March 19, 2001

'West Wing' mixes politics &
religion like no show has before
___By Nancy Haught
___Religion News Service
___HOLLYWOOD (RNS)--Aaron Sorkin, the man who brought us "The West Wing," has a confession to make: He is not a deeply religious man; he just writes one for TV.
___"I'm Jewish, but I never went to Hebrew school," said Sorkin, 39, who grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y. While he spent the seventh grade attending friends' bar mitzvahs, he didn't have his own.
___He's making up for it now.
___Religion has a recurring role on "The West Wing," one with enough depth and character to earn the Emmy-award-winning series praise from Catholics in Media Associates for its portrayal of Judeo-Christian values and the Humanitas Prize for affirming the dignity of all people.
___As real-life politicos ponder George W. Bush's religious references, about 18 million "West Wing" fans tune in weekly to see firsthand the struggles of a president who--unlike most of his movie and television predecessors--is not just generically Christian.
___Josiah "Jed" Bartlet, whom Sorkin apparently did not create in his own image, is religious in particular terms.
___Played by Martin Sheen, Bartlet is a Roman Catholic, an economist who almost became a priest, a man who prays the rosary in the Oval Office, personally opposes both abortion and capital punishment, publicly defends gay rights and abortion and takes on all Scripture-quoting comers, trading Bible-verse volleys with born-again fervor. He's a true believer in both God and the Constitution and a little battered for being caught between the two on more than one occasion.
___As a writer, Sorkin said, he looks for these points of conflict for their dramatic tension and the depth they add to his characters. He expects Bartlet to continue to find himself in the hard places between personal faith and public duty.
___"I'd like to see him struggling over it more," he said. "Because the fact of the matter is when you're the president of this country, you're the president of an awful lot of people who think many, many different ways."
___"The West Wing" bucks the trend in prime time television, explained William Romanowski, author of "Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture." It's more common for television shows to shy away from the particulars of religious experience in favor of a more general approach to spirituality, he said.
___In that way, programs such as "Touched by an Angel" appeal to baby boomer interest in spirituality without risking detailed portrayals of any particular religious tradition. Other shows, such as "Law & Order," may deal with religious issues from time to time, but it's still rare for a popular prime-time series to feature religion prominently, consistently and in particular terms.
___"To make this guy a practicing Catholic who crosses himself before major events in his life creates a powerful sense of the earnest leader," said pop-culture critic Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor and director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television.
___As Bartlet's character unfolds from episode to episode, Thompson noted, "we get a sense that he really believes in God, that he's not using him as a campaign consultant or dropping his name in speeches. ... One gets the sense that this isn't just stained-glass window-dressing."
___For Sorkin, making Bartlet a deeply religious man and weaving religious themes through "West Wing" plots is a way of redeeming religion.
___"Growing up, it was very easy for me to think, as it is very easy for a lot of people to think, that most often one should be suspicious of it. That most often it's an instrument of hypocrisy or, worse yet, of bullying" Sorkin said.
___"But what I want to make sure to point to just as often is the way in which faith can be magnificent, an enormous comfort and an incredible road map."
___For Bartlet, faith also is complicated.
___"We hear in the pilot episode that he doesn't like abortion and that he goes around the country encouraging young women not to have them, but that he absolutely does not believe that is something that the state can legislate," Sorkin pointed out.
___In other episodes, Bartlet spars with members of the Christian right over gay marriage and school prayer. He wrestles with his own conscience over the death penalty. He lashes out with Scripture when it suits him and sits humbled before a Chinese refugee whose command of the New Testament puts Bartlet to shame.
___Sorkin relies on an informal network of consultants to help him flesh out religious arguments and find the language of faith. When, last season, the Bartlet White House wrestled with whether to stay an execution, Sorkin e-mailed his own rabbi.
___"I said: 'This is what I'm writing about right now. Do you have any thoughts?' And, oh, boy, did he." The result was a passionate speech by a rabbi to Toby Ziegler, Bartlet's communications director (played by Richard Schiff). For that same episode, Sorkin talked to a Catholic priest, a Baptist minister and a Quaker.
___"People are very willing--in fact, they're eager--to put their 2 cents in," Sorkin said. "I think they really like the fact that the conversation is taking place at all in prime-time television."
___Sorkin is delighted that his Thanksgiving episode on the plight of persecuted Chinese Christians sparked morning-after questions about the biblical origins of "shibboleth" (Judges 12:6), and that Bartlet's tirade against a conservative Christian radio personality had viewers turning to Exodus and Leviticus to see for themselves what the Bible says about selected crimes and punishment.
___He hopes his characters--which he describes as "smart and sensitive and attractive"-- inspire real-life people to talk more about religion too.
___"That's how it happened to me," he said.

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