All of a Sudden, Celibacy is Sexy Again...

The Author mentioned in an earlier Wonderpost that showbusiness is such a fickle creature. It would seem that the unpredictability of the Beautiful people has been demonstrated yet again this week.

The National Catholic Reporter this week ran an article on Hollywood screenwriter Karen Hall. People may not know the name, but they may be familiar with some of her work, which include the scripts of M*A*S*H and more recently, Judging Amy. After the success of Amy, Ms. Hall has returned with a script for a new series due out in the fall - about priests. Before the discerning Catholic rolls one's eyes in an expression of "Not Again", it is noteworthy that there is one slight twist.

According to the Reporter, the TV series market is out for something wierd, exotic and completely way out, and apparently with Vows, Ms. Hall has delivered the most audacious overarching plot known to contemporary showbusiness: these priests actually love the Church and are faithful to its teachings.

It would seem that deviant priests in all their various flavours do not tickle the showbiz palette like they once did. The relatively disappointing reviews given to the recent Da Vinci Code movie is but one demonstration of that. And whilst the American clerical sex scandals have been a great source of embarrassment for Catholics everywhere, they also have yielded a strange dividend: public scrutiny and curiosity about the priesthood is becoming a showbiz phenomenon.

Said Hall, a devout Catholic, about the acceptance of Vows:

"The orthodox priest-protagonist is a novelty...Everything else has been done: the cool liberal priest, the gay priest, the drug-addicted pastor, priests who are pedophiles or who have lost faith. Networks are interested now in what is real, which seems weird enough to them to be compelling”.

While chic may not be the best reason to celebrate expressions of one's orthodoxy, this episode really demonstrates the importance of demonstrating Christianity to be not merely a set of beliefs (any religion can do that), but also as a true Counter-Culture that defies all forms of Modernity. Calls for a dumbing down of the faith to make it more "in touch", or to make it less "controlling", produces the kind of Modern dribble that people in postmodern culture are finding so bland. Indeed, according to James KA Smith, so long as Christianity seeks to bow before the altar of autonomy, it replicates rather than overcomes Modernity. To be truly postmodern, says Smith, is actually to boldly express the entirety of the Christian narrative. And what is more, it would appear people actually want it that way, not so much for entertainment, but because it strikes a deep longing repressed by several centuries of Modernity.

For now, let us content ourselves with the fact that for Hollywood, the cloth is now the new black.