OK Stepanov Vesna American Studies MA, 1st year Religion&Politics Course, dr Tom Grunfeld

The Christian Right - the Anti-Gay Hate Speech in the Media

The American Electronic Church started in the 1960s when religious broadcasters were allowed to buy airing time from local TV or radio stations and broadcast information that would be in the public interest. The highest bidders would get the longest programmes and so Evangelical Christians took control of religious broadcasting in the mid-1970s. The Reagan administration loosened broadcasting regulations to the point when buying TV stations was extremely easy so televangelists started raising donations from their viewers in order to expand their media networks and control the religious media market. Early televangelists were Billy Graham, Rex Humbard and Oral Roberts. Pat Robertson and Jim Bakker spread the faith via TV talk shows during the 1970s, the time of greatest Evangelical influence in American politics, fueling the Christian Right. Several sexual and financial scandals involving prominent televangelist brought a decline in audience numbers during the late 1980s and weakened credibility of the Evangelical Church, but its ability to use modern broadcast media formats in order to carry out the gospel and influence political decisions differentiates it from other leading American churches.. There are around 1,600 Christian radio stations on the air in USA today, and another 250 Christian TV stations. According to their licence, they broadcast "in the public convenience, interest and necessity," and seem to be reaching a quite wide audience, considering that a 2004 poll showed that 55% of Americans said they believe the Bible is literally true, as the Evangelicals dogma preaches. All Evangelical programmes are directed towards spreading the Christian faith as the only true one, therefore discriminating against certain groups that did not match the prescription. Televangelists were members of the clergy who became later popular on TV in Christian shows and preached against womens rights, abortion, gay rights and other religions. We will now look into some of the situations when Evangelical ministers used the media to spred their homophobic speech in recent years. The 700 Club is a daily television program airing on CBN, the first Christian television station in USA. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuswen, Gordon Robertson, Kristi Watts and news anchor Lee Webb and is one of the most popular Christian TV shows, reaching 97% of tlevision markets in the US. Unfortunately, some of the editions featured aggressive hateful comments on homosexuals, who are considered to be sinners and need to be recuperated into Gods religion. For instance, the greatest controversy was stirrred during an interview with Jerry Falwell, the Senior Pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church. On September 13th 2001 Pat Robertson interviewed Falwell on the 700 Club, looking for an explanation for the tragic event of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York. Falwell responded in typical evangelical style, blaming the non-believers for all ill-doings but went to the extreme: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians, ... the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this [terrorist attack] happen." Instead of softening the accusations, Robertson responded: "Well, I totally concur..." On the next day Falwell briefly placed a clarification on his web site which negated his entire 700 Club statement. He no longer blamed God directly (and various liberal groups indirectly) for the attack. Falwell wrote: "I hold no one

other than the terrorists and the people and nations who have enabled and harbored them responsible for Tuesday's attacks on this nation." He later blamed the media for incompetent reporting; he said that they had reduced his thoughts to sound bites, took his discussion out of context, and distorted his position. On September 18th he issued another apology, saying: I do not know if the horrific events of September 11 are the judgment of God, but if they are, that judgment is on all of America - including me and all fellow sinners - and not on any particular group.[...] My statements were understandably called divisive by some, including those whom I mentioned by name in the interview. This grieves me, as I had no intention of being divisive." Another case: mega-church televangelist Joel Osteen was asked by a LGBT organization to apologize to gay and lesbian Americans for saying that they need help and comparing their love to drug addiction. The ignorant and offensive comments took place in an interview with reporter John King on CNNs Anderson Cooper 360. We call on Joel Osteen to immediately apologize for his insulting remarks about gay and lesbian people, said Truth Wins Outs Executive Director Wayne Besen. We are here to offer him help in kicking his addiction to cynically raising money off the backs of gay people. While there is nothing wrong with gay and lesbian Americans, there is something insidious about masking anti-gay prejudice under the cloak of religion. It doesnt stop here. Bill Gates is a "Sodomite King," said Rev. Fred Phelps, head of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church. Phelps made this comment during a telephone interview on The Mike Webb Show on the GAYBC Radio Network. Phelps is best known for picketing funerals of gay people. Citing scripture at numerous points throughout the conversation, Rev. Phelps pointed out on The Mike Webb Show that gays and lesbians were in the same class with other "beasts" like "dogs who eat their own vomit." The GAYBC Radio Network is the world's premier broadcasting service for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) communities. American evangelist Jimmy Swaggart threatened to kill gays when the subject turned to George Bush and the Federal Marriage Amendment: I'm trying to find the correct name for it... this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men... I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died. His comments were met with applause from his congregation. The programme has also been broadcast in all 50 states in the US although it is not known if any complaints had been made.According to a BBC report, The Jimmy Swaggart Hour is watched by up to two million families and donations raised amount to about US$150m a year. On Monday, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force criticised the evangelist and some of his colleagues."The Task Force calls upon the leaders of [the] simulcast - Dr. James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Tony Perkins (Family Research Council), Ted Haggard (National Association of Evangelicals), Richard Land (Director of the Religious Liberties and Ethics Division of the Southern Baptist Convention) - to immediately denounce anti-gay violence and specifically repudiate evangelist Jimmy Swaggart's statement," the NGLTF said in a press release. Televangelist John Hagee (who is in fact one of McCains allies called the McCains pulpit bullies) talked about the culture wars, alluding to homosexuals, in one of his broadcasted sermons: When we grew up closets were for clothes and not some strange things pleople were coming out of. He then reminded of the evangelicals demanding a constitutional ammendment that will allow only heterosexual marriage on federal level: That should never change and if it does, you can kiss this country goodbye. The same televangelist kalled Bush The Mesiah on the 700 club and blamed gays for Hurricane Katrina in an interview on MSNBC in 2008: I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin

