It's Friday, December 8, 2003.

I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

As we begin the briefing today, it's important to recognize the death of Norman Lear,

one of the most influential figures in American culture in the 20th century

who died Tuesday at age 101. Now that's newsworthy in itself

the fact that someone of his generation lived to be 101 years old and by the

way as I reflected when he reached his 100th birthday just over a year ago

he was still very much a part of the national conversation. By any measure,

Norman Lear has to be ranked among the most significant forces of moral change in modern times.

I've said before, he might well be the most influential liberal figure in American life

at a time when American culture was turning left and when it comes to many social and cultural issues,

many moral issues turning far left.

So who are we talking about?

We talk about Norman Lear.

We're talking about one of the most

influential figures in television in particular and the sitcom in specific reference

he revolutionized what was expected of American prime time entertainment and he did so with an ideological agenda.

If you go back before Norman Lear, America's prime time entertainment, even the genre known as sitcoms that is to say

situation comedies they were basically extremely bland very very bland they were

intentionally unoffensive. Then along

came Norman Lear. But before Norman Lear came the social

revolutions of the 1960s and in particular the ideological subversion of so many the the it gave way to the revolutions of the 1960s. That included expectations about marriage.

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