Tuesday, June 12, 2007

what the hell?

PBS is going to show a Christian Right-produced anti-wall-of-separation movie? From Talk2Action:
"The Wall of Separation" is a production of Boulevard Pictures, a California outfit that describes itself as "a motion picture production company committed to bringing moviegoers high-quality stories from the world's most innovative filmmakers--films that bring hope, inspire us to the good, and that show us what the human spirit can attain."

But there seems to be more there than meets the eye.

Promotional material for the program at the Boulevard Web site suggests that it promotes a radically revisionist view of church and state.

"The Wall of Separation is a metaphor deeply embedded in the American consciousness," the company observes. "Most of us take for granted the idea that politics and religion should not be intermixed because of the heritage of The First Amendment in our understanding of freedom of religion. The No Establishment Clause has protected us from the entanglement of religion with government, and the Free Exercise Clause has secured the right for all faiths to engage in their religious practices without interference from the state. America is a religiously pluralistic culture guided by a secular government."

That sounds pretty good. But then the Boulevard promo takes a troubling turn.

"...[W]hat would surprise most Americans," it asserts, "is the discovery that this is not what the Founding Fathers of our country intended when they established our nation and wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They in fact had a radically different definition of establishment and the role of religion in state and federal governments than we do today. So radical, in fact, that some say the modern understanding of the role of religion in the public square is exactly the opposite of what the Founders intended."

Anyone know if our local affiliate is airing this? Judging from their website, it appears not, but confirmation would be nice.

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