The word "God" not allowed on TV! Argh!

[hollywood926]

This is what the "other side" is being told. I just received this petition from a friend of mine, who is a gay male Democrat, but who apparently believes what it says. My response was:

Touched By An Angel was cancelled after several years on the air because the ratings sucked. There is no rule that says you can't say the word GOD on television. And James Dobson is one of the biggest homophobes on the planet. He can take this petition and shove it up his ass.

---------------------------------------------------------------

RESPONSE TO CBS


Apparently we are to be allowed to watch TV programs
that use every foul word in the English Language, but
not the word "God." It will only take a minute to read
this and see if you think you should send it out.


DR. DOBSON'S PLEA FOR ACTION


CBS discontinued "Touched by an Angel" for using the
word God in every program. Madeline Murray O'Hare, an
atheist, successfully managed to eliminate the use of
Bible reading from public schools a few years ago.

Now her organization has been granted a Federal
Hearing on the same subject by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) inWashington, DC.

Their petition, Number 2493, would ultimately pave
the way to stop the reading of the gospel our Lord and
Savior, on the airwaves of America.

They got 287,000 signatures to back their stand! If
this attempt is successful, all Sunday worship
services being broadcast on the radio or by television
will be stopped. This group is
also campaigning to remove all Christmas programs and
Christmas carols from public schools!!

You as a Christian (or any other religious
background) can help! We are praying for at least 1
million signatures. This would defeat their effort and
show that there are many Christians alive, well and
concerned about our country. As Christians we must
unite on this. Please don't take this lightly.

We ignored this lady once and lost prayer in our
school and in offices across the nation.

Please stand up for your religious freedom and let
your voice be heard. Together we can make a difference
in our country while creating and for the lost to know
the Lord.

Please press "forward", and forward this to everyone
that you think should read this.

Now, please sign your name at the bottom (you can
only add your name after you have pressed the
"Forward"). (Or use copy and paste and then add your
name)

Don't delete any other names, just go to the next
number and type your name and state. Please do not
sign jointly, such as Mr. & Mrs. Each person should
sign his/her own name. Please defeat this organization
and keep the right of our freedom of religion.

When you get to 1500 please email back to: "Lisa
Norman"[e-mail]

[demnan]

1. Why is Joan of Arcadia still on the air?

Is it because it's a decent show about spirtualism?

[Sleepysage]

2. In fact...

You can't say God + damn (but you can say God)... which should make Dobson and his ilk happy.

[Book Lover]

3. When were you people banned

from praying in school and at work? Oh, that's right; you can't force me to pray anymore, that's what has your panties in a twist... So you just go ahead and lie. Didn't your god have something to say about bearing false witness?

[Liberal Christian]

4. This is SOOOOOOOOOO old

Tell your friends to check this stuff out at www.snopes.com before they pass it on, raising hackles and wasting bandwidth.

Madelyn Murray O'Hair is DEAD!!!!! This has been going around in some form since 1966.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/fcc.htm

Jeanny

[Sleepysage]

8. Then this should frighten us all...

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?cbs001

Ugh.

[lizzie]

14. Thanks for clearing that up!

I was just about to check the "urban legend" sites myself, and the whole time I was reading that I was thinking...isn't "this lady" DEAD!

We get inflammatory e-mails from people frequently that are "urban legends" and have warned our friends and family to check them out. Now my husband likes to "reply to all" to just call them out on their stupidity! So much time spent spreading garbage and not getting educated on REAL issues! ARGHH!

[bones_7672]

15. thanks for posting, it's amazing how this comes every few years. nt

[hollywood926]

16. Ha HA! Thanks. I just sent him that link.... n/t

[jmowreader]

21. Not only is she dead...

but the kid she went to court to save from religion has grown up and become a fundie. No shit.

[haele]

5. Selective TV veiwing...

In an alternate reality where all the channels are "The Atheist Channel"

So, he doesn't know about shows like "Touched by an Angel" or "Joan of Arcadia" and doesn't watch the Family or Pax channel, or has caught The Discovery Channel or The History Channel whenever they have their "Jesus" or "Ancient Books of the Bible" fests.

Sheesh. What a friggin ignoramus.

Haele

[fugue]

6. Ms. O'Hair did not get bible reading banned

She got school prayer banned. (By "school prayer" I mean an official school prayer, not private praying, which remains possible. My high school had a prayer club that met in one of the library's AV rooms.) Bible reading was banned in the nineteenth century. The litigants were a Roman Catholic family who were upset at having the Protestant bible read to their child.

