MARTIN'S TBN WATCH
by Martin Wagner, your smilin' new A.E. host

Hello again, everybody. Let me begin by announcing that, for at least a little while, it looks like I'm going to have to take a break from TBN Watch. I began the column about a year ago when my free time was much more fluid, and I did it for my own amusement as well as to add what I saw as some much needed humor to net atheism, which can so often be dominated by angry debates with boneheaded creationists or freaked-out people who think church state separation means "throw all the Christians in jail!" Also, it just didn't seem like anyone was giving TBN the royal razzing it deserved, dangit!

Now that I have regular work (huzzah!), a short film project coming up, and have taken over as full host of The Atheist Experience...well, it's a little too much on my plate. I didn't get my intended November article finished, and of course haven't had time to even think about a December article.

BUT IT'S NOT REALLY GOODBYE....

I'm sure that, on an on-again, off-again basis, I'll post a new TBN Watch article when a) the mood hits me and b) I have the time, and especially c) they do something so egregious I can't let it slide (like make another bullshit movie). So there will be new TBN Watches through 2002. When I do post a new one, I'll make an announcement on alt.atheism. Fair enough?

I want to express my appreciation for the thousands of readers who have been enjoying the site, as well as all of those folks--both atheist and Christian--who wrote in with their comments and information (and occasionally, humor of their own; see below). Believe it or not I only ever got one heckler. Many Christians wrote to assure me that they saw right through TBN's preposterous act for the money-grubbing racket that the network really is. I thank all of my readers from the bottom of my black little heart and I'm sorry I wasn't able to keep up the site with strict regularity. It will still be around! Just lying in wait to pounce at the right moment....

Let me sign off with this little note, for old time's sake: In the wake of the 9-11 atrocities, TBN has attempted to join the legions of folks rebuking Jerry Falwell for his jaw-dropping remarks on Pat Robertson's The 700 Club, in which Falwell, giving the phrase "fat contemptible bastard" a whole new lease on life, blamed the terrorist attacks on gays, lesbians, the ACLU, "abortionists" and pretty much anyone who isn't as fundamentalist as he is. In the November TBN Newsletter, Paul Crouch states "Even some Christians were pointing fingers at the gays, abortionists, pornographers, adulterers, on and on, ad nauseum....by blaming specific sinners, or groups of sinners, we only drive them away in anger, even further from the grace of God that we seek to reach them with."

But then Paul goes right on to give essentially the same explanation Falwell gave for the attacks: God allowed the terror atrocities to happen because He's mad at America for not being fundamentalist enough. But where Falwell blamed everyone he hates, Crouch blames the church itself for not getting out there and doing a good enough job of spreading the gopel. "If the Church," writes Paul, "the true body of Christ, had been ablaze in revival fires, we would not have seen the horror of the World Trade Center fires! 'Pretty drastic charge, Paul!' Yes, but I will be first to say I am partly to blame; but so is much of the rest of the body of Christ."

Setting aside the staggering degree of political ignorance behind these remarks, Paul doesn't seem to be aware of just what a grim portrait of his God he is painting. It's like this: don't worship God to His satisfaction, and He'll announce His displeasure by blowing up 6000 people, thus starting a war in Afghanistan that will likely take thousands more lives. Give God what He wants, or "the sorrows and pain of this world will increase. There will be more terrorist attacks. Just as our film Megiddo portrays, the horrors and terror coming will make the recent attacks look like a Sunday school picnic!"

So God is a terrorist.

Thank you for that message of inspiration, Paul. I'm sure we'll hear it repeated loudly and often...during TBN's next pledge drive. [Side note: for a much more sensible assessment in the wake of September 11th, click here.]

THANKS AGAIN, FOLKS

And if you're in Austin, remember to tune in to The Atheist Experience Sunday afternoons at 4:30-6:00, on TimeWarner Cable channel 10.

Go without gods,

Martin Wagner
© 2001
martinwagner66@excite.com

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