'Impastor' in hot water for smoking pot, ridiculing religion on TV

LOS ANGELES (Christian Examiner) – A pro-family media watchdog is sounding the alarm on a sacrilegious sitcom airing on TV Land – and it is having success.

The show, Impastor, tells the story of a fugitive and gambling addict who – in an attempt to escape loan sharks and the law – steals the identify of a deceased gay Lutheran pastor and lands a ministry position in a small-town church. But he is far from a traditional pastor. He sleeps around, smokes marijuana, curses and makes jokes about religion.

The watchdog One Million Moms and its constituents successfully pressured VTech and IHOP to drop their advertisements from the program. One Million Moms now is asking Kay Jewelers and Red Lobster to stop advertising on Impastor, which the organization says is full of "sex, theft, murder, drug use and foul language."

"This show not only depicts pastors in a negative light, but the entire program is also based on lies about Christianity, including Christians using the Lord's name in vain," Monica Cole of One Million Moms wrote. "TV Land has crossed the line by belittling the Christian faith with foul jokes. We need to send a loud and clear message to advertisers that this kind of programming is insulting and completely unacceptable."

The show airs Monday at 10:30 p.m. EST/9:30 p.m. CST. But the ads for the program run earlier in the night during shows such as Everybody Loves Raymond. Impastor is in its second season. Cole called it "sacrilegious."

VTech wrote that its ads should not have aired during Impastor.

"We recently became aware of an error in our advertising programming which caused our product commercial to air during a television show that does not fit in with our family-friendly brand positioning," the company said in a statement. "This unfortunate error has been corrected, and we appreciate those who have brought this to our attention."