Harriet -- one of the worst 'Christian' characters ever?

"God loves me/God hates you"

That line was said in jest, she was a comedienne!

And point of fact the show won a Wilbur award from the Religion Communicators Council (http://www.wfn.org/2007/03/msg00321.html)

I'm a Christian and I thought Harriet was refereshing, natural and utterly realistic.

As the other reposnder in this thread states, she was being sarcastic when she delivered that line - but with the same element of truth that runs through all her arguments with Matt about it.

She was fighting against Matt's stereotype of what a Christian believes. And she did it really well. Why do I think that? Because she demonstrated what she believed - without hiding the fact some of her thoughts didnt always tie up with what a Christian "should believe." And she tried every single day to keep her beliefs at the centre of her life.

Many of Harriet's lines brought me to tears....when she was trying to teach Danny how to pray and ended up saying to God "you know he made some reasonable points" that was one of the gutsiest lines about faith on TV ever.

And when she gets on her knees in front of all her colleagues and started praying for Tom's brother and Jordan was one of the best portrayals of a Christian on TV as well - I wish I had that strength to do what I think is right and not care what anyone thinks of me.

And the fact that her colleagues respected her and talked about her faith as if it were the most natural part of her - I really respected that too.

When Cal made the joke about her being off dancing....well actually she's downstairs praying her ass off"....I just cried.

That her friends and colleagues have respect for her and will talk about it....awesome.

...everything happens eventually...

I think that Harriet's character is one of the closest to true Christianity that I have seen ever in the media. There are of course some things that she does that I don't agree with, but it was refreshing to me to see her being able to joke with her colleagues about God loving her and hating them. We know that isn't true, but the character seemed to be aware of that also. She didn't take herself too seriously. She wasn't above joking and even being the brunt of the jokes. I loved what she said in one of the earlier episodes thanking God for the sense of humor that they had. I would much rather see a character like her than to see one of those ridiculous we-can-never-laugh-but-only-be-solemn-and-act-holy characters. Those are what you almost always see in the media and they anger me...a lot. Harriet's character made me a little less angry at "The Mist" for that terrible, terrible "Christian" characters.

Completely phony, like the whole show. Do you honestly think anyone in show business would recite a prayer with Christ in it when there are Jews in attendance? Having been accused of deicide as well as blood libel for most of 2,000 years in the name of Christ.... I mean, what horses----. Phony baloney.

She seemed pretty accurate to me. I couldn't stand her but I could probably tolerate her more than most Christians I have met in real life.
She is very high and mighty in herself but she also understands and is willing to work in a place that isn't Christian-friendly. She accepts that not everybody shares her views (sure she tries to argue with them but what Christian doesn't?) but she still stays true to her own views.
She was extremely selfish and annoying, but that makes her a more realistic character not a terrible character.


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...God loves me/God hates you" some kind of mantra is something that pretty much no Christian would do.

that's the attitude and viewpoint of 85% of Christians I know...I like her character only because I haven't seen that many christians that open to religious debate(or even any religious debate).

I find her character hard to believe only because I've never met a SINGLE christian(and I've been around chritians since I was 3 years old), who would actually have the mindframe: "why should I ask God why the bad things happen when I never ask why the good things happen." or openly poke fun at her religion on air.

It seems like you're knocking her for being too judgemental(I'm going to heaven you to hell), is that the case? Cause by and large christians are the most judgemental people I have ever seen in my life, even though their religion is based on not being judgemental.

Personally I have a bigger problem with the Jordan McDeere character than Harriet. Yeah because any network president in the world would actually behave the way she does and be able to keep her job. Real life she would've been fired in the first week.

all that said, I'm a die hard Sorkin fan so why I see the flaws and pretention of Sports Night and Studio 60, I still love them (almost) as much as I love West Wing(Newsroom I haven't seen yet)




Current kick: Sports Night