The Christmas episode of Designated Survivor on December 13 had an odd way of celebrating Christmas. Namely, it chose a storyline which centered around Christian extremists whose beliefs would likely cause a baby to die. For good measure, writers also added twenty adults, in the middle of a major forest fire, in a standoff with the federal government to insure that the baby doesn't get medical treatment.
While most Christian denominations don't have a lot of restrictions for common medical procedures (in this case, a blood transfusion), there are some which do, including Christian Scientists and Jehovah's Witnesses. In this case, the fictional sect is called The Church of the Witnesses of the Covenant and, of course, they're in a remote cabin in the Shenandoah National Forest and their leader has a nice, thick Southern drawl. These are the Christians Designated Survivor chose to highlight in their Christmas episode rather than the millions of Christians living their lives as normal, not-barking-mad Americans.
The episode, "Line of Fire," has a wildfire raging while these religious zealots refuse to leave their cabin. They are there refusing to leave because a member of their church, Carrie Morgan, has a 6-month-old daughter who is in the custody of the federal government at Walter Reed Hospital where she is about to receive medical treatment that goes against their religious beliefs. They tell the president that once the baby is released back to the custody of her mother, they'll leave the cabin and head to safety.
While a baby's life and the First Amendment hang in the balance, everyone at the White House is really worried about the media narrative - "Letting 20 folks burn on federal land during Christmas is bad political mojo."
Lyor: Mr. President, it's gonna be hard to control the narrative on this one if it drags on.
Seth: Try impossible. You step in, religious activists are gonna slam you for interfering with the rights of the mother.
Lyor: And children's rights activists will declare you public enemy number one if you let the baby die.
President: Kendra, do we have any legal options that'll help us deal with these people?
Kendra: No, there's no legal prohibition for standing in the path of a fire, sir.
Lyor: Well, unless you're barking mad, which these people clearly are.
Kendra: Clearly? No. But we can challenge their competency. If they are a danger to themselves, we can forcibly remove them. Which would clear the way to operate on baby Grace and solve our problem.
After an experimental procedure with synthetic blood fails, the president's Chief of Staff finally convinces Carrie to donate her own blood to save her daughter's life, as you can see in the screenshot above, and all is well. Only the federal government can save us when we get too far down the road of religious extremism, it seems. What a Christmas miracle.
So, to all of the barking mad Christians out there - Merry Christmas from the Kirkman Administration!
