Last week, actor Bob Denver died. As everyone knows, he played the goofy lead role in the old CBS comedy Gilligan’s Island (still a favorite in rerun heaven). Say what you will about the inanity of Skipper, the “perfesser,” Lovie, and the “movie star,” you can at least say this: You could watch it with your children. This lighthearted show was clean and (despite some light slapstick) completely nonviolent.
Not so Gilligan’s current reincarnation, the dark ABC program, Lost. What responsible mom or dad would view this dark and disturbing program with young kids? Denver’s death, sad in itself, is a little signpost showing how low our popular culture has descended. As the skipper might say, “Bye, Little Buddy.”
About Stan Guthrie
Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine and for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His latest book is God's Story in 66 Verses. He also is author of All that Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us, Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, and A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy. He is co-author of The Sacrament of Evangelism. Besides authoring, writing, and editing books, Stan is a literary agent, bringing together good authors, good books, and good publishers.
Stan writes the monthly Priorities colum for BreakPoint.org. He has appeared on National Public Radio's Tell Me More, WGN's Milt Rosenberg program, and many Christian shows, including The Eric Metaxas Show and Moody Radio's New Day Florida. A licensed minister and an inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for the Christian Book Expo panel discussion, Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?
