PBS Defends Biased, Misleading Attack on Church/State Separation

It will always be difficult to ensure that the citizens of America know and understand their rights so long as the institutions responsible for informing and educating them knowingly spread ideologically-motivated falsehoods. That's precisely what we have in the case of PBS deciding to air a "documentary" about church/state separation which they publicly admit is biased on behalf of those who deny that church and state should be separated.

Michael Geller, PBS's ombudsman has even been reduced to shilling on behalf of the twisted conservative Christian ideology behind the so-called "documentary."

Getler writes, “The interviews in the film, in terms of time on screen and numbers, seemed to me to tilt clearly in favor of those who see a danger in the “wall of separation” metaphor used by Jefferson….” He points out that the narrator “time and again, conveys the theme of this film – that God is the necessary foundation of society’s law and government.” Getler even calls the treatment a “heavy-handed hammering away by the narrator.”

Getler goes off the rails when he tries to defend the program. “My sense,” he writes, “is that people can take from this film whatever they wish. It can be a useful reminder of the context of our founding documents and a way of looking at that context – and at the intent of the framers of the First Amendment as assessed in the dominant view of this film – that challenges the more common view….Or it can be viewed as sophisticated propaganda, as some critics already have….” ...

What Getler fails to grasp is that the perspective offered in this film has been debunked. Getler notes that during the film, the narrator says, “The United States is a society based on the rule of law. And our Founding Fathers believed that if they did not base their laws on a higher authority, then whoever was in power would determine what the law said. They called this ‘tyranny.’ Their higher authority was the Law of God – the Ten Commandments.”

Source: Americans United

PBS is thus responsible for airing a program that presents a falsified history of America in the service of a Christian Nationalist political agenda. These are people who seek to impose a theocratic system on the United States which would replace not just democracy, but all the basic principles of liberty as well. If you have any doubts, consider the "minor" fact that the man behind the film, Brian Godwa, is himself a "militant theocrat."

He and his allies believe that Christians of his stripe should take control, not only of the government, but of all aspects of society – including the entertainment industry.

Earlier this year, Godawa took part in the “Issachar Project,” a gathering of activists in Orange County, Calif., that, according to one organizer, is intended to bring about “a Christianization of the movie industry.” Godawa’s previous credits include a stint as movie reviewer for the Chalcedon Foundation, a Christian Reconstructionist outfit that advocates the death penalty for homosexuals, adulterers, fornicators, witches, incorrigible juvenile delinquents and those who spread false religions.

There is nothing new or radical about this film, at least in the context of the radical Christian Right. This is part of a long-term and broad strategy to undermine church/state separation, undermine scientific naturalism, and undermine pluralistic democracy in order to replace it all with a theocratic Christian system in which they will wield power over everyone else. What is new and radical is the fact that PBS — the Public Broadcasting System — is playing an active role in furthering this agenda now. What's next?