The Fox TV show "Lucifer" is pushing its limits after its episode "A Priest Walks Into a Bar" showed the devil toying with the confessional and tempting a priest with stripper nuns.
Lucifer Morningstar (played by Tom Ellis) and LAPD Detective Chloe Decker (played by Lauren German) paired up to bust a man suspected of running a drug ring. Lucifer, in his desperate attempt to pin the crime on the local priest, goes to church and plays with the emotions of a confessing woman.
When the woman confesses to having lusty thoughts about her husband's limo driver, Lucifer tells her to give in to her desires. "I mean, let's be honest, if you wanted to be faithful, then you wouldn't be fantasizing about your limo driver, now, would you, eh?" he said. "Don't feel bad. You have those desires for a reason. You should act on them. I mean, you can always come back here, confess, and all will be forgiven. Isn't that how this system of yours works?"
When Lucifer and Chloe eventually find out that the priest named Father Frank isn't in charge of the drug ring after all, Lucifer lures him to a nightclub featuring strippers dressed as nuns.
"Well, your sanctuary just got shot to high heaven, Padre. But if you're looking to lay low, I believe I know just the place. Thought this might make you feel more at home, you know," Lucifer tells Father Frank.
Alex Moutevelis from Media Research Center Newsbusters writes in Charisma News that even though there were a lot of "debauchery" in the episode, there were still some good messages that managed to shine through.
"The priest reveals how a tragic accident that took the lives of his daughter and friends of theirs brought him to the Lord, and he encourages others to have faith in God's plan," he says.
And even as the priest lies dying in the arms of Lucifer, he tells the devil, "I didn't understand why God put you in my path. But then it hit me. Maybe He put me in yours."
