Pastor Gabriel isn't a commentary on religion.
- This from Isidingo head writer Rohan Dickson...
I caught up with him recently to get his take on Gabriel when I discovered an
online petition that calls on the soapie to immediately remove anything to do with religion from the script. It argues that the show is degrading Christianity through Gabriel and his antics.
I found the petition after TVSA received messages from readers expressing a similar sentiment so I've been investigating to snoop out what's going on.
Turns out the Broadcasting Complaints Commission has received a number of related complaints but all of them have been non-specific so no action has been taken.
According to the BCCSA, people who lodge complaints have to submit specific instances that have caused them offense i.e. the date of the episode and the scene. The BCCSA doesn't watch everything obviously so those who complain need to be specific, which the Gabriel complainants haven't been.
All this inspired me to find out about the show's intention behind Gabriel. Is he a commentary on religion?
My immediate impression was that he's a commentary on Pastors Gone Bad - as they so often do! - but no. He isn't.
According to Rohan, he just happens to be a pastor. He could have been of another profession but the show chose to place him in the context of the church because it's an important part of Horizon Deep.
Here's what Rohan has to say about it:
Rohan: Clearly our intention is not to degrade anything. We’re telling a story about one pastor and his character journey - what happens to him - we’re not reflecting anything to do with him or Christianity on any level.
We wanted to bring a character like that into our world because we felt that the world of the church was one that fitted organically into Horizon Deep and the other aspects of the show - the mining community, where there are rich people and others who are more working class. The church felt like a very organic fit so we introduced a pastor, who, like all of our characters, has dark and light.
We’re a soap opera. We reflect what people are talking about and thinking about to some degree but we don’t do commentary on religion. That’s not our job - we tell stories, hopefully stories that the audience can connect with and that they find authentic.
To deny the church in a South African content in 2015 feels unnecessary. The church is part of people’s lives - just in terms of a small town community - it would be part of their lives.
Gabriel is very charismatic, he’s smart, he’s articulate, he believes in what he’s doing and saying and he seduces people. He’s not a villain. He’s a soap opera character telling a story that happens to be set in the church because he’s a pastor but he could quite easily have been a policeman.