Coming this November from PBS’ “Nova” series is a “documentary” suggesting the following:
- Abraham and Sara, the patriarchal couple of Judaism and Christianity, didn’t really exist.
- The Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt never really happened.
- The Hebrew Tanach, what Christians call the Old Testament, was mostly written just six centuries before the time of Jesus.
Now keep in mind who is funding this program and the network that will air it – you, the American taxpayer.
It would be insulting enough to Christians and Jews in America if a private corporation were producing this kind of attack on the foundation of the two faiths. But this is an assault made possible by government – the same government, by the way, that is flirting with reinstituting the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” to limit free expression by private broadcasters.
I don’t know about you, but this makes me angry.
As someone who believes the Bible is the literal Word of God, I don’t appreciate my wealth being forcibly confiscated by the government so that my most deeply held religious beliefs can be mocked by a group of know-nothing filmmakers.
What do I mean by know-nothings? Try this on for size.
“I was always brought up to believe that the minute Abraham and the patriarchs came on the scene, the Israelites accepted one God and there was just always one God and that was it,” says producer Paula Apsell. She says she was shocked to learn monotheism was a process that took hundreds of years. “I think people are really going to be stunned that.”
Stunned?
Has she ever simply read the Bible?
First of all, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the fathers of the Israelites. There weren’t any Israelites until they sired them. Further, the Bible is rife with stories of how the Israelites rejected monotheism – again and again. It is the quintessential story of the Bible, showing how the Hebrews were blessed by God when they were obedient and faithful and punished when they rejected His law. And, even further, the Bible makes clear there were practicing monotheists – people with faith in the One True God of the universe – before Abraham and others during his lifetime.
Abraham didn’t invent monotheism. Nor does the Bible ever remotely suggest it was embraced immediately and entirely by the children of Israel. In fact, it clearly and emphatically states just the opposite.
Perhaps the producers of this documentary have a beef with their own pitiful education rather than the Bible.
But, back to my main point: I don’t care what Paula Apsell and the “Nova” team believe about God and the Bible. They are free to believe whatever they want. They are even free to make idiotic documentaries based on their ignorant beliefs and misconceptions. What I object to is the fact that the federal government – and some state governments as well – take my money and your money and fund this garbage.
That is an outrage.
It is, in fact, just the kind of thing the Founding Father had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment prohibiting the establishment of a state religion.
That is precisely what is happening when the U.S. government funds propaganda promoting what has become, de facto, the official state church in America – secular humanism.
It’s more than an outrage. It is unconstitutional and un-American. Read More..
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