Stop the Charges: No Double Standard in ‘Church’ Stance

The mail is coming in about my column endorsing KCET’s recent presentation of the controversial film “Stop the Church,” and nearly all of it is critical and angry.

Most writers accuse me of being both a fence-sitter and biased against Catholicism. Some note that I’m Jewish.

As a rule, I don’t respond in print to reader criticism because I believe the media should not automatically have the last word. We have enough access already. However, there is one charge being made--or at least a rhetorical question that is being asked in connection with this issue--that demands response.

Some readers have wondered if I’d be as “open-minded” about airing “Stop the Church” if it had showed members of the militant AIDS activist group ACT UP disrupting a Jewish service--and attacking the Torah--instead of wrathfully targeting the Catholic Church and some of its tenets relating to homosexuality and AIDS.

But let’s take it further. What if a film titled “Stop the Yids” uncritically showed a gang of neo-Nazis invading a Jewish temple, painting swastikas on the walls and shouting at the congregants?

What would Mr. High and Mighty Liberal say about that?

Exactly what he said about the actual “Stop the Church.” Films should be judged individually, but, all things being equal, air it!

Wouldn’t it be a primer for hate groups? One is not needed. Special-interest groups of all stripes already understand how to exploit TV’s lust for action and aggression--witness your basic nightly newscast. And besides, the anti-Nazi message of “Stop the Yids” would literally bury its hate message.

In no way am I equating AIDS activists with Nazis, only making a point about charges of applying a double standard.

But, you respond, haven’t I recently blasted broadcasters for running infomercials for animated Bible videos that call Jews “enemies of Christ” and contain stereotypical images of them--with enormous noses and furtive expressions--and that I and others have labeled anti-Semitic? “Yes” to Catholic-bashing “Stop the Church,” but “no” to Jew-bashing “Animated Stories From the New Testament”? Isn’t this a double standard?

No. The two are significantly different.

Granted, “Stop the Church” is an unbalanced documentary that shrilly and stridently articulates, almost exclusively, the opinions of filmmaker Robert Hilferty and the AIDS activists it shows.

In doing so, however, it captures an event, a 1989 demonstration in New York against Cardinal John O’Connor’s opposition to condom distribution and safer-sex information in schools.

“Stop the Church” shows a Mass being disrupted, and the vitriolic drum roll leading up to this act. The film’s main value is the way it captures the frustrations that feed radicalism and militancy on the part of some AIDS activists.

Indeed, it’s skewed toward a single perspective. Yet don’t forget, at no time has any broadcaster applied a “truth” label to “Stop the Church.” Until being withdrawn by a fearful PBS, “Stop the Church” was scheduled to air on the network’s documentary series “P.O.V.” The initials stand for “Point of View.” What could be clearer than that?

Moreover, “Stop the Church” appeared on KCET not as a single entity but inside a larger program that fairly addressed questions raised by the film and whether it should have been aired.

Finally, merely running such a film does not indicate approval any more than running columns of opinion in a newspaper indicates that the paper endorses those opinions.

“Animated Stories From the New Testament,” on the other hand, is a Bible depiction targeted for Christian children. And in effect, because of the way their message is presented, the videos do indeed carry a “truth” label. And an endorsement from a Higher Authority.

Although it’s possible that at least half the TV audience for the jagged, raw “Stop the Church” was repelled by the tactics of ACT UP, the beautifully animated Bible videos surely have a universally enraptured audience.

And whereas “Stop the Church” attacks specific components of church policy that surveys tell us many Catholics themselves oppose, “Animated Stories From the New Testament,” whether intentionally or not, conveys a message to its young audience that Judiasm as a religion and Jews as a people are disgusting and unworthy.

Even “Stop the Church” slips in a few comments from Catholics condemning the actions of ACT UP. In the Bible videos, there is no dissent.

Thus, once again, yes to “Stop the Church,” no to “Animated Stories From the New Testament” in its present form.

MORE ON THE BIBLE VIDEOS: After meeting last week with Jewish leaders in Los Angeles and New York, officials of the Family Entertainment Network were sounding more conciliatory than ever about those depictions of Jews in their Bible series.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said that after the group toured the Holocaust center here, he was told by Family Entertainment Network president and co-owner Donald Sills: “What I’ve learned today, I should have learned a long time ago.”

Hier said that Family Entertainment officials expressed willingness to make audio changes in the series and “send a letter (of clarification) to the 400,000 people who have purchased the tapes.” However, Hier added that if negative visual stereotypes are not also omitted, “We will not sign off on this issue, and we will protest very vigorously.”

Meanwhile, a California clergyman listed as an adviser in a sales brochure for the videos said that he is washing his hands of the series.

“I am asking that my name and endorsement of the present productions of the Family Entertainment Network be discontinued,” the Rev. Michael Manning of Riverside said in a letter to the Dallas firm.

“In no way do I think that people at the network had a conscious intention of belittling and offending present-day Jews,” Manning said. But he added: “My inability to detect the offensive characterizations ashamedly speaks of my insensitivity to the fears and concerns of many Jews.”