CBS’s “Accidently On Purpose”: Just turn the channel?

By: American Decency Staff

I had the opportunity yesterday to tell the story to a fellow believer of my calling to this ministry.  I told how, as an elementary school teacher in the 1970s and ‘80s, I became increasingly concerned about the impact of television on children.  What we view does impact.  It impacts thoughts, beliefs, and ultimately behavior.  If you swim in a sewer, the stench is going to stick to you.  It’s ridiculous to think otherwise. This was true when as a young teacher I began to see the moral slide of television and it is even more so today as that slide has become a freefall.   The line has been pushed further and further until we’ve reached the point that what was shocking merely a few years ago is no longer, and so Hollywood pushes the boundary of so-called acceptability further and further.  The portrayal of illicit sex has become common fare on television, so now new taboos are portrayed as acceptable.  The entertainment industry has attempted to separate sex from any significance or consequence, it’s done a masterful job of changing an entire culture’s view of homosexuality, and now it’s working on breaking the age taboo by portraying sex between middle-aged women and young men barely out of their teens. A theme that began a few years ago with the shocking portrayal on “Desperate Housewivesâ€Â of an affair between a housewife and her teenage gardener, has become common fodder on this year’s new shows “Cougar Townâ€Â on ABC and “Accidently on Purposeâ€Â on CBS – both with the central theme of older women having casual sex with young men. Yet there remain a few in the media who will call a spade a spade – or sleaze for what it is.  The Miami Herald writes this about the two above-mentioned shows: “…There is something seriously wrong when [actors] Jenna Elfman and Courteney Cox, … can't get shows on the air without turning themselves into tawdry clichés out of a 1965 Playboy jokebook. “Back then, the characters they play in Accidentally on Purpose and Cougar Town would have been horny housewives, jumping the bones of mailmen and meter readers in between morning laundry and making the kids' lunches. These days, they're horny career women, prowling bars in search of young hunks for one-night stands. But the smuttiness and smallness — the reduction of every human impulse to a cheap, hormonally charged punch line — remain the same.â€Â “Accidentally on Purpose, if nothing else, should get an award for truth in packaging. It establishes its sleazy bottom line in literally the opening seconds, with Elfman tweaking her nipples as she prepares to go into action at an office party. A friend applauds the results, but warns Elfman that she will have to fly solo: ‘I've already slept with everyone here.’ …â€Â http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/tv/story/1243681.html “Accidentally on Purposeâ€Â continues with the sleaze from the opening moments on.  The premise of the show is of a 37 year old woman who picks up a 22 year old guy in a bar and goes home with him for sex and gets pregnant.  Before leaving the bar with the guy she asks her friend for counsel.  The friend cheers her on telling her it’s “empoweringâ€Â.   She doesn’t warn her that it’s stupid, or dangerous, or immoral to have sex with a total stranger – but “empoweringâ€Â.  Each of the first few episodes of this series is rife with crude, sexual and bathroom “humorâ€Â and verbiage, storylines centered on masturbation and orgasms, and explicit shots of cleavage and sex scenes. Submitted by Lisa VanHouten, Executive Assistant ========================= Would you watch a program like this?  Somebody must be watching this kind of garbage. When you consider how our country voted last year and the fact that there isn't even yet greater dissatisfaction than there appears (polling), it begins to come together. This is who we collectively have become and are becoming. Where is discernment?  And some confused soul has the gall to say  "Just turn the channel." How infantile! If only it were so simple. Just turn the channel? Day after day this kind of godless, immoral perversion flows over our airwaves into millions of homes and is absorbed into hearts and minds of vulnerable young ones with absentee parents (even if they are present). You and I have to send our children/grandchildren out into the highways and biways of life in such a world where perversion is propagated day in and day out – non-stop. Just turn the channel? “Accidentally on Purposeâ€Â – a toxic 30 minute program. Does anyone reading this watch this stuff with its sexual and bathroom “humorâ€Â and verbiage, storylines centered on masturbation and orgasms, and explicit shots of cleavage and sex scenes. I'm not God – as if I need to tell you.  I have little to no influence upon you.  God, though, has a plan for you and me that is far beyond that which is described above. ================== Lastly, note this advertiser list!!! Another significant concern is the following:  Observe the number of mainstream advertisers sponsoring this toxic program: I'm talking about companies like: KFC/Yum Brands, McDonalds, Wendy’s, Wal-Mart… …. They need to hear from you. A sample letter is included on the advertiser link below: http://www.americandecency.org/archives/advertisers-for-cbss-accidently-on-purpose/#more-2234 ==================================== American Decency Association Bill Johnson, President P.O. Box 202 Fremont, MI 49412 ph: 231-924-4050 www.americandecency.org www.twitter.com/billwjohnson

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