PRIME-TIME FOR GOD

Television networks are banking that God in primetime will be a ratings winner this fall:

This week networks will present a staggering array of new shows, each one painstakingly chosen to tap into viewers' latest moods. A surprising number of executives have put their money on piety, and this season's spirituality is far more peculiar than past feel-good shows like "Touched by an Angel."

CBS has "Joan of Arcadia," a gritty crime drama about a high school student whose visits from God converge with the police work of her father. Fox has two: "Tru Calling," another moody crime drama where God, not forensics, guides the heroine, and "Wonderfalls," a sitcom in which a benevolent higher being uses a sarcastic young slacker to work his wonders. Advertisers who complain that there is no novelty or break-out surprise to the 2003-4 season are not looking closely enough. An eschatological shift in programming can be found all across television, from HBO's "Carnivàle," a 12-part battle between Good and Evil set in the Depression, to Showtime's "Dead Like Me," in which the dead return to earth to help others make the transition to the afterlife, albeit in a hip, sardonic way. But the spiritual power awarded pretty, nubile heroines is by far the most striking element, a backlash against Buffy, Zena and "Girls Gone Wild."

The good news is, religion will be on tv. The bad news is, religion will be on tv. While one is encouraged to see the culture at large recognize religion and spirituality, what invariably happens is God and religion on tv rarely has little to do with the God and religion of the Bible. It's spirituality as Hollywood imagines it ought to be. God in the image of Hollywood is a far cry from the real thing.