NBC's Law & Order took a swipe at religious believers in this week's episode, titled "In God We Trust."
In the opening minutes, two lawyers discuss a local Ten Commandments case as they walk down the hall. Both agree that anyone who wants the Ten Commandments in a state-funded building is a "zealot."
Lawyer: Eli here is so committed to his latest pro bono case, he's forgotten what it is to actually bill a client.
Eli: I'm not gonna let some charter elementary school in New York City post the Ten Commandments. First Louisiana, now Spanish Harlem? It stops here.
Lawyer: Thou shalt not question Eli's passion for this case.
Eli: Religion has no place in a state-funded building.
Lawyer: I agree. I just don't like angering zealots.
Eli: Oh, I can handle zealots. Speaking of, I've got a 2:00 meeting.
Their dialogue references a Louisiana law passed last June that requires the Ten Commandments be displayed in the state's public schools. The Supreme Court will ultimately decide the law's constitutionality and people of goodwill can have differing views, but Law & Order frames supporters as mere radicals.
As Newsbusters analyst Jorge Bonilla noted last June when the Louisiana law passed, "The media have no problem with kindergarteners being taught on gender, or on third and fourth-graders having access to graphic sexual materials in school libraries. But the Ten Commandments are a bridge too far."
As "In God We Trust" progresses, the audience learns that Eli grew up in a religious cult. He is murdered by a member of that cult because of a secret romantic relationship he was having with the killer's fiancée.
The not-so-subtle implication is that there is a thin philosophical line between the Ten Commandments case he mentioned in the beginning and the rigid cult of his upbringing. Ultimately, religious believers are all just "zealots."
Shows in the Law & Order franchise have pushed everything from puberty blockers to openly "bisexual" 8-year-olds, but a charter school putting up the Ten Commandments is extreme.
"In God We Trust" proves once again that Law & Order is left-wing ideological fanfiction masquerading as a crime drama.
