Apparently, we live in a world in which ABC can produce a documentary that questions Christ’s bachelorhood, while simultaneously, CBS is raked over the coals for producing a “docudrama” that might show Ronald Reagan in a somewhat less than beatific light. This can only mean one thing: Reagan is bigger than Jesus.

The GOP revels in its reputation as the party of evangelical Christianity; yet, somehow, they were not able to stop ABC from suggesting, however respectfully, that Jesus did the nasty with a woman who may or may not have been a prostitute. Sure, they were married, but the apostle, Paul, made it pretty clear that the righteous man would stay celibate, unmarried and unsullied by sex. How would Paul have reacted if someone had proclaimed that his savior had gotten married?

Somehow, the evangelical Christians weren’t able to stop ABC from airing exactly this hypothesis. But, when the news came out that CBS was going to produce a dramatic mini-series about the Reagan presidency, the knives came out – even before anyone had seen a script. It seems that, like the Old Latin Church’s stance on Jesus fan- fiction, it didn’t matter whether or not what you had to say about the man was good or bad; it was forbidden for any but His ordained spokesmen to talk about Him at all. The fact that arguments were raised against the series before anyone knew if it was going to be critical of Reagan proves one thing: Good or bad doesn’t figure into it. This is about canon.

Just as any writings not produced by the Church fathers were considered heretical by definition, any work depicting the Holy And Most Revered Ronnie not written by someone with the right credentials is therefore blasphemous. Even if the series turned out to be a glowing tribute, seemingly produced by wide-eyed true believers (like DC 9/11) it still wouldn't be good enough -- without a brief, laudatory indroduction from Nancy, anyway.



-B. C. Silvia