"Silencing the Christians" Infomercial Draws Fire

I was stunned on Saturday when I channel surfed over to the Buffalo NBC affiliate after the news and saw what appeared to be a current affairs program about The Secret Gay Agenda to Recruit Our Children and Criminalize Christianity.

No. Really.

I checked the TV guide and it turned out that this filth was, in fact, 'paid programming'. That's right - an infomercial disguised as a television special entitled "Speechless: Silencing the Christians" - airing the day before the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

If you must, you can watch the whole thing on their website, but let me save you the nausea. Not only do they promote the usual hate-filled, homophobic, 'gay agenda' screed, but they go a step further - blaming Pride events and gay rights demonstrations for incidents of violence against Christians.

(UPDATE: Yeah, 'cause that happens all the time.)

I'd tell you more, but I couldn't get through the whole thing without throwing up. Happily, it seems I wasn't the only one repulsed by this crap:

'Silencing Christians' paid program draws protest calls, e-mails

TAMPA - A flood of telephone calls and e-mails cascaded into WFLA News Channel 8 on Saturday afternoon and night over the airing of "Silencing Christians," a religious paid program that some say contained open hate speech against gays and lesbians.

Before the hourlong program ended at 8 p.m., the station had logged hundreds of telephone calls and more than 1,000 e-mails, all protesting the broadcast.

Stratton Pollitzer, deputy director of Equality Florida, has seen the program and said the message was clearly hate speech.

"I think this program is a piece of homophobic propaganda and it has no place on a major network like NBC," he said just after 7 p.m., as the program was airing.

According to the article, other affiliates refused to air it. I`m going to see if I can find out which ones.

"Silencing the Christians" was created by an outfit called the American Family Association, in partnership with the Inspiration Network (remember Jim Bakker and the PTL Club?). The AFA has a whole host of different projects, from promoting 'Tea Parties' to debunking global warming, but their main focus seems to be selling overpriced DVDs. In addition to the one-hour TV special, you can also buy 'Speechless' as a full set of 14, 22-minute DVDs dealing with everything from the forced reading of the Koran in public schools to the persecution to the persecution of Canadian Christians under our dreaded "hate crimes tribunal" ("America could be next!!").

Suggested donation for this inspirational series: $150.00

Even the faithful are having trouble swallowing that.

UPDATE: Whoops! Time to turn off the anonymous comments again - the nutters have found me. I've already had to delete one from some charming bloke calling me a whore and expressing his desire for someone to shoot me in the face. Niiice.

The Ugly Face of Patriotism

What kind of person walks into an elementary school classroom, sits down on a little kiddie chair at a little kiddie table, and tells his child's school principal that if he thought he could get away with it he would happily drag him out to the parking lot by his shirt collar and "beat him senseless"?

Apparently, such people are called "Patriots".

I actually felt physically ill after watching this piece on The National (h/t to Impolitical, Alison and others), in which Erik Millett explains what he did and did not do in regards to the playing of 'O Canada' in his school, and describes the phone calls, the emails and the death threats he's received since this story became a Conservative cause célèbre.

He hadn't been back inside the school in over a week. He's not sure he'll ever teach again.

The woman who first raised the hue and cry is also interviewed in this piece, and shows us exactly where she's coming from:

"First we lost saying the Lord's Prayer in school, then the Pledge of Allegiance, and now the singing of O Canada..."

Yes, Mrs. Boyd, we really have lost something essential here. What we have lost is the ability of too many of our citizens to distinguish between our country's traditions and institutions and those of the United States.

What we are struggling to keep is the culture and tradition of fairness, inclusiveness and accommodation that makes this country unique among nations. A tradition that predates Pearson and Trudeau and any modern notion of 'political correctness' by centuries. A tradition born out of our earliest efforts to live with and among the First People of this land, then out of our unique partnership of French and English, Protestant and Catholic in a single nation, and later out of our inclusion of other newcomers representing cultures, languages and faiths from every corner of the globe.

All these are woven into the fabric of our nation, each thread intact. This is our great strength. This is Canada. It always has been. Where have you been living, Mrs. Boyd?

The Angry, Angry Right

One of the most fascinating things about working on Garth Turner's campaign is that many of the people involved - including Garth himself - worked on the Conservative campaign last time. Some had been Progressive Conservatives for years. A few had witnessed and even participated in the amalgamation of the PCs and the Alliance.

It makes for some harrowing war stories. Maybe some day I'll be able to share some of them with you, or convince them to do so once all this is over.

