‘Sacred’ explores moments of faith
Time was, good manners meant never talking about politics or religion in mixed company. Now, whole swaths of the television schedule discuss nothing but.
The news media generally treat religion as a social or political topic, the source of any number of sectarian disputes around the world. Too many American religious TV spectacles discuss faith in an us-versus-them fashion, stoking tribal estrangement, fear and resentment.
What television does not do well is discuss religion as a deeply personal experience, a source of solace and wonder tied to life’s passages. Director Thomas Lennon set about changing that with the documentary film “Sacred” (10 p.m., PBS, check local listings), a sweeping survey of world religious rites and practices employing more than 40 filmmakers from around the globe.
It begins by following a Buddhist monk on his kaihogyo, a 1,000-day walk around Japan’s Mount Hiei, and then documents a Muslim father in Cairo praying over an infant only minutes old. It explores practices like the bris and baptism, coming-of-age ceremonies in Mandalay, Jerusalem and the San Carlos Apache Reservation, rites around the world that help navigate youth from adolescence to marriage, as well as funerals and rituals that honor the long dead.
It’s no criticism to describe “Sacred” as “all over the place.” It’s meant to be. It’s at once intimate and rather epic, gorgeously produced and as stimulating and limited as an introductory textbook about comparative religions.
If your local PBS affiliate does not broadcast “Sacred,” the film can be streamed, beginning Tuesday, at pbs.org/sacred and on PBS apps.
› On the lam from a local hood, a country pub singer decamps for the big city convinced she’s the love child of a rich hotelier in the 12-episode Australian drama “Secret Daughter,” now streaming on Acorn.
TONIGHT’S HOLIDAY SPECIALS
› Reba McEntire hosts the ninth annual “CMA Country Christmas” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› “The Cast of ‘A Christmas Story’: Where Are They Now?” (8 p.m., POP, TV-PG) ponders the fate of actors, including Zack Ward, who played Scut Farkus.
› Although engaged to other people, Lizzy and Billy discover they are nervous and restless when not in each other’s company in the 2018 holiday romance “No Sleep ‘Til Christmas” (9 p.m., Freeform, TV-14).
› “Pentatonix: A Not So Silent Night” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) puts an a cappella spin on holiday favorites.
› Neighbors let it glow on “The Great Christmas Light Fight” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› A recently jilted woman convinces herself that a handsome stranger may be a nutcracker come to life in the 2018 romance “A Very Nutty Christmas” (10 p.m., Lifetime, TV-PG).