Good Omens

Apparently some Christians have started a petition to cancel the tv show Good Omens:

1. I presume these Christians who started a petition to cancel Good Omens are well-intentioned. However, the petition is counterproductive if its aim is to get people not to notice let alone watch the show. If anything, this is going to drum up more viewers.

2. Good Omens is based on a book of the same name written by secular atheists or agnostics Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, though dedicated to "the memory of G. K. Chesterton" with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Both the book and the show are satire. Mostly satire against Catholicism (and/or high church Anglicanism), which is worth satirizing in many respects.

3. However, even as satire against Christianity in general, Good Omens doesn't get Christianity right enough to accurately skewer Christianity. The most obvious example is Good Omens pits good and evil, heaven and hell, and God and the devil against one another as if Christianity is a dualistic religion. Hence, even as satire Good Omens misses its mark if its mark is Christianity. Why get worked up over a work that so widely misses its target?

4. Perhaps some non-Christians believe Christianity truly is what the show depicts Christianity to be. If so, I presume they're most likely naive or ill-informed. I don't know that there's much that can be done for the naive. However, it's a different story for the ill-informed. That is, it's not necessarily a good idea to push to cancel the show, but I would think it's a good idea to use the show as a jumping off point to inform people about true Christianity.

5. It seems to me Good Omens is in the satirical tradition of Horace rather than Juvenal. It's lightly humorous satire that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's absurd by design. I suspect these Christians calling for the show's cancellation are mistaking Good Omens for Juvenalian satire.

6. Not to mention, in our political and sociocultural context (i.e. the US), the push to cancel a show because it doesn't agree with one's beliefs or values smacks of censorship or something like it. Of course, Christians in America would be opposed if secularists tried to petition to ban the Bible or Christian literature - or perhaps even a satirical work against atheism or evolution.

7. In any case, I think a better response might be to laugh off Good Omens as ridiculous fare rather than entertaining it in such a serious or sober manner as to call for its cancellation. After all, Gaiman himself has laughed off the petition, with the assumption that the petition is taking the show more seriously than he is. If the show's creator doesn't take his own show seriously, then why should Christians?