on imdb.

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The problem is, people like you define bigotry as, a.) This person disagrees with me, b.) Calling homosexuality a sin which can't be permitted, or c.) Both. I'm not sure if you all were never taught the real definition of the word or if you intentionally changed its meaning to stay perpetually offended

Mikhael Disciple of Christ said:

The problem is, people like you define bigotry as, a.) This person disagrees with me, b.) Calling homosexuality a sin which can't be permitted, or c.) Both. I'm not sure if you all were never taught the real definition of the word or if you intentionally changed its meaning to stay perpetually offended

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no, actually, i don't define it as such. i'm well aware of the definition and can identify its manifested behavior very well.

I would like to suggest for everyone's consideration that the difference between bigotry and calling something a sin is not in embracing a behavior vs. calling a behavior sinful, but in how the person who exhibits that behavior is treated. In other words, what is pastorally appropriate to deal with the reality of a person's spiritual condition, which ideally is dealt with in confession and consultation with your confessor or someone who knows you equally well. Not by picking apart a person's sexual struggles on a message board, or making them into a kind of 'sin effigy' for everyone to beat on and say 'thank God, I am not like this person who is (doing) X!', or anything like that.

My own church is as conservative as they come (much, much more conservative than the Roman Catholic Church, and what's more also from a conservative society, such that the topic of homosexuality really doesn't come up very often, since there are a not insignificant number of Egyptians, Christian and Muslim alike, who think of homosexuality as a western issue, rather than an Egyptian one), and yet what little I've been able to glean, mostly in indirect references to marriage in general, shows that the above approach is in keeping with how we would deal with such situations. Consider, for instance, the following propaganda video for our late patriarch, HH Pope Shenouda III, wherein we are told that when he receives an order to conduct a marriage that transgresses our faith (it's left open ended what exactly that could mean, but that would certainly include homosexual unions, were such an invention even on the table in Egypt), he says a candid word, reminding that we will not be pressured into such things that go against the Gospel. That's it. No need to go on and on about those darn homosexuals and their horribleness or whatever, as some people here and in our religion in general seem to feel is necessary in order to stand against the west's acceptance and propagation of homosexuality. It's simply not necessary, and what's more, pretty darn ineffective, at that. Gay people are, after all, first and foremost people. And when a person is living in some sin, whatever it is, maybe metaphorically rubbing their nose in it isn't the way to go.

There are Muslim based comedies.Here Comes The Habibs is an Australian made comedy about an Australian Muslim Lebanese family-https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjr55qxlbXLAhVK52MKHQP9DMgQFggiMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.news.com.au%2Fentertainment%2Ftv%2Ftv-shows%2Fjournalist-rashell-habib-reviews-here-come-the-habibs%2Fnews-story%2F8faa8addf0cde660e4336731d2df4efc&usg=AFQjCNFLxyUQDwO46c-kv1-rp3JZ2u6CEw&sig2=0QKatpIoxAFOV2ygWLRt5Q

Here Comes The Habibs? is that show more respectful then "The Real O'Neals"?

because this show is horrible

Michie said:

When Disney and ABC decided to make a sitcom based on the teenage years of hatemongering homosexual "Savage Love" advise columnist Dan Savage, anyone could guess this was going to be a religion-bashing extravaganza.

Now the show is here. It's called "The Real O'Neals" which is an odd title, since they could not have manufactured a more wooden set of caricatured Catholics, who are both wildly dysfunctional and shallower than a thimble.

Continued below.
http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/l-brent-bozell-iii/savagely-anti-catholic-sitcom

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Disney must think there is money to be made rubbing the Catholic Church the wrong way. For money reasons it wouldn't be there objective to correctly portray the Church but to please their audience. In the beginning these entertainers were communist pushing an agenda within the law, the law changed and entertainment went sex made, then violence made, sex and violence made and later witchcraft made. What seems to me to be happening is through change, change and change morality and reality is being systematically destroyed.

Rhamiel said:

Here Comes The Habibs? is that show more respectful then "The Real O'Neals"?

because this show is horrible

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Well the Habibs is pretty mild but before that came Fat Pizza in which the Lebanese characters were all drug dealers.
How about Father Ted....now THAT was a funny show about Catholic priests- and not very respectful.

hiphopopotomus said:

How about Father Ted....now THAT was a funny show about Catholic priests- and not very respectful.

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that was a good one

The Jim Gaffigan Show is another good one

imind said:

they don't hate the church because of church/christian teaching, they hate how they are treated. some christians (and not just catholics), and too many in my opinion, are using church teachings to justify bigotry and bigoted behavior. bigotry is not a church/christian teaching.

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How old are you? What's his name Micheal Eisner, who became the CEO of Disney began this back in the early 90's. He is openly gay and that is when all this gay programming began. He's the one who started gay pride day at Disney world, where people bring their 3 year olds.... he's the one with all this gay programming and it is geared towards kids. it is what it is. He did begin a campaign against the Church for her teaching on how homosexual acts are mortal sin. It's a fact, don't deny it because it makes you seem dense.

benedictaoo said:

What's his name Micheal Eisner, who became the CEO of Disney began this back in the early 90's. He is openly gay

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That must be news to both him and his wife, Jane Breckenridge, to whom he has been married since 1967.

I would think that such a long marriage would be looked up to by people here, but I guess not when there's gay ghost hunting to be done.