For now, I wanted to share what one person told me about the difference in mood between the two campaigns. The Conservatives, she said, were always angry. Angry at their opponents, but also angry at each other. Like a couple getting back together for the sake of the kids (or in this case, the seats), they put on a brave face and suppressed their true feelings, but the resentment simmered stewed and occasionally erupted.

It was a mood that pervaded everything, and it emanated from on high.

Liberals, she said with some surprise, aren't angry. They're determined. They're occasionally rude, and sometimes over-zealous. But angry? No. And nobody in this campaign ever called her from party HQ to bully or upbraid her or try to make her do something she didn't feel right about.

She sounded to me like someone who had left an abusive relationship and finally found a place and a family that made her feel safe.

I thought about that conversation yesterday while reading about the latest incidents of vandalism against Liberal supporters in Toronto, nearly identical to earlier incidents in Guelph during their truncated by-election. Because while I am quite sure that such actions were neither sanctioned nor condoned by the Conservative Party or their candidates, or by anyone associated with their campaigns, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to believe that whoever did this was, at least in their own minds, acting on their behalf.

People talk about the climate of fear that exists within the Conservative Party these days, but not much is said about the climate of anger. The fear infects those within the party and the government, but the anger has a wider reach and is far, far more dangerous. It oozes from the memos of political operatives and spews forth from the blogs and the comments on every news website in the country. Spot an angry voter and you've found a Harper Conservative.

And the best part is, nobody within the party need be held responsible for what these angry, angry people might do.

Some would argue that Liberals are angry too, and it's true that we can get pretty worked up, even angry, on the subject of Stephen Harper and what he's doing and wants to do to this country. So I might have been willing to believe that my perception of the more extreme, pervasive anger of Harper's loyal followers was just my own biased view.

But then I spoke to some of those former Conservatives and realized that no, it's not just me. And I have never, ever heard of anyone with a Conservative sign on their lawn having their brake lines cut.

____________________

ADDENDUM: Lo and behold, campaign manager Esther Shaye posted the following comment over on Garth's blog last night:

I liken election campaigns to white water rafting. Things appear calm, then bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Then calm again. Basically, you need to be ready for anything. The other day I met a man at an event. His name is Sammy. I liked him instantly. He’s a quiet man, Sammy is. Humble in fact. But with the heart of a lion He works in a convenience store in Hamilton. He told me he was over at the La Rose parking down on Bronte Street in Milton. He saw a van all taped up with Lisa’s signs. So he came to see me and said “They next time I pull into that parking lot, the people will know …… Garth Turner will be on the side of my van.” Sammy and I laughed. “You are a brave man!” I joked. The smile on Sammy’s face turned serious. I come from Pakistan he told me, via Vancouver. I know about life. I know about fear. I know about freedom. So Sammy and I went back into the campaign office and found us a roll of packing tape. We turned his unassuming vehicle into a Garth mobile. Arterials on the sides, lawn sign on the back, literature in the window. “I work in Hamilton” Sammy said. And as his chest puffed out in pride, he told me “Everyone will know from Halton to Hamilton, who I’m voting for!

That was yesterday.

Today I learned from a third party that Sammy’s van has been vandalized. Spray painted over the Garth Turner arterials with obscenities. This third party has also informed me that Sammy will not be moved. His van continues to wear those arterials, obscenities and all, a symbol of Sammy’s defiance.

Sammy will not be moved.

My heart is full.

By Esther Shaye on 10.05.08 11:47 pm

I met Sammy when he came in that day. Lovely man. He said he was "welcomed into Canada" when Trudeau was Prime Minister. I wonder how welcome he feels now.

Cruel Times

Creative Revolution has a remarkable post about... well, it's about a lot of things that I've been thinking about recently. Peripherally, it's about the recent shooting rampage at that Unitarian Church in Tennessee that was apparently inspired by the venom spewed daily on the American airwaves by right-wing vipers like O'Reilly, Hannity and Savage.

More fundamentally, it's about hate, and fear, and cruelty, and it wonders aloud who might stand to gain from us tearing each other to pieces.

Crime and the police state = private prison Industrial complex? Occupation and the Military Industrial complex, and never ending, no bid-corporate wars. Hating your neighbour, divide and conquer....Someone is making money off all this hatred. Someone, is cashing in on all this festering, obnoxious, divisiveness.

Its all just show-business though. It's just a joke?..No one would ever act on any of this hateful rhetoric? Perhaps not in a vacuum, but as I have outlined, there are many, many things happening here all at once.

It's upsetting. It's complicated. Go read it.