Thanks to the godless triple threat of Family Guy, The Simpsons and House, Fox has unseated NBC as the "most anti-religious network" in America according to the Parents Television Council. Way to go, Fox. UPN came in second with ABC picking up the bronze. This announcement came along with the Council's release of Faith in a Box 2005-2006, an annual report on how religion is portrayed in prime time.
As you might imagine, it's not a pretty picture in the Council's eyes. Religious themes are coming up less often, and when they do, they're given a negative spin. PTC president Brent Bozell had this to say: "After Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of the Christ, there was a lot of talk that Hollywood finally had found religion. But with television, sadly, this wasn't true. In fact, it was the opposite."
Despite Bozell's dire depiction of the study's findings, there are nuances to the study. "Simple expressions of faith" were depicted positively 70% of the time. Religious "institutions and doctrine" were the real targets. In particular, the PTC was not too keen on Family Guy's take on the Book of Genesis. In Seth MacFarlane's version, God creates the universe by farting on a lit match.
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