During my third year on "Law & Order", I wrote an episode called “Under God” with another writer, Noah Baylin. The episode was about a priest, played brilliantly by Denis O’Hare, who murdered a drug dealer who’d been terrorizing his parish. The priest’s legal defense was that he was following guidance he received from God through prayer.

What made this defense intriguing is that it wasn’t an insanity plea. The priest wasn’t claiming that he heard God’s voice or anything irrational, merely that he prayed for guidance — as one does — and received it and acted on it.

This was back when network television could explore the topic of faith — to say nothing of a wide panoply of social and political issues — without fear of offending anyone. Those were the days.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarettwieselman/the-write-stuff#.mfgXNnGBY