Monday, August 22, 2011
New Fall TV Shows Lineup Heavy On The Sex
(MRC.org)Fall means back to school, end of summer vacations, and exciting new television for those bored with "The Bachelor" and "Survivor."
But among this year's crop of brand new television series, a rather "sex"y pattern has emerged. Shows about immature bachelors hooking up before they grow up, the 1960s' playboy bunnies, and navigating the pitfalls of a one-night-stand with your coworker, are themes slated to appear on screens across America in a matter of days.
One of the adult themed shows to air this fall is "Free Agents," a sitcom set to debut on September 14, on NBC that follows the lives of two PR professionals, after they have a drunken one-night stand. The coworkers (played by Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn) attempt to steer through the messy complications of a professional relationship in the aftermath. While this could make for some funny awkward moments, an alcohol-fueled evening full of regret is just a sad premise for a series.
NBC's "The Playboy Club" is a little more obvious from the title about the show's content. Set to air on September 19, 2011, "The Playboy Club" "centers on the Bunnies and patrons of the original Playboy Club in 1960's Chicago," according to the Internet Movie Database page for the show.
But the show has already stirred up controversy as critics like the Parents Television Council called it a "blatant attempt to obliterate any remaining standards of broadcast decency." Morality in Media created an online petition to discourage viewers to from watching the show. Even famous liberal feminist Gloria Steinem has echoed the calls for a boycott. The real Playboy Club, she said, was "the tackiest place on earth."
Based on the stand-up comedy of comedienne Whitney Cummings, "Whitney" is coming to NBC this fall, and it is bringing all the sexual humor along with it. In one trailer for the new series about a couple trying to keep the relationship alive without getting married, viewers see her boyfriend (played by Chris D'Elia) in bed with a laptop. In an attempt to spice things up, Whitney crawls on top of him and sits on his lap, soon learning that her boyfriend is video-chatting with his parents, who witness her attempt to get him "in the mood."
In another trailer the two are lying in bed and Whitney declares, "I don't think we're having sex enough. Why aren't we tapping this every night? ...Stay in that bed, because a storm of sexy is coming your way."
"New Girl" debuts on Fox on September 20 and stars Zooey Deschanel as a sweet, but dramatic, recently dumped woman who ends up getting a new apartment with three guys who vow to help her rebound.
In one trailer that sets up the series, Jessica (played by Deschanel) is seen seducing her boyfriend by arriving at their apartment early, only to discover he is sleeping with another woman. Later in the trailer, Jessica is with her roommates at a bar attempting to rebound and she exclaims to them, "You guys were totally right! I smiled, I said I needed rebound sex and it totally worked. He asked me out!"
One of the most popular shows on television right now is "Glee," a sex-filled primetime show about Ohio high school students in glee club, is beginning its 3rd season on September 20 on Fox. The raunchy show about teens has, in its first two seasons, celebrated lesbian sex experiments, drunken hook ups, masturbation and unwanted gay-smooching.
CW's "Gossip Girl" will begin its new season on September 26 and the sex in this teen drama has moved beyond boy on girl action. In 2009, the Culture and Media Institute highlighted the objectionable "teen" content, including an episode featuring a threesome.
Ben Shapiro examined the liberal assault on traditional values in Hollywood in his book "Primetime Propaganda" and in his chapter "Making The Right Cry: How Television Drama Glorifies Liberalism," he observed that, "comedies are anti-morality crusades; dramas are morality tales." Both are intentionally designed to invert traditional ideas of morality. The veteran producers and writers Shapiro interviewed admitted as much.
Church Puts In Drive Thru For Prayer
That's what a group of women at Memorial United Methodist Church began wondering a couple of months ago, and their discussions ultimately led to what is believed to be High Point's first drive-through prayer service.
"One of our ladies (Edith Southerland) saw a brochure of another church that had successfully done this, and we thought it would be a wonderful evangelical ministry for us," says Pat Townsend, one of the ministry's organizers. "In this world, as we know, we all need prayer."
Every Tuesday from 4 to 6 p.m., volunteers from the Cedrow Drive church -- most of them senior citizens -- station themselves at various locations in the church parking lot, holding up signs inviting motorists to pull in and receive a few words of prayer.
It's the comfort of prayer with the convenience of McDonald's. A veritable Park 'n' Pray is what it is.
The Rev. Jessie Keaton, the church's senior pastor, says the drive-through prayer service is not intended just for church members but is open to anyone in the community, no matter what their prayer need may be.
"We're just trying to make it easily accessible and not infringe on anyone's time," she says. "We try to make it easy for them. They can come in the church if they want to, but if they'd rather, they can just sit right there in their car and get prayed for."
Keaton says the ministry is run almost entirely by volunteers from the church. She conducted a prayer workshop for the volunteers before the drive-through service began and has since mostly kept her hands off of the ministry.
"She met with us to talk to us about the Scriptures and what they say about prayer and to equip us to be able to pray for the public," Townsend explains. "We had to equip ourselves to be able to pray, because there are all types of problems in this world, and you have to be ready when someone asks you to pray for a certain kind of situation. So when they drive up, we ask what their concerns are, and then we pray for them."
So far, the church hasn't had too many passing motorists pull in for prayer -- despite volunteers standing on Cedrow Drive, at the top of the church's driveway, with a large sign advertising the prayer service -- but they hope the number of participants will pick up soon, particularly as word about the new service spreads.
Similar services have been offered in various cities throughout the country -- including Houston, Charlotte and Loma Linda, Calif. -- but the drive-through prayer service at Memorial United Methodist may be a first for High Point. Regardless, church members believe the service is valuable, because prayer can change things.
Read More:
http://www.news-record.com/content/2011/08/21/article/church_begins_drive_through_service?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+delicious%2Fgqlf+%28Christian+Headlines+Top+Headlines%29