Parenthetical added on edit (and a correction of Ms. O'Hair's name ^_^;;;).

[HarrietBrown]

7. Google Madeline Murray O'Hare--pretty interesting--esp since she is dead

She disappeared in 1995 and her body was found in a shallow grave in 2001--yet she can get hearings with the FCC! Amazing!

[stevedeshazer]

9. They could at least get her name right.

http://www.who2.com/madalynmurrayohair.html

After all, she was brutally murdered. Jeez.

[Mojambo]

10. To make these people happy

I'm going to just start saying "god" at random points during my conversations throughout the day.

It'll be like religious tourette's syndrome.

[realisticphish]

11. why dont people understand

EMAIL PETITIONS DONT MEAN SHIT. you CANNOT track the identities of the people who signed them, therefore they do nothing. And i love how they say support our freedom of religion, when it is THEY who are the ones who want their (and, i should add, my) religion to be the one favored above all else


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. PLUS...

you've got a lot of young parents around nowadays who have no idea that most parts of the U.S. NEVER had prayer and Bible reading in school.

I was in seventh grade when the Supreme Court decisions came down, and my first reaction was, "Who has prayer and Bible reading in school?"

I grew up in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and even my grandmother, who entered the Minneapolis public schools in 1905, back when nearly everyone was either Lutheran or Catholic, never had religion in school.

If you ask around among people who attended school in the 1950s. you'll find that yes, the South, where the religious spectrum runs all the way from evangelical to fundamentalist, had prayer and Bible reading, and so did the Northeast, where these practices were instituted as an attempt to convert the large influx of Jewish and Catholic immigrants to Protestantism. Most of the rest of the country kept the schools secular, even in the Mom and Pop 1950s.

[fugue]

17. They shouldn't've had bible reading

It was banned in the nineteenth century. See my post above.

[liberalequestrian]

25. Agreed

I have no problem with religious themed TV shows- turn the channel, but when you are going to PUBLIC school, I have a big problem..

[oldlady]

27. just confirming what you said

I went to school in Wisconsin through half the 60s and nearly all of the 70s-- no prayer (except at Baccalaureate --an ecumenical service the night before graduation) and no pledge to the flag except during fourth grade -- teacher's preference. And that was in a lil ol' cow town.

NOW, my kids' high school in an urban area and as big as my whole hometown MUST rise every morning for pledge and Star Spangled Banner, post 9-11. At the alternative school, they get around this rule by playing Hendrix's version of Star-Spangled Banner *heehee* while the kids walk to class.

oh, yeah...and my hometown had to cancel the Baccalaureate...go figure.

[Journeyman]

13. "Pray TV looks like pay TV to me. . .

it's just a curse on the human race." -- P. Townshend

[Bucky]

18. I saw them say "Goddammit" on NYPD Blue last week. Does that count?

Oh wait, maybe that was a re-run from before the extremist liberals took over the country :eyes:

[signmike]

23. Well, sure...

As I understand Dammit to be God's last name. And on the subject, why does his son, Jesus Herbert Christ, have a different last name?

[Malva Zebrina]

19. More persecution of Christians I guess

and even if dead, Madeline Murray O'Hair is still the whipping boy.

Gonna be a wild ride.

[seabeyond]

20. there own coor dude from colorado puts degrading boob twin

commercials on tv during football games for kids to watch. i dont give a shit about their holier than thou liberal perversion on tv. they want to go after someone they can go after this guy. took them off the tv while he was running on family values. now he has lost, they are back on. he is well aware of his own hypocrisy

[Lex]

22. Stupidity leads to gullibility.

If we could figure out how to rid ourselves of such stupidity, hence gullibility, in this country we might have a chance of moving this country forward.

[Octafish]

24. Pat Robertson invoked God's name to make money.

That's a real sin.

Here's another of Pat "The Liquor Officer" Robertson's sins: He was a coward during the Korean War.

http://www.schlatter.org/liquor_officer.htm

[DRoseDARs]

26. If TbaA was cancelled for 'God', why are Rev.s Pat and Jerry still on?

Fuck, the things these "morans" convince themselves of. :eyes:

[Radio-Active]

28. If it were true, I would think they would be happy..

after all, you're not supposed to use the Lord's name in vain.

[TheMightyFavog]

29. I don't think Touched By an Angel was cancelled...

I think they ended the show on its own terms. Face it, 9 years is a hell of a run. Pretty Well Much everyone, from Downey and Della Reese, through the production staff pretty well much agreed that it was time to end it and move on.