In two short weeks, ABC is launching a situation comedy that will simply be known as GCB. Please note that these are the same three initials found in the highly publicized, proposed, optional and informal replacement name for the Southern Baptist Convention. Ours may stand for “Great Commission Baptists” but the rest of America will soon associate the three initials GCB with the phrase “Good Christian Belles.” Please understand I am using the term “belles” here in place of the British term for female dogs, which is inferred but cannot be used even by ABC in describing Christians. Apparently, this is the reason they are only using the initials.
The show is being produced by those who gave us Desperate Housewives. It appears intent upon portraying a negative stereotype of Christian women in the South. Set in Texas, it will feature physically attractive young women who appear outwardly religious but are inwardly cruel.
The irony, of course, is that in order to prevent society from associating our denomination with our allegedly reprehensible Southern culture, the Name Change Task Force has put forth a name with the very same initials as a television show featuring raunchy Southern religious characters whose immoral speech and actions are surpassed only by their hypocrisy.
If a group of Southern Baptists had met in the early days of 2012 for the express purpose of selecting a name with the very three initials most likely to promote negative stereotypes and link us in the minds of Americans with the most sinful aspects of Southern culture, they would be hard pressed to do better than G.C.B.