When Pre-Judging Is a State of War

By Rick de Yampert, pop culture columnist for the News-Journal:

To anyone protesting the film “Brokeback Mountain” or the new TV series “The Book of Daniel,” I say: Shut up! That is, shut up unless — UNLESS! — you have actually seen the film or the TV show. As our nation prepares to enter the next battles in the culture wars, I will not be surprised to witness the clueless hurling verbal hand grenades at “ Brokeback Mountain ,” that so-called “gay cowboy” film. Ditto with “The Book of Daniel,” a new NBC series about an Episcopal priest who’s addicted to pain pills, has a gay son, a randy straight son, a daughter who deals marijuana and a wife who drinks. Oh, yeah — this priest also has conversations with a Jesus who is more a mellow fellow Zen master than a Bible-quoting, Bible-thumping, righteous preacher. If history is any indication, and it is, we’re about to be bombarded by the “America is going to hell in a handbasket” gang. And if history is any indication, many of them will not have bothered to engage the source of their ire. As an entertainment writer and pop culture columnist for a daily newspaper, I have discovered that to be the case in numerous past skirmishes in the culture wars [Read the full column...]