Wow! Who saw Walking the Bible on PBS? Fundies can say, "Thanks, Karl!" >

[Stephanie]

Did you see that? The host just informed me that it didn't matter what different scientific theories were presented to explain the tale of the plagues in the Bible. That's all well and good, but the plagues were caused by God, he said.

The whole show is an effort to show the Bible is fact.

Example: In the Bible it says that the Israelites built their houses out of mud bricks. Guess what? People of that era REALLY DID build their houses out of mud bricks! The Bible is true!!

I think we can thank Karl Rove's plant at PBS for this, and look forward to more. PBS is now an evangelical station.

http://www.pbs.org/walkingthebible/

Episode Two
A COAT OF MANY COLORS: The Israelites in Egypt

Egypt. Land of the Pharoahs….and of the Bible. Bruce Feiler continues his journey through the greatest stories ever told, by retracing Joseph's path to Egypt after his brothers sell him into bondage. When Joseph interprets the Pharaoh's dreams, he rises from slave to the heights of power and even brings his brothers and father Jacob to live in Egypt.

Feiler takes us from the great temple of Karnak in Luxor, formerly ancient Thebes….to the pyramids and sphinx of Giza, and descends into the royal burial tombs in the Valley of the Kings. As he treks by camel, boat, horseback and even pyramid-climbing, he discovers how the ancient Egyptian culture and religion influenced the Israelites during their centuries-long stay in Egypt, especially in the importance placed on dreams and story-telling.

Feiler explores the ancient ruins of cities where the Israelites were said to toil under an oppressive pharaoh. Beginning at the shallow waters of the Nile, Feiler retraces the story of one of the Bible's greatest figures, Moses, and his eventual confrontation with Pharaoh to let his people go.

Did the Israelites build the pyramids? What could have caused the ten plagues? Was it really the Red Sea Moses crossed? As Feiler confronts these questions, on the very body of water that could have been where the waters were parted, he realizes that it isn't the location, or even the event that's important, but that it was experienced as an act of God.

[FreedomAngel82]

1. PBS stands for Public Broadcast Station

They already have the TBN network and a few other stations. Public funds are paid for by the citizen's and not every citizen is religious. *sigh* I don't mind a program or two but it's getting ridiculous (and I'm a Christian and even I'm getting tired of it).

[LostinVA]

2. Feiler's a bit of a 'phobe, too

I've enjoyed his other books very much, but quit reading "Walking the Bible" a few pages in, when he basically called gays sinners. Oi.

[Stephanie]

7. Is that right?

The program is very slippery. It presents itself as a historical documentary, but the evangelical agenda is front and center. Very scary stuff. I wonder how much it cost and who funded it.

[LostinVA]

8. That's the impression I got from the book

As I said, it was very disappointing, because I was a fan of his.

Per imdb, he was a co-producer, but that means nothing, of course....

[savemefromdumbya]

3. I still want to know why God created cockcroaches first before man

speaking of cockroaches, when is Karl baby going to be indicted?

[AntiCoup2K4]

4. God knew that eventually Satan would concieve Tom DeLay....

...and even the Devil's son needs a job. God wanted him to stay an exterminator though. :(

[savemefromdumbya]

5. when he comes out of prison he can go back to his old exterminator job?

[MagickMuffin]

6. I saw on my program guide

that they were airing this, and well I must admit it didn't seem like anything I would be interested in viewing.

However a few years ago the Independent Lens did a profile of Ram Dass, aka Richard Alpert. To me he has more insight to one's spirituality than most "bible thumpers", we see on TV, i.e. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, etc. etc. etc. And yet read below how the D/FW programmers at KERA feel about that....

In 1961, while at Harvard, Ram Dass' explorations of human consciousness led him, in collaboration with Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, and others, to pursue intensive research with psilocybin, LSD-25, and other psychedelic chemicals. Out of this research came two books:The Psychedelic Experience (co-authored by Leary and Metzner, and based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, published by University Books); and LSD (with Sidney Cohen and Lawrence Schiller, published by New American Library). Because of the controversial nature of this research, Ram Dass was dismissed from Harvard in 1963.

Ram Dass' interests include the support of psychedelic research, international development, environmental awareness and political action. He has written a number of spiritual books including Be Here Now, published in 1971 (over one million copies sold, 37th printing, Crown Publishers); The Only Dance There Is (Anchor/ Doubleday); Grist for the Mill (with Stephen Levine, Celestial Arts); Journey of Awakening (Bantam Books); Miracle of Love: Stories of Neem Karoli Baba (Hanuman Foundation); How Can I Help? (with Paul Gorman, Knopf); Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service (with Mirabai Bush, Bell Tower Press) and Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying (Riverhead Books). His latest book, One-Liners: A Mini-Manual for a Spiritual Life was published by Bell Tower Press in September, 2002. In September, 2004, Harmony will be publishing Ram Dass' next book, entitled Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita.

In 1996, Ram Dass began to develop plans for a talk radio program called “Here and Now with Ram Dass.” Seven pilot programs were aired in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, and Ram Dass planned to launch the show on a nationwide basis the following year. But in February 1997, he experienced a stroke which left him with expressive aphasia and partial paralysis. The after effects of the stroke have made it necessary for him to postpone plans for his radio program, but he has been able to resume his other teaching commitments and is using the experience to explore the spiritual dimensions of suffering and the nature of the aging process.

Ram Dass is a co-founder and advisory board member of the Seva Foundation, an international service organization. He works with the Social Venture Network, an organization of businesses seeking to bring social consciousness to business practices. He continues to teach about the nature of consciousness, and about service as a spiritual path.

It was suppose to air back in 2004, however it was not aired here in the D/FW area. I called and emailed to complain to the program director. Her original excuse was it was to long (90 minutes), yet they aired the Weather Underground program not once but twice (which was also 90 minutes long)!

I wrote her back to complain again, this time I was told because it was an election year they would not have the time to air it and she promised that they would get around to showing it and she promised me she would email me a notification. I'm still waiting.

Apparently here in D/FW, we have a very biased and conservative station, and programming nightmare. I think when I first approached the subject she should have just been honest and told me they were never going to air this episode.:grr: