Panel of anti-gay religious leaders advised on “The Bible”

[marmar]

Panel of anti-gay religious leaders advised on “The Bible”
A team of anti-gay evangelicals advised on a mini-series meant to "set the record straight" on the good book

By Katie Mcdonough


While the Obama-as-Satan story grabbed headlines on Monday, another aspect of the History Channel’s “The Bible” mini-series flew under the radar: The panel of anti-gay evangelicals who advised on the project:

Burnett and Downey approached History and struck a deal, which included a sizable CGI budget to bring state-of-the-art realism to the Great Flood, the parting of the Red Sea, God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and other Bible ­stories. The duo then formed an ­advisory board with some of America’s top spiritual leaders.

“We weren’t qualified to teach the Bible, but we knew plenty of people who were,” says Burnett, whose interfaith panel included pastors Joel Osteen, Rick Warren and T.D. Jakes, Bishop Michael Sheridan, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez.

These advisers were also supposed to appear on screen, since the original plan was to make The Bible a docudrama — reenactments peppered with lots of talking heads. But things went so well during the nearly six-month shoot in Morocco that the miniseries took a different course.

A reader of Towle Road remarked on the absence of progressive religious voices in the mini-series:

Mark Burnett has made quite a bit of cash on the backs of gay contestants on his various shows, so I’m curious why any progressive or GLBT voices are suddenly lacking when he’s looking for perspective this time around? It’s 2013, and I thought the media was improving at least a little bit in thinking that the only religion that exists anywhere is right-wing religion, but apparently not in this case.

A quick recap on those religious “experts”: ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.salon.com/2013/03/19/panel_of_anti_gay_religious_leaders_advised_on_the_bible/

[Arugula Latte]

1. Ugh.

See this thread on the series:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2516039