{"id":1051,"date":"2016-03-16T15:31:21","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T21:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?p=1051"},"modified":"2016-03-16T15:33:57","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T21:33:57","slug":"why-kings-and-prophets-failed-with-faith-based-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/03\/why-kings-and-prophets-failed-with-faith-based-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Of Kings and Prophets Failed with Faith-Based America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"kuings<\/a>
From ABC\u2019s Of Kings and Prophets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

ABC\u2019s Of Kings and Prophet<\/em>s (the second episode of which aired last night) was supposed to be a big deal. All 15 episodes, which loosely tell the biblical drama of Samuel, Saul and David, were filmed in South Africa to the tune of $6 million per episode. When the pilot wasn\u2019t quite up to snuff, it ponied up the cash to reshoot the whole thing\u2014just to get everything exactly right. The creators were hoping to lure both Game of Thrones<\/em> fans and the audience that turned to The History Channel in droves to watch The Bible<\/em> miniseries.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s breathtaking how badly ABC failed.<\/p>\n

Just 3.3 million people watched the premiere, making it the lowest-rated broadcast debut of the entire year. Viewership sunk to a truly alarming 2.4 million for its second episode. \u00a0Given these dismal ratings, one would\u2019ve thought that the show\u2019s creators went into each Nielsen household in the country, walked into their kitchens and spit in their soup.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t speak as to why fans of Game of Thrones<\/em> stayed away en masse. But it\u2019s pretty obvious why this show failed with the faith-based crowd. So with that in mind, here are a few cautionary lessons that maybe future television producers can learn from.<\/p>\n

If you would like to reach a faith-based audience \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026 You might want to hold off on the massacres until the second<\/em> episode. <\/strong>The pilot of Of Kings and Prophets<\/em> is predicated, at least in part, on Saul\u2019s near-annihilation of the Amalekite people, which he carried out because God (through Samuel) told him to. Yes, it\u2019s a story pulled right from the Bible, as I\u2019m sure Aslan would point out. But perhaps if you\u2019re sincerely trying to attract a religious audience, this is not the best place to begin your series.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that such stories are to be ignored. I don\u2019t think that faith-based viewers can or should shut their eyes to these sorts of deeply challenging, even troubling, stories. Our God is complicated and our faith is complex. But just as one does not start out a blind date by detailing one\u2019s bathroom habits to the person across the table, one should not expect to woo the faith-based crowd with the slaughter of the Amalekites.<\/p>\n

\u2026 And maybe stay away from the graphic sex.<\/strong> \u201cIn being faithful to the scriptures, we decided not to shy away from the sexuality and violence that is either implied or explicit in the text,\u201d write show producers Bill Collage, Adam Cooper and Reza Aslan in religiondispatches.org<\/a>. \u201cTo do so, would sanitize the reality of the biblical time and place, while at the same time bypassing important parallels that we still confront and struggle with today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure, sex and violence is a part of the Bible. But the Scriptures, at least in their history narratives, have a rather journalistic detachment about them. In 1 and 2 Samuel\u2014the books that Of Kings and Prophets<\/em> was based on\u2014we\u2019re told what happened without dealing with a lot of lurid or titillating detail. And there certainly were no erotic illustrations, as far as I\u2019m aware, in the original scrolls. The same cannot be said of Of Kings and Prophets<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Listen, lots of Christians have a complex relationship with sex. And one of the things that lots of Christians struggle with is porn. The statistics I\u2019ve seen are pretty staggering. People of faith, naturally, turn to that faith as part of the solution to help break away from porn (many would classify it as an addiction) and help repair intimacy with their spouses. Of Kings and Prophets\u2019<\/em> emphasis on sex\u2014and the pretty graphic depictions of it, at least on the TV-MA versions available on iTunes\u2014doesn\u2019t facilitate that much. Even for viewers who don\u2019t struggle with such issues, the emphasis on sex doesn\u2019t do much to build trust with that audience.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Speaking of sex, if you\u2019re going to include it, make sure it\u2019s actually in the Bible.<\/strong> In an interview with Religion News Service, Aslan admits it was tough to sell the story to network execs. \u201cWe got no after no after no, primarily because Hollywood executives would say there is no way we can put this story on the screen because all the sex and violence will offend the faith-based viewers,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had to remind them that all the sex and violence they objected to were literally taken from the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n

First, the execs had a point: While there are certainly plenty of Christians who enjoy Game of Thrones<\/em>, the \u201cfaith-based\u201d audience does at least tend<\/em> to like a cleaner brand of entertainment, which means you should be cautious of gratuity. And perhaps the definition of the word gratuitous is when a \u201cbiblical\u201d story contains sex scenes that weren\u2019t ever even hinted at in the Bible.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen two such scenes in the first two episodes\u2014not a great track record. The pilot episode features an incredibly heated love scene (at least on the uncensored version of the show on iTunes) wherein one of Saul\u2019s daughters is intimately engaged with her future hubby, a bigwig from the House of Judah. In the second, It\u2019s suggested that David slept with Saul\u2019s wife. Now, I\u2019m no biblical scholar and perhaps I\u2019m just not as clear on these things as I should be. But I don\u2019t recall either of these dalliances from 1 Samuel. \u201cAll the sex and violence they objected to were literally taken from the Bible,\u201d Aslan says. Really?<\/p>\n

I believe that many in the \u201cfaith-based\u201d audience can embrace provocative, challenging stories. But when you take the book we love and treasure above all others and want us to watch it, we need to feel that you love it, too\u2014even if you might see portions of it a bit differently than we might.<\/p>\n

Any story well told, and well listened to, begins in the same place: A place of respect. Respect for the source material. Respect for the audience. And that respect, frankly, seems to be missing here.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABC\u2019s Of Kings and Prophets (the second episode of which aired last night) was supposed to be a big deal. All 15 episodes, which loosely tell the biblical drama of Samuel, Saul and David, were filmed in South Africa to the tune of $6 million per episode. When the pilot wasn\u2019t quite up to snuff, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2036,"featured_media":1052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[52,53,338,193,339],"class_list":["post-1051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television","tag-christianity","tag-controversy","tag-of-kings-and-prophets","tag-religion","tag-religious-television"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Of Kings and Prophets Failed with Faith-Based America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ABC\u2019s Of Kings and Prophets (the second episode of which aired last night) was supposed to be a big deal. 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