# PBS To Ban Religious Shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232 "2009-06-18T23:32:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/21 "2009-06-19T18:50:14Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Yeah, having filters on your channel guide would be awesome. Assuming you’re not being sarcastic (as in, they’re there if you just knew how to use it)…gonzomax should get Tivo. They let you check “favorite” channels, and you can set your guide to only show those. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/22 "2009-06-19T18:57:26Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Assuming you’re not being sarcastic (as in, they’re there if you just knew how to use it)…gonzomax should get Tivo. They let you check “favorite” channels, and you can set your guide to only show those. I don’t know how to set it on Time Warner cable then. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/23 "2009-06-19T19:06:11Z")
> [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](#): > > I think the best argument against the ban, or for the current compromise, is to consider rural areas. PBS stations aren’t fully federally funded. They get some amount of federal funding, probably some state, and some local non-profit funding. Wikipedia says state + federal funding is less than 50%. If they were fully funded by government, there would be a logical argument against religious programming (separation of church and state). If they were completely local non-profits, they would be free to have whatever religious programs they wanted. > … It doesn’t matter if it’s only partly funded by the government. There should be no federal funds subsidizing any church. Separation of church and state comes into play here, too. Very few PBS stations air church services, but there is other religious programming. Some stations run programs about religion and ethics. PBS has run shows about the history of the “early Christians.” They ran a documentary about a city school board that lost its court battle to defend Intelligent Design in science classes. There was also a mini-series on the history of the Inquisition. All those shows, like it or not, push one religious view over the rest. The woo-woo spirituality specials are mostly shown during pledge drives, and they’re effective for that. However, they are religion, and no government money should support a station that runs them. Some stations run weekly shows on yoga and meditation. Though they may not be overtly religious, their detractors will insist they are religious. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/24 "2009-06-19T19:11:35Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I don’t know how to set it on Time Warner cable then. Nearly every system has a channel-blocking feature parents can use to keep the kids from watching something inappropriate. You can use the same feature to block the religious channels, the shopping channels, or whatever you don’t want to see. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/25 "2009-06-19T20:15:55Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Or _Sesame Street_! (Mister Rogers started out locally, actually, so I might have been able to catch him.) I didn’t have cable growing up, until I was about 11. > > I would imagine that performances of religious music pieces like say, Bach, or Handel, or Schubert, would be an acception? Or perhaps an exception. I only mention it because it has been long since Gaudere smited me, and I find myself, oddly enough, missing her savage caress. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/26 "2009-06-19T20:23:10Z")
Re-quoting these parts of my previous post, because I think what \*\*AskNott \*\*quoted ignored some important parts of what I said. > [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](#): > > However, what we have is this hybrid, part government, part non-profit, **providing a good that is in some sense unitary**. … Perhaps there should be some standard by which **government money is not used to fund any of the variable costs associated with religious programming**. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/27 "2009-06-19T20:54:54Z")
I have DIsh Network and you can certainly set up your channel guide so it only displays the channels you want to see. It’s called “favorites” and we use it at my house so we don’t see all the PPV channels in the lineup. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/28 "2009-06-19T21:06:43Z")
> [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](#): > > … However, what we have is this hybrid, part government, part non-profit, providing a good that is in some sense unitary. In a major urban area, channels will proliferate and there probably isn’t a need for PBS to broadcast Catholic mass to shut-ins. In a rural area, though, PBS is in control of the public sector airwaves, although it doesn’t pay all the bills. A compromise that respects the local nonprofit aspect of the public television station to serve the community need by broadcasting a religious show may be reasonable. Perhaps there should be some standard by which government money is not used to fund any of the variable costs associated with religious programming. > > All in all, though, I think the media landscape has changed so much since public television was designed that we’d be better off scrapping the current system and figuring out exactly where public intervention is needed. Maybe we go to around-the-clock low-impact aerobics. The government-funded part of Public Television’s budget has been whittled back, a little at a time. Every station I know of is scratching and pleading to pay the bills. Even the corporate and foundation underwriting is strained, because of the recession. I love PBS, and I support two local stations every year. If I could be comfortable with bending the First Amendment to allow federal funding of religion on PBS, I’d back it all the way. I can’t. **Harriet the Spry,** if you can come up with a compromise that can somehow slice a station’s budget between non-religious (which can be federally funded) and religious programming (which can’t,) I’m all ears. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/29 "2009-06-19T21:08:11Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > Nearly every system has a channel-blocking feature parents can use to keep the kids from watching something inappropriate. You can use the same feature to block the religious channels, the shopping channels, or whatever you don’t want to see. Does it remove them from the list or just show them with an icon saying they are locked? Also, I am talking more about an usability filter not a lock. Like if I wanted to watch a particular program I could go to that channel, but something that just eliminated channels from the guide for easier browsing. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/30 "2009-06-19T21:17:14Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Or perhaps an exception. I only mention it because it has been long since Gaudere smited me, and I find myself, oddly enough, missing her savage caress. “It’s Hooper!!! HOOPER!!!” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/31 "2009-06-19T21:55:54Z")
