I swear to Go ... well, OK, I promise there won't be an item about Sex and the City creator Darren Star's adaptation of Kim Gatlin's book every day. But perhaps you recall: Back in early March Donald and Tim Wildmon's American Family Association gave the series a pre-pilot publicity push by demanding an advertiser boycott and insisting that even if (which is to say when) ABC changes the name, "the content will still mock people of faith." The next day, the Parents Television Council came out and said, "The 'B-word' is toxic and is used to degrade, abuse, harass, bully and humiliate women. And the 'Christian' element only adds insult to injury."
Which is why, since it's looking more and more likely that ABC will pick up the Park Cities-set series, major media outlets are beginning to take note of the series and Gatlin's book (since most people aren't even aware the show's based on one). Hence today's Christianity Today editorial, which says, look, even though "the groups' indignation is understandable," maybe the title's not so bad after all.
The show is based on a book of the same name by Kim Gatlin, a professing Christian from Dallas, whose circle of Southern Baptist friends engages in a lot of gossip, some of it quite mean-spirited. "All Southern girls are taught to love Jesus, but just because we're Christians doesn't mean we're perfect," she told Newsweek. Gatlin says her book's title "is not mocking God. It's mocking those of us who love God and don't always make the best choices to honor him." On her website, Gatlin says she intends to "put a voice to the downside of gossip ... but with a message that she hopes will resonate with women everywhere."Read the whole thing here.
Her book's title is in bad taste, but her subject demands our attention.
The book's title is arresting precisely because it should be an oxymoron. Unfortunately, even "good" Christians do and say nasty things, which look ugly to fellow believers and puzzle a watching world that rightly believes Christians should be above gossip, slander, and general meanness.
