October 17, 2007

Can Right Wing Operatives Gain Just a Touch of Perspective?

Here is the latest push from the Liberty Counsel, the right-wing legal activist organization spawned by the late Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. From One News Now, the reporting arm of the American Family Association:


A Christian legal organization has launched a petition drive asking Radio Disney to stop censoring the word "God" from advertising promoting the new movie, The Ten Commandments.


Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver says he recently received a copy of an email from a Radio Disney advertising executive that instructed that the phrase "chosen by God" be omitted from ads playing on the network. The animated movie by Promenade Pictures opens this Friday in theaters nationwide.


During the previews to the movie, Staver appears in a three-minute video promoting the film, talking about the importance of the Ten Commandments to the modern legal system. He says it is shocking that Radio Disney would censor the word "God" from ads promoting the movie.


"This movie is an epic. It is obviously part and parcel that God is part of this movie, that God chose Moses to lead His people out of bondage and gave him the Ten Commandments that have profoundly influenced our notions of right and wrong," the attorney states. "Yet to censor God from the Ten Commandments is actually just unbelievable. So we are asking people around the country to make their voice known."


Staver encourages people to sign the online petition, found on the Liberty Counsel website, and to call Radio Disney to protest the policy. He says his organization plans to flood Radio Disney's email with the petitions and that the quicker people sign the petitions, the quicker they will be sent.


Are you kidding me? I will grant that it does seem odd to promote a movie about the Ten Commandments without using God, if that is indeed the case. Fair enough.


It sickens me, however, that whenever the religious right has their very sensitive senibilities offended, their tender feathers ruffled, they have to become a nuisance to whoever they deem to be the offending party. The AFA is also famous for doing this, and have already sent out e-mails about "defending Christmas."


Is God truly diminished by His name being omitted from the advertising of a movie about, well, Him? Is he that easily offended? I doubt it, but apparently there are plenty of people willing to take offense in His name and defend His honor.


I just wish they could take all of that energy and put it toward something constructive like collecting coats for the homeless with the cold weather coming up soon, or working to expand health care for children in this nation instead of fighting to restrict it.


You know, the kind of work Jesus would be doing if he walked the earth right now.

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