League should fight religious persecution,
not TV shows or jeans company
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights sent out
a press release protesting a clothing manufacturer's plan to display
a Christmas tree in a New York City park and decorate it with
condoms. The Catholic League says the condom tree is part of San Francisco-based
Levi Strauss' funding of programs that advocate promiscuity among
homosexuals. The press release apparently worked, because the
tree, part of the company's events to recognize World AIDS Day,
is being scrapped, according to Levi Strauss. Before the tree was canceled, I called Clarence Greibey, director
of communications at Levi Strauss. The jeans company has been involved with AIDS prevention since
1982 and has spent $20 million on programs to prevent the disease,
he said. World AIDS Day is Dec. 21, and Greibey said Levi Strauss will
sponsor forums in several cities around the world, including New
York City. Those forums are intended to educate young people about
the danger of AIDS. "The message will be, if they elect to be sexually active,
they risk contracting the AIDS virus," he said. Levi Strauss will donate $1 for every person who attends the
New York forum. The money will go to Life Beat, a nonprofit organization
that works to prevent AIDS. You might wonder what right the Catholic League has to attack
Levi Strauss in such a way, particularly a company trying to do
something decent about an epidemic threatening every person on
the globe? Is it plain ignorance, or is something more sinister
involved? The Catholic League is the same organization that brought down
"Nothing Sacred," a television show about a modern priest.
Most critics felt the show, starring Kevin Anderson, was a well-done
drama. It's true the priest character was a bit progressive, but
the Catholic League attacked the program as if it were the most
evil and heretical show ever seen on television. The Catholic League convinced sponsors to pull their advertising
from the show, and the network pulled the plug. What a tragedy,
because the show told the story of progressive religion, the kind
of faith that makes us feel obligated to feed and shelter the
poor and accept people with all their warts. When will another network ever take a risk on a progressive
religion show? It'll be a cold day in Satan's lair. The Catholic League's president, William Donohue, said he would
call a boycott of Levi Strauss if the "condom tree"
went up. "This proves that they are more than just bigots. They
are plain stupid: to do this at a time of the year when sales
are critical is irrational," Donohue writes in his release. The same day the Catholic League's press release arrived, I
also received a long letter from D. James Kennedy, a television
preacher in Coral Ridge, Fla., attacking CBS television for running
Howard Stern's program late Saturday nights. Kennedy asks his
viewers to sign a letter demanding that CBS pull Stern off the
air. Because Stern is abrasive, filthy and obsessed with sex, I
wouldn't watch or listen to his program even if he were the only
show in town. Stern says his show will feature strippers and strange
folks from all walks of life, so it might appeal to some. But
I bet a lot of other decent people won't watch. Even though I don't like Stern's show, I'm not about to tell
others not to watch it. There's a thin line between censorship
and freedom of speech, and the wrong side of that line is tyranny.
When fundamentalist preachers dictate what we watch on television,
we have all been attacked. "Nothing Sacred" aired no objectionable material.
It was about a priest who sometimes bent the rules. But the Catholic
League, blinded by a moral fog, decided the show would be a target
of their hate campaign. Kennedy says CBS has "made a bad call ... and has possibly
begun a pattern of bad calls." He's taking a stand, saying, in effect, "If we let this
one in, many more will follow." But that's not necessarily
true. If Stern is successful, more shows like his might follow.
But other networks may respond by offering more programming that
appeals to decent people. Letting fundamentalist preachers decide what is going to be
allowed into your family room is like trashing one of our most
treasured freedoms, the freedom of speech. Freedom of religion is also important, but its supporters can't
lie or misrepresent the facts. If they do, their reputations are
ruined. I'm not saying we shouldn't complain when our faith is attacked.
But action's like the Catholic League's have to be contained.
Boycotts that we should support are those that help religious
groups who are attacked repeatedly for their faith. Those kinds of fights -- not against jeans companies and television
shows -- would keep the Catholic League plenty busy for a good
long time.
Clark D. Morphew
Posted For December 5, 1998