Faith community represents a strong, passionate opportunity for entertainment biz.
by: Dr. Larry Poland
It happened again. This time it was Phil Robertson, the patriarch of “Duck Dynasty,” who pulled back the shades on an immense body of TV viewers who had apparently escaped the notice of top execs at A+E Networks.
But they should have known. It was this “mystery audience” that made History’s miniseries “The Bible” a smash hit not long ago. Yet A+E leaders Nancy Dubuc and Abbe Raven can be forgiven for failing to anticipate the nuclear backlash that benching the fuzzy-faced man from West Monroe, La., would stir after his condemnation of homosexual behavior in an interview with GQ magazine. There persists in Hollywood a common thread of perceptions that have hung a lot of film and TV execs out to dry on one end or shocked them with success on the other. It is a thread of mistaken notions about the faith community in the America, especially conservative ones of the Christian and Jewish variety.