that was offensive to God, and they are, were recipients of the judgement of God for that. The newspaper carried the story, in our local area, that was not carried nationally, that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other gay pride parades. So i believe that the judgement of God is a very real thing. Not surprisingly, the official position of the National Association of Evangelicals on homosexuality is anti-gay and based on the Bible: The partner for man was woman. Together they were to be one flesh, in the New Testament, the oneness of male and female in marriage pictures the relationship between Christ and His Church (Ephesians 5:22-33). Homosexual activity, like adulterous relationships, is clearly condemned in the Scriptures. We further call upon pastors and theologians, along with medical and sociological specialists within the Christian community to expand research on the factors which give rise to homosexuality and to develop therapy, pastoral care and congregational support leading to complete restoration. Complete restoration meaning curing oneself from homosexuality? According to televangelists, it is possible. Charlene Cothran, a former LGBT activist and journalist for the pro-gay magazine Venus, became famous after speaking about her becoming a born-again Christian and giving up her previuous homosexual identity. She was invited on the 700 Club to promote her way of choosing the right path. I quote from the interview: "When the Lord saved me, I knew everything would change. All of the ads, the editorials, the mission of the magazine had changed. We're going to be calling people out of homosexuality." Cothran then issued a press release after the airing of her interview: June is a month of celebration for the gay community all over the world. I am honored that BN has chosen this week to broadcast my story on The 700 Club! I pray that my testimony will fall on the ears and into the spirits of those struggling to leave the gay lifestyle. There IS a way out! [...] I pray that God will use my story of transformation to help set others free from the lies they've been told that there is no hope for change!" Even if the Evangelical Christian Right is losing ground in recent years and several US states have already legalised homosexual marriage, the issue is still an important one on the Evangelical agenda. Moreover, despite being considered a liberal politician, Obama chose an ultra-conservative pastor to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. Rick Warren is known to have endorsed Prop 8 in California (he even filmed commercials in support of it, reaching a wide audience) and has a clear anti-gay position, comparing homosexuality to incest and pedophilia. The question is whether the current administration will manage to find a solution for compromise that will appear reasonable for both parts (even if time-limited) or will it fuel still ongoing culture wars between the conservatives and rising marginalised groups. BIBLIOGRAPHY: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419101207/ http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3369 http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_fundamentalist_022708 http://steveyoungonpolitics.com/rick-warren-likens-gays-to-pizza/ http://www.truthwinsout.org/uncategorized/truth-wins-out-calls-on-televangelist-joel-osteento-apologize-for-comparing-homosexuality-to-drug-addiction-and-offering-%E2%80%98help %E2%80%99/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-CAcdta_8I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yionQDpwTlM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeMZ9QkU-AY http://isae.wheaton.edu/defining-evangelicalism/evangelicals-and-the-media/

http://rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline/2008/12/antigay-pastor-rick-warren-to-deliverobamas-inaugural-invocation.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDI7pt9KGs4 http://www.fridae.com/newsfeatures/2004/09/22/1304.televangelist-jimmy-swaggartthreatens-to-kill-gays