I  rarely watch TV, but for the first time in a long time I flipped through TV channels recently.

An interesting title caught my attention on Lifetime: “The Preacher’s Daughters.”

Being a PK myself (for those who are not familiar with Christian slang, PK stands for pastor’s kid) I immediately asked if this show will present the good, the bad or the ugly.

I was stunned by what I saw.

The short story is that the show tells the juicy reality drama of teenage daughters of pastors. Some of these are young women who attend their father’s churches, who put on a nice face at church, who lead worship, but who ARE NOT born-again Christians.

They crave the things of the world, mainly the sexual immorality and the acceptance of their worldly friends. As a consequence they are unhappy with the struggle resulting from the preaching they hear at church and what they want to do in their life.

They are ashamed to be seen in public with their church group, and some keep their church friends and “other” friends separate. The show highlights disobedience, issues of premarital sex, drugs, teenage pregnancy, peer pressure, etc… all the things that make reality TV trash.

Some of the girls come from divorced parents and mixed marriages (yes, divorced pastors) and some have sisters who themselves have struggled with sexual immorality.

I cannot help but ask if this is an accurate portrait of the lukewarm church at large. I pray and I hope that it is not. But it is important to realize that the media is quick to point out the bad apples in order to mock Christians and our backwards biblical beliefs about marriage and sexual abstinence.

The main problem I see in the behavior of teenagers in the show (and in general) is parental disobedience. Circumventing parental controls becomes an elaborate scheme, and it shows the rebellious nature within children and their need for Jesus.

Watching the show for 10 minutes answered my the original question: it was the bad and the ugly, without the good…

But hope is not lost.

These kids attend church where they hear the Gospel, and I pray that the Holy Spirit will do His work on them and regenerate them.

image credit: ichoosegospel