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The Rev. Daniel Webster is an Episcopal priest with a few problems: He’s addicted to pain pills, his wife is an alcoholic, his mother has Alzheimer’s, his father the bishop is having an affair with a female bishop, his daughter is selling pot, his oldest son is gay, and his adopted son is having sex with a 15-year-old girl.

In addition, when his brother-in-law runs off with $3 million in church building funds, Father Webster asks a Catholic priest with mafia connections to track him down. The mobsters find him dead and naked, and offer to get the money back — if Daniel agrees to hire a certain contractor for the building program.

That’s just part of the plot of the opening episode of The Book of Daniel, the NBC program that debuted Jan. 6.
Sporadically through the show, Jesus (played by actor Garrett Dillahunt), with long brown hair, beard, and robe, pops in for a one-on-one chat with Daniel.

The hourlong comedy-slash-drama, which airs at 10 p.m. Fridays, is not exactly getting rave reviews from local religious leaders.

“It was a mockery of Christianity, at best,” said the Rev. Joseph Keblesh, Jr., rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church.

“I didn’t watch the whole thing, and that’s a comment in itself,” said Susan Lowrey, director of spiritual development at Trinity Episcopal Church.

“To me, The Book of Daniel is largely a secularist outsider’s view of Christianity, and that’s what we get, more often than not, [on television],” said the Rev. Glenn Teal, pastor of CrossRoads Community Church in Temperance, Mich.

In the first episode, when Father Webster, portrayed by 46-year-old actor Aiden Quinn, tells Jesus that his adopted son, Adam, is having sex with a 15-year-old girl, Jesus replies: “He’s a kid. Let him be a kid.”

The parents tell their gay son, Peter, that they hope he meets a nice male nurse or doctor.

When Daniel confronts Bishop Beatrice Congreve (played by Ellen Burstyn), she retorts: “Please, don’t quote the Bible to me, I’ve got a master’s in philosophy.”

After the Websters’ teenage daughter is arrested for selling marijuana, Jesus tells Daniel: “She’ll be fine, she’s a good girl.”

The church and its leaders are not perfect, the local clergy were quick to say in interviews this week, but they were disturbed by the degree of dysfunction and the characters’ cavalier attitude toward sin.

“On the one hand, it’s not completely bad to have people realize that clergy are like anybody else and have their own issues to deal with in their lives and their families,” Father Keblesh said. “But it’s something else when you make a mega-joke about it. It’s almost a parody of what it means to be a minister. I would be upset if it were about a Jewish rabbi or any other religious leader.”

The program “reinforces the views of unbelievers” that sin is acceptable and that Christians are hypocrites, the rector said.

The decision to make Daniel an Episcopal priest “just adds to the bad press and problems in the Episcopal Church,” Father Keblesh added. “We have enough trouble at St. Matthew’s letting people know that we are a Christ-centered, biblically based church.”

Mr. Teal, who has a background in theater, said entertainment is, by its very nature, exaggerated.

“In this case, it’s to the extreme,” he said. “Every family member has a personal moral crisis constantly, and that’s not realistic. And there’s sort of an elitist view that sees all things Christian and church-related as needing to have their image burst and the dark corners of their lives exposed, as if that brings something good to society. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of really healthy people in ministry with admirable families. But those get overlooked. They don’t sell. They’re not prime time.”

The Rev. Barb Herzog, a pastor at Vineyard Church of Toledo, said she liked the way Jesus was “accessible” but was bothered by his failure to confront sin.

“Jesus comes in to heal the dysfunction, not so that we can continue to live in it. He wants to direct us to repentance, and I don’t know that I saw that in the program,” she said. “Nobody was heartbroken over the sin. Jesus came across as a somewhat caring friend.”

Some religious leaders, including the Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association and Christian radio host Adam McManus of San Antonio, Texas, have called for boycotts and protests of the program. At least five NBC affiliates refused to air the show.

But The Book of Daniel has gotten some positive reviews, including 3 out of 4 stars from USA Today critic Robert Bianco, who called it “a show about a true-to-life, loving, complex family” that is “wildly entertaining and superbly cast.”

The first episode was seen by 9 million viewers, ranking third in its time slot and 46th overall for the week.
Ms. Lowrey said she and a small group of people from Trinity Episcopal Church turned it off after about half an hour. The consensus was that the characters’ problems were treated superficially.

“If someone finds out their daughter is dealing drugs, or someone’s child comes out as gay, if you have a relationship then you walk through these situations as a family,” Ms. Lowrey said. “But there was just too much dysfunction with one important situation after another flying around the screen.”

The show’s creator, Jack Kenny, is a gay man who grew up in the Catholic church and is interested in Buddhism and reincarnation. He said in a blog, or online diary, that he based the show on “my other half’s family,” and chose the Episcopal denomination because he wanted the priest to be married and a parent.

“I recognize there are going to be people who have an issue with a gay man writing about Jesus,” Mr. Kenny said. “We never wanted to poke fun at Jesus, or at religion, or at spirituality.”

Last summer, he told the Television Critics Association that, “I do believe in Jesus. I don’t necessarily know that all the myth surrounding him is true, but I read his teachings and I think he was a great teacher and a wonderful philosopher.”

Linda Keblesh, wife of Father Keblesh, was troubled by The Book of Daniel’s portrayal of Jesus as a kind but wimpy buddy.

“Christ is supposed to be our redemptive force. There was no forgiveness, no redemption, no way out of the problems,” Mrs. Keblesh said. “Jesus is not supposed to put his hand on your shoulder and say, ‘Oh well, it’s cool, don’t worry about it.’ I don’t need another pal. I need a Savior.”

Contact David Yonke at dyonke@theblade.com or 419-724-6154.

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