"Bless Us and Keep Us Safe" : Kid Nation

With a newborn baby, work, school, etc. I've really had to limit my television watching this semester (not that I was addicted or anything). But, at this point, I have cut my viewing down to 3 or 4 shows per week. One of my favorite new shows, though, is Kid Nation (a summer camp experience turned into a television show). The series actually recieved a lot of negative attention before it ever aired but honestly, the program is great (a lot of people say that CBS is "exploiting" children, however, it does not seem like that to me). The premise of the show was to take 40 kids from all over the country, drop them off in an old Wetern town (Bonanza is what they call it) with limited contact with the outside world and see if they could get the town up and running. Of course, some of the kids fight and argue but for the most part, they work well together. Last week's episode centered around mealtime; the kids were split down the middle when half of them wanted to kill a chicken and the other half didn't. Needless to say, they had chicken noodle soup that night!

Anyways, tonight's episode looks as if it will be even more interesting. Episode #4 in the series (I think) is titled "Bless Us and Keep Us Safe," and it focuses on faith/religion. The kids have try to work through their religious differences and in doing so, one of their feats is to figure out how to, with a number of different beliefs present, set up worship services. From what I saw on the trailer for this week's episode, there is some fighting and arguing but in the end, there is worship. I am interested in seeing how everything plays out in Ol' Bonanza. I am equally interested in seeing if CBS makes the Christian children out to be the (only) close-minded people of faith on the show. Or will they gloss over the deeper tensions in the group to make it seem like the children seized upon pluralism and therefore, like them, the rest of the world should do the same? We'll see. Don't miss tonight's episode; even if you haven't been keeping up with the show, try to watch this one. Any thoughts or comments on tonight's episode are welcome (and appreciated) here at Pisteuomen.