Religion and the Media

Today, I read a report about CBS news and their religiously based advertising policy. In short, here's the point:

To CBS executives, it's OK to air an anti-abortion ad, but not an ad for a Gay dating service. Their response is, to be nice, pure balderdash.

It's time for the Federal Communications Commission to do its job and put a stop to evangelism by our media corporations. When a media giant can ban an ad about a legitimate company serving a legal segment of our population based on the morals of its corporate executives, we no longer enjoy free airwaves that, according to our laws, belong to the people.

My mom used to tell me you can't have your cake and eat it, too. Yet that's exactly what CBS wants. It wants to be able to deny "issue-based" ads they don't like, even when they aren't really issue-based (since when is dating an "issue"?), yet be allowed to air issue-based ads that promote the executives' approved stances on extremely divisive issues.

CBS has three choices:

1. It can remove the anti-abortion ad.

2. It can air the Gay dating ad.

3. It can face a massive boycott.

If the do not follow through on either 1 or 2 above, I will take part in the boycott, and I will encourage everyone else I can reach to do the same.

Some reading this may say, "well, I'm against abortion" or "I'm against homosexuality." However, that is a personal opinion, based on personal beliefs. I wonder how you would feel if a station refused to air ads based on your views? Would it be OK with you if CBS refused to air heterosexual dating ads, but aired Gay dating ads? Would you be OK with CBS airing pro-choice ads and not yours? I'd be willing to be you would not be. So what's the difference?

Why is one form of censorship OK, but the other is not?

Living a life with Spirit means showing respect for the beliefs, opinions and life ways of others. It means affording respect to all, not just those who agree with you.

To those who say it is not their problem because they are not Gay, I would remind you of the words of Pastor Niemoeller:

Martin Niemoeller was a clergyman of the Lutheran Church in Germany and a pastor during the 1930's and 1940's. In 1937 he was arrested by the secret police and was sent to a concentration camp, sentenced to death for speaking against the state. He was freed by the allied armies before he could be executed, 1 month before the war ended and 12 years after the German people elected the Nazis to power.

After the war Pastor Niemoeller became a vocal and passionate defender of human rights, and he reminded every single person he spoke to as to WHY it is so very important that each and every one of us speak out against prejudice, injustice, and oppression all the time and every time we see or hear it, why we have to "look out for the other guy."

He explained it this way:

. . . In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and still I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up. . .

I, for one, will speak up, even though I am not Gay. I will speak up because to infringe on the rights of one is to infringe on the rights of all.

Religiously based censorship is wrong, no matter the belief being censored. If you agree, please join me in telling CBS your thoughts.

In peace,

Lane