soap opera shock

Since when did soap operas start at 9am?? I was shocked to discover while flipping channels looking for some news programs that there are actual soap operas on this early in the day. I just happened upon "Guiding Light" and the reason I didn't flip right past it, was because something caught me by surprise. I actually saw a character reading a Bible, sitting on a park bench. Then another character approached and told him that a new position opened up at one of the local churches....and that they wanted him to be the new pastor. Is that possible? Of course, the longer I listened the more obvious it became that the writers did not know how these things really worked.....and that they themselves were writing what they "thought" a "very religious" person would say. I gotta give them credit though, for even putting this kind of topic in a storyline usually dedicated to things like murder, missing long lost family members, evil twins, and adultery---right? :0)