Last night a CBS crime drama smeared Christians with an odd mixture of political correctness and Freud, having a homosexual man become a serial killer because his devout father rejected his homosexuality.
The April 30 episode of Criminal Minds, a show about an “elite team of FBI profilers,” promoted a tired stereotype of Christians in an episode about a serial killer targeting homosexual males in
As team members closed in on Steven, they interviewed his prison guard father for background information. The show's writers made the father character the all-too-familiar intolerant, violent Christian straw man, and managed to pin the blame for the murders on the father, absolving the killer of responsibility for his actions.
SPECIAL AGENT AARON HOTCHNER: There's a case we're working on which may be connected to your son's disappearance.
DAD: Is that right?
AGENT DAVID ROSSI: Unfortunately, it's a murder case, sir. Someone is attacking men who are traveling alone.
HOTCHNER: This man is attacking homosexuals. Can you confirm that your son Steven is gay?
DAD: Why, I know he was confused about his sexual orientation.
HOTCHNER: How do you mean, confused?
DAD: There were a number of issues he needed to sort out.
ROSSI: Was there a friend in Miami Steven was going to see?
DAD: No. He didn't have many friends, pretty much kept to himself.
HOTCHNER: So, once he got on the bus, you never heard from him.
DAD: No.
ROSSI: You seem resigned to this fact.
DAD: Wherever Steven is, I trust it's a better place for him.
ROSSI: Well, that's a remarkable kind of strength.
DAD: That's because of my personal relationship with the Lord. He gives me my strength and my guidance.
…
HOTCHNER: Did Steven follow in your footsteps? Did he look to God for strength and guidance?
DAD: My troubles with Steven, they have nothing to do with my faith. We belong to a very tolerant church, sometimes too tolerant, and they teach that God loves everyone, despite their failings.
HOTCHNER: And you saw Steven's homosexuality as a failing.
DAD: I'm a prison guard, and you know how many times I've walked in on men together? I had to physically pull them apart. It was filthy. Oh, it's filthy. I think he just wanted to do it to piss me off.
ROSSI: You think your son's sexuality was a way to anger you?
DAD: I was trying to save him.
HOTCHNER: From what?
DAD: From himself.
…
HOTCHNER: And how were you trying to help him?
DAD: I've been a guard for 20 years. I know a little something about disciplining somebody.
ROSSI: So, what, you thought you could beat homosexuality out of him, threatening this boy with tactics you use on hardened criminals, threatening him with his own life?
DAD: I was teaching him how to be a man.
ROSSI: No. You were teaching him how to kill one. You convinced him he was worthless, contemptible for being who he was, and he believed you, so he found a way to become someone else, anyone else.
HOTCHNER: Steven isn't missing, sir. He's the offender we're looking for.
In addition to blatantly misrepresenting Christians, the episode presented pro-homosexual propaganda. An exchange between Hotchner and J.J., another agent, indicated the killer may not have killed if he had been allowed to be who he really was:
J.J.: You said in the profile that the unsub [unknown subject of an investigation] was targeting gay males, possibly due to his struggles with his own sexuality, right?
HOTCHNER: Right.
J.J. Well, what if the reason Luvet [a murder victim who happened to be a homosexual police officer who had not come out] let his guard down was because he could finally be who he is-- no judgments, no fear? What if the unsub is seeing a freedom in his victims that he wishes he had himself?
While discussing the killer's motives, Hotchner said “And the fact that he's targeting gay men may mean that this is a hate crime and or the unsub may be struggling with his own sexuality.”
Bashing Christians isn't anything new at CBS. Last fall an episode of Cold Case had members of a teen abstinence group stoning a promiscuous girl to death after she found out they weren't practicing what they preached.
Colleen Raezler is a research assistant at the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the
