PBS May Yank Religious Programming

The Washington Post this morning published an article entitled "PBS weighs separation of church & stations."

The "board" of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is voting next month to determine whether PBS stations should be allowed to carry "sectarian" religious content along with standard PBS programming.

This vote is a little strange, especially since PBS stations for decades have carried such religious content.

Religious peoples, like Latter-day Saints, should make their voices heard on this issue. The article cited above quotes a PBS spokesperson, Jan McNamara, as saying, "We're still gathering feedback from our members to see where they stand."

I highly recommend that PBS viewers express their reactions on the PBS "Site Feedback" page.

The Site Feedback page requests a title to your comment. I put "Limits on religious programming"

The Site Feedback page requests users to categorize their comment: I clicked "Negative."

Here is my comment:

Dear PBS:

I am very disturbed to read “PBS weighs separation of church & stations” in the Washington Post.

Religious speech SHOULD be allowed on the same station that broadcasts PBS programming.

Viewers are intelligent and can distinguish religion from PBS.

Your high quality shows need to be seen in as many venues as possible.

Stop treating religious viewers like second class citizens.

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For a good discussion of how limits on religious programming might affect Latter-day Saints, see "KBYU in danger of being stripped of PBS affiliation" over at Times & Seasons.

I live in the midwest and subscribe to KBYU through DISH satellite. It is irritating how PBS views religion (”sectarian content”) as having an inferior status.

By the way, I am for ALL religious programming, NOT just Mormon content. A "religious limitations" policy by PBS would affect many stations all across the nation.

It is ironic that a public TV company would want to place limits on what the public wants to see.

While the motive of PBS policy might be to keep religion and "public agencies" apart, the actual effect of such a "limits" policy would be a form of government meddling into religious expression.

Caveat emptor.

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Copyright 2009 S.Faux (Email: foxgoku54 [at] gmail [d0t] c0m; URL: http://mormoninsights.blogspot.com). Readers may distribute this post for noncommercial purposes provided such distributing is of the entire post, including author's copyright and contact information. All other rights reserved.




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