Michigan TV Station Waffles on Airing VIRULENTLY ANTI-GAY INFOMERCIAL "Silencing Christians"

[Bluebear]

A bold forward attack against GLBT Americans has been launched by an anti-gay group that claims in a video that equality for gays and lesbians harms families and curtails religious freedom.

The video, called "Speechless: Silencing the Christians" is poised to air on a Grand Rapids, Michigan TV station as a paid program.

The one-hour production starts as a look at how a group of Christian demonstrators were arrested for, as they tell it, trying to "share the Gospel," but almost immediately focuses on gay and lesbian Americans’ struggle for equality under the law.

Host Janet Parshall says to the camera, "The way Americans think about homosexuality has changed over the last two decades.

"And if you think that’s an accident--think again."

Parshall (l)

Parshall goes on to claim that a homosexual "agenda," complete with "propaganda" designed to "manipulate" the media and the perceptions of viewers and readers, were laid out in a 1989 book called "After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90’s," by Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen.

Airing of the video has twice been delayed at Grand Rapids TV station WOOD-TV. Originally scheduled for broadcast on Feb. 9, just before President Obama’s press conference, the program was put off because, explained the station’s program director Craig Cole in a Feb. 10 article that appeared in The Grand Rapids Press, subsequently posted at MLive.com, "We didn’t feel that it was the appropriate place, leading into the presidential event."

The video, which warns of a "radical homosexual agenda," is the work of the American Family Association, and includes testimony from individuals who claim that they were once homosexual but were "cured" through prayer.

The AFA’s Web site is filled with links to anti-gay and anti-Obama articles. The group has established a new site for the video, SilencingChristians.com, where the hour-long anti-gay video can be viewed.

http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=87097

[tekisui]

1. Ugh. What is there to waflle about?

:banghead:

[marmar]

2. I've already called and emailed the station and gave them an earful.......

..... the reaction of the clearly weary person on the other end of the call makes me think it's never going to air, even though I'm sure the station is owned by one of the fundie freaks from the west side of the state.
I watched some of it. That Parshall woman is a real piece of ..... something.

[FLyellowdog]

3. See previous post.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=recent_posts&command=replies&parent_id=5031972&forum=389

edited for link

[4lbs]

4. I'm guessing Parshall is the one on the left in that picture, with her ears plugged, and the woman

on the right is Randi Rhodes?

[Bluebear]

5. Yes, her famous "la la la I can't hear you!!" performance

[jonnyblitz]

6. damn, they were referencing that "after the ball" book in the

early 90's when i first started monitoring the anti-gay religous right activist groups on my own. they need new material. I wonder if they still reference the descredited Paul Cameron also (long story about him). I need to force myself to watch that damn video on the AFA site but I have a difficult time stomaching the yammerings of the "ex-gays". bleh.

[4 t 4]

7. Update ?

Michigan Television Station Pulls Misleading AFA Program Following Announcement of National Action Alert By Human Rights Campaign
Station manager releases statement: "The Offer is now off the table."

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, today issued a national action alert against the American Family Association's (AFA) one-hour television special called "Speechless: Silencing Christians," which is promoted to "reveal the truth about the radical homosexual agenda and its impact on the family, the nation and religious freedom." Within an hour of that action alert announcement, the Grand Rapids, MI station which had planned to air the deceptive programming rescinded that offer.

...snip...

The HRC alert urged members to contact the station and ask that they pull the scheduled program and instead air a fair discussion or debate on both the issues and pending legislation.

"I am so proud of our members who answered the lies and distortions of the AFA and stopped this campaign of hate and deception," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "Our community stood up and would not let those lies stand."

"This should be our wake up call. We are poised to make real progress, for the first time, for millions of LGBT Americans. We know it and so do our opponents," added Solmonese. "We must stand guard and not allow them to stop these overdue, basic protections by rolling out the same, tired script albeit in new packaging. Today's action proves we have the voices and the power to demand a fair fight and a fair debate.".

The AFA program which is still viewable online and may run in other markets, is hosted by controversial talk show host Janet Parshall, who in 2006, suggested Matthew Shepard's lifestyle was responsible for his murder and called gay adoption "state-sanctioned child abuse." (CNN's Larry King Live, Jan. 17, 2006) In the new AFA program, the AFA and its allies purposely promote lies and distortions.

[Bluebear]

8. Oh my, another "Christian" silenced.

Sorry, Ms. Parshall!

[msongs]

9. a fear-based religion using fear as a tactic? wow, there's a surprise nt

[Bluebear]

10. I hear you, but there it is!

:eyes:

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

11. If WOOD is owned by the same folks as the radio station, good luck

All hate radio, judging by the lineup.

[flvegan]

12. "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

-Gandhi

This of course isn't meant to broad brush ALL Christians. The sort that would support/promote this hate, definitely fit in there.

[xchrom]

13. these 'christians' would have you believe that the entire message, life and sacrifice of jesus

boils down to being persecuted by homos.