Speechless: Silencing the Christians

Last updated
Speechless: Silencing the Christians
Speechless cover.jpg
Genre Christian documentary
Presented by Janet Parshall
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes14 (13 + 1 special)
Production
ProducerDan Scalf
EditorScott Zachry
Running time30 minutes (series)
60 minutes (special)
Production company American Family Association
Original release
Release2008 (2008)

Speechless: Silencing the Christians (also known as Silencing Christians) is a 2008 documentary series produced by the American Family Association (AFA) and hosted by commentator Janet Parshall; the 13-episode series was first carried by the Inspiration Network. The documentary series describes the AFA's opposition to what it claims to be "political correctness", and claims that various factors, such as separation of church and state, hate crime laws, the Fairness Doctrine, and the "gay agenda", are threatening the existence of Christianity (though the Fairness Doctrine had not been enforced for 21 years at the time of broadcast and has continued to not be enforced up to present day). The DVD release featured an exclusive fourteenth episode.

Contents

The series was also edited into the form of a one-hour special in 2009, causing controversy for an airing on a Tampa, Florida television station.

One-hour special

In 2009, the AFA released a one-hour special version of the program, which deals with their stance against what they call the "homosexual agenda", including interviews with ