It’s been gone for nearly 15 years, and I still miss Nothing Sacred like I miss fifth-grade recess. Nothing Sacred was a TV drama that shone brightly — and briefly — during the 1997-98 season on ABC. Some conservative Catholics thought America ought not to be exposed to programming about a priest who questioned his church’s doctrines and his own faith. At the same time, it was heaven on earth for me, a Seattle P-I television critic who had once thought he might become a priest. ABC pulled the plug a few episodes shy of a full season; the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which deemed the show deeply offensive and had urged a boycott of any company that dared sponsor it, claimed victory. Nevertheless, Nothing Sacred received a Peabody Award and a Humanitas Prize for its rich affirmation of human dignity. Here’s what I wrote at the time:

It is sad irony that Nothing Sacred, the most catholic of shows, faces excommunication. Nowhere is there a more universal, all-inclusive series that speaks so eloquently to the “values” that critics of mainstream television harp on. … Sure, Father Ray is a liberal priest, but his compassion and generosity of spirit in the face of ecclesiastical paradox are the central elements in Nothing Sacred, not his politics. Unlike other values-oriented programming, the character development is deep, the writing thoughtful and clear, the plots provocative and often surprising.

I mention this because the show’s creator, Bill Cain, is the author of How to Write a New Book for the Bible. True to Cain’s intellectual nature — he’s a Jesuit priest with a fine sense of what constitutes community — Nothing Sacred was all about discovering the love and compassion that exist in a family. This is precisely the essence of How to Write a New Book for the Bible. The difference here is that the family is Cain’s own insular family, not an entire parish.

Playwright Bill Cain

In a brief chat last week, Cain discussed the nature of creating something so personal, and how a play about dealing with a dying family member can actually be illuminating, even funny. “Under our deepest darkness is blinding light,” Cain says. “I have a tendency to see the light.”

This remark took me back a decade and a half, to a time when people who didn’t like Nothing Sacred considered it their duty to deprive others from seeing it. They saw only darkness — either unable or unwilling to see the “blinding light” that each episode cast on the human condition. What was most illuminating about our chat is that I’m apparently way more upset about the cancellation of Nothing Sacred than Bill Cain ever was. He considers it one of his favorite experiences — “It was a miracle it ever got on the air,” he says — and he’s grateful that an audience considered gigantic by live-theater standards got to see it.

I wish even more had seen it. But I’m ever more grateful that Bill Cain has helped me see the light.

John Levesque is managing editor of Seattle Business magazine. This is a special contribution to the Seattle Rep blog.