Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Prime Time television show that airs on and is produced by CTV. CTV is known to be a religion friendly network. In Kathryn Kates article she tells how CTV filmed the finale of it's top rated show, Canadian Idol, earlier because one of the judges was involved with Yiddish, a Jewish tradition. This proves that CTV isn't anti-religious and supports the freedom to practice religion. Why then does it seem like Degrassi: The Next Generation stomps down hard on religions? Like calling Muslims Terrorist and Christians Homophobics. In my opinion this isn't the case      If you are on the inside of a religion some of these themes may be a bit overwhelming or a bit controversial. I, on the other hand, am looking at Degrassi: TNG through a Christian viewpoint and see nothing wrong with the show. In my opinion, Degrassi sets out to teach rather than put down. This can be seen through "Don't Believe The Hype". This episode shows people jumping to judgements about Muslims, thinking that because of the events of September 11th, all Muslims are terrorist. Hazel steps up and shows that because of the lives of one person from that Religious group, they all can't hide. She shows people that she isn't a terrorist and that these judgements shouldn't be made until you get to know someone from that background.      Also, the events with the Christians can be looked at as calling Christians intense and out to put people down if they don't believe what they believe. This, once again, isn't the truth. Linus is an extreme Christian. Degrassi: TNG shows this as not the way to live. Linus only hurts people, puts people down and makes people mad at him. This causes people to look down on Christians in a way. But then you have the other side of Christian life. Darcy is the Christian who is like any other ordinary teen. She goes about her business and don't bother to jump on other people if they don't believe what she does. She even talks about in one scene loving others the way God loves. Linus hushes Darcy here. Darcy in the end is the one to show Spinner the way to be Christian whereas Linus only turns people off from their religion. Basically, what Degrassi is doing is showing extreme Christians that Darcy's "live in love and not rules" type of attitude is the right attitude and not Linus's "stick a Bible down their throat attitude".       The final thing Degrassi sets out to show is that doing wrong things almost always leads to punishment. The only thing in the whole of Degrassi: TNG that can be looked down on is Manny's abortion. This, once again, is the reason the episode was banned from the states. Degrassi: TNG sets out to teach, not to discredit religion and therefore it tries to take everything into consideration. It tries to be open to all religions and ways of life, and though sometimes it may get controversial, it sometimes takes a deeper look to see something good come out of it.      The other thing about Degrassi: TNG is that it tries to stick with the issues that are taking place at that moment. "Don't Believe The Hype" aired around the time of September 11th, "I Against I" and the other shows involving Marco have came about around the time of the gay marriage discussions. Degrassi: TNG tries to tackle recent issues and make light of a bad situation. Like the CTV advertisements say, "If your life were a TV show, tis would be it!"