Meh, I just go through the channel list on my TV and _DELETE_ any channels I don’t like, religious crap? gone, shopping channels, gone, once they’ve been deleted from the TV’s channel memory, they don’t show up when flipping channels… Besides, if I deleted every channel I didn’t watch, I’d have maybe six channels, the local Fox affiliate (for Sunday evening animation) the Discovery channel channels, Sci-Fi, Comedy Central, Spike, and BBC America ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/32 "2009-06-19T22:01:50Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I don’t know how to set it on Time Warner cable then. Call them and ask them how. They’ll be glad to tell you. [QUOTE=crazyjoe] I have DIsh Network and you can certainly set up your channel guide so it only displays the channels you want to see. It’s called “favorites” and we use it at my house so we don’t see all the PPV channels in the lineup. [/QUOTE] Which is a metric buttload! I was sure glad when I figured out how to program the clicker. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/33 "2009-06-19T22:26:25Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > Meh, I just go through the channel list on my TV and _DELETE_ any channels I don’t like, religious crap? gone, shopping channels, gone, once they’ve been deleted from the TV’s channel memory, they don’t show up when flipping channels… > > Besides, if I deleted every channel I didn’t watch, I’d have maybe six channels, the local Fox affiliate (for Sunday evening animation) the Discovery channel channels, Sci-Fi, Comedy Central, Spike, and BBC America My channel selector let’s you set up several different schemes. You can click through only movie channels. Or only sports or kids shows–whatever! My regular _schema_ includes most channels–minus sports, kids & religion. Guess some of us just have more sophisticated video setups–and here I’d thought I was way behind the times. Or maybe we’re just smart! ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/34 "2009-06-20T01:17:21Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Grackles? Is there some evolutionary aspect to grackles that would make them offensive? Grackles are offensive, period. They have no redeeming features. PBS reaches audiences that don’t have cable. When my daughter was growing up, she enjoyed the various PBS shows that were aimed at kids, and they helped her learn things. For that matter, PBS will show things that won’t make it on commercial TV, but are still worthwhile. I used to donate regularly to the local PBS station here, until they called us, and wouldn’t take us off the calling list. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/35 "2009-06-20T01:53:26Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > “It’s Hooper!!! HOOPER!!!” > > :smack: 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/36 "2009-06-20T02:25:12Z")
Schools can teach religious history and literature. There is no reason that PBS cannot present programs doing the same. That is different from perpetuating a religious point of view. And just because someone believes that yoga is a religion doesn’t make it so. Nor is meditation affiliated with any one religion. I could believe that Catholics worship statues, but that wouldn’t make it true. Sorry, I disagree with you on this one, **Ask Nott** , even though I do object to religious programming. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/37 "2009-06-20T02:49:09Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > Very few PBS stations air church services, but there is other religious programming. Some stations run programs about religion and ethics. PBS has run shows about the history of the “early Christians.” They ran a documentary about a city school board that lost its court battle to defend Intelligent Design in science classes. There was also a mini-series on the history of the Inquisition. All those shows, like it or not, push one religious view over the rest. How do they do that? You can, for instance, talk about early Christianity without making claims about the truth value of early Christianity, or have a news story about a religious issue while being neutral about it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/38 "2009-06-20T03:13:33Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > 😕 She’s riffing on the constant inability of Big Bird to greet Mr. Hooper by his real name. He continued correcting Big Bird until the day he died (evidently, he couldn’t just let it go). **Guin** is tying the “correcting someone’s error” theme with the “Sesame Street is on PBS” theme. Got any other weak jokes you’d like for me to analyze into a mushy gray unfunny goo? I mean as long as I’m here… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/39 "2009-06-20T03:55:52Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > How do they do that? You can, for instance, talk about early Christianity without making claims about the truth value of early Christianity, or have a news story about a religious issue while being neutral about it. It’s really, really easy. Just use the term “Christians believe” in front of everything controversial, and be sure to provide alternate explanations. The only real way not to take sides on an issue is to present multiple points of view. ETA: So, in other words, do it the way Wikipedia tries to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232/40 "2009-06-20T04:15:30Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It’s really, really easy. Just use the term “Christians believe” in front of everything controversial, and be sure to provide alternate explanations. The only real way not to take sides on an issue is to present multiple points of view. Right…that’s sort of my point. **AskNott** was claiming that by running shows on the early Christians and the Inquisition, PBS was pushing one religious view over another. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pbs-to-ban-religious-shows/500232.md?page=3)