Any time Christianity is discussed on primetime TV, it’s mocked, mischaracterized or denigrated, right? Happy to report that’s not necessarily so.
For example, in “Demons, Sunday School and Prime Numbers,” tonight’s (Jan. 11) episode of CBS’ “Young Sheldon” — a prequel to the network’s other hit series, “Big Bang Theory” — Texas Baptist mom Mary Cooper (Zoe Perry) discovers that her 9-year-old budding-genius son Sheldon (Ian Armitage) is playing Dungeons and Dragons. Fearing demonic influences, she packs him off to Sunday school.
(“Young Sheldon” is available to stream online here; a subscription to CBS All Access gets you the full season, but five episodes are available for free.)
Fans of both shows know that Sheldon grows up to be a theoretical physicist at CalTech. So, when he starts reading the Bible, this is what happens.
Along the way, Sheldon gets a rather fragmentary and disjointed view of Catholicism from a Vietnamese-American schoolmate, and an equally fragmentary and disjointed view of Judaism from a friend (Richard Kind) of his beloved grandmother, MeeMaw (Annie Potts).
But as fans of both shows also know, Sheldon and his mother have a strong relationship, even though she was faced with the prospect of raising a child who turned out very different from the rest of the family.
At an event yesterday at the set of “Young Sheldon” (which just got picked up for a second season) on the Warner Bros. lot, Perry (who’s the daughter of Laurie Metcalf, who plays Mary on “Big Bang Theory”) described Mary’s dilemma this way:
Mary Cooper is a very attentive parent and very solid in her beliefs about how the children should grow up. … She brings her faith to the table and expects a certain amount of accord from her children, even if they don’t always meet those standards.
… She can be, at times, rigid in her beliefs, but there’s this constant give and take about what to do when it comes to parenting children who don’t necessarily share her beliefs regarding faith or just how to operate in the world.
We see her having to make some compromises. And that’s been really fun to play, because there are great stakes in that, and it feels very true to life. It’s always a negotiation. You’re trying to do your best.
But she is a fierce advocate for her child, as seen in this sweet clip from an earlier episode, in which Sheldon declares, “My mom was my Christian soldier.”
Also at the event was “Young Sheldon” co-creator Chuck Lorre. Although he took a strong swipe in 2012 against the Catholic Church in one of his famous on-screen statements at the end of another show of his, “Two and a Half Men,” his attitude toward faith seems to have mellowed.
I asked him about tackling the issue of religion directly in “Demons, Sunday School and Prime Numbers,” and he said:
Sure there were concerns. It’s a delicate subject. People feel really strongly about religion. From the very beginning, with Laurie Metcalf’s character on “Big Bang,” we internally, in the writers’ room, were very clear that we wanted to be respectful. We didn’t want to be casting judgment, because that’s a cheap shot.
It’s a great relationship, mother and son, and that seemed to carry over into the episode of “Young Sheldon.” She’s concerned for his welfare. What drives her as a character in that story is she’s concerned for her son’s soul. You know it’s coming from the very best possible place.
And he’s a scientist, he wants to research. “If I’m going to deal with religion, I want to learn about all religions.”
It just seemed like a great opportunity for both characters to slam into each other, with no clear winner. Why would there be a winner?
But I love her last line, when she walks away, and says, “You follow your own truth … and if it’s Satan, I will do battle with him.” She’s got his back. That brings us back to why it’s a family show. You may not agree with her, but she’s never going to not be there.
Religious belief is one issue on which there will probably never be universal agreement in the world (or even in the pews of one church), but Mary’s Christianity must play a role in how good a mother she is — even with a child that presents special challenges.
It’s obvious that Sheldon’s unique personality and outlook on the world make accepting his mother’s view difficult, but he still experiences her undying love and devotion.
After all, when faced with a mountain to climb, it helps to have faith.
Image: Courtesy CBS
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