Oregon Magazine

The Greatest Christmas Insult Possible

December 19, 2002 -- Watching the PBS program, Muhammed, I was struck by a thought. Why is this being aired during the Christmas season, within a week of the day, itself? What is the message sent when timing like this is utilized? What did it mean when on the program, a woman said, “Mohammed told his followers to not do to him what the Christians did to Jesus – make him holy.”

This line is presented in a PBS program one week before Christmas? Can you imagine a greater insult to Christians around the globe? And, Christians are forced by their government to give financial support to this network? When Christmas celebrations are banned from public schools on the basis of “separation of church and state,” your tax dollars are spent to support a denial of the central belief of Christians? And this in a program which is nothing more than an advertisement for a religion whose practitioners in places like the Sudan torture, butcher and enslave Christians on the eve of the Christian savior’s birth?

Where in the world do Christians execute women for adultery? It happens all the time in Islamic nations. The world saw it happen on network television just a short time ago.. Where in the world do Christians deny access to education for women? After the United States freed the people of Afghanistan, the world saw women allowed to attend school for the first time in their lives, just a short time ago. If you think that Afghanistan was an unusual case, and that such slaughter and suppression of women is otherwise unheard of in the Islamic world, you are an uninformed fool.

And, PBS presents this religion as the “latest revelation of the one true God” while in the same breath denying the Godhood of Christ – IN THE HEART OF THE CHRISTMAS SEASON?

Are you actually going to sit there and take this? No matter which variety of Christianity you follow, if you follow Christ, are you just going to sit there? Is the central outcome of modern Christianity the production of human sheep?

The tenor of this program about the prophet of Islam was respectful, in the extreme – to Islam. The events and beliefs of Islam were presented as fact, without equivocation. Have you seen PBS programming about Christianity? Were the events and beliefs of Christianity presented as fact, without equivocation?

The academic “experts” on Islam who provided commentary for this program were all believers. Were the “experts” on PBS programs about Christ and his religion all believers?

Are you beginning to understand the underlying malice of PBS toward Christianity? Are you beginning to perceive the iron fist within the velvet glove? Do you yet grasp that this “noble effort toward tolerance” is in truth a direct, vicious, arrogant attack on Christianity?

Of late, we have taken note of the fact that some of the programming on OPB is being sponsored by the Portland Tribune, a newspaper founded recently by a member of the Georgia-Pacific timber products family. His name is Robert Pamplin. It is said that he has two PhD’s – one of them a divinity degree. It is said that he used his own vast resources to construct the Oregon Christian church where he is the residing pastor.

So, now, not only the tax dollars of Christians, but also the personal and company donations of Christians are funding blatant denials of the verisimilitude of their own core beliefs? A man with two PhD’s lacks the sophistication to perceive a direct insult to that which he preaches on Sunday morning? That is not possible. He cannot be aware of what is going on, here.

If these Christians are correct about their beliefs, and are aware of what is going on, here, then this voluntary support of a network which produces programs like this one will eventually cost them a great deal.

Perhaps, if nothing else, they should question public broadcasting about attaining a better sense of timing.

Read a Daniel Pipes column on this subject.
Read an Oregon Magazine article about another PBS program on Islam.

Postscript: Since this article appeared, it has crossed America on the big internet forums. We received notice of same, and links to the conversations, from an Oregon Magazine supporter, and went to see what people were saying. Here are some quotes the piece received. Included are comments from Free Republic and Lucianne dot com. One of the forum links led to a site which has a British identification, though I don't know where it actually originates. I could not see how to open that one, so whatever they are saying in England will have to remain a mystery.

Every time I haved turned to PBS in the evening this week it has been about Islam. I was too mad to post but on Thanksgiving evening they also had a show about Islam. I normally donate every year and will no longer do so. I will write to them after seeing what was on tonight. I am livid. I am quite sure we will see this on Christmas evening too. I am completely disgusted.

I told them I was puzzled by their programming choices on Thankgiving and this week. Told them I will never send (a) donation again.

It's hard to believe that PBS would look at any religion as a good thing. From what I saw, they reveled in devoutness and legitimacy, sprinkling approving buzz words, voice inflections, flattering
lighting and warm music throughout, transparent manipulation to be sure. The folks at PBS may actually be nuts.

I've e-mailed my senators and my congresswoman asking them to support legislation to end funding for PBS. I suggest the rest of you do likewise.

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical." ~Thomas Jefferson

After Lott is retired, one of the first orders of business should be the cancellation of all funding for PBS and it's minion affiliates throughout the country.

(OMED: That last comment stirred up a thought. The racial quality in the now famous Trent Lott birthday speech has to be inferred. There is no direct reference to race in his words. One has to select the racial component from a list of other possibilities, like Strom’s defence posture and anti-communist beliefs. But, in the case of this public broadcasting program, there is no need to invent intent. The actual words are there for all to hear. Yet, while the Lott statement receives a week of major media headlines, this blatant and open insult to a hundred million Americans, at least, will go without criticism or even comment in the mainstream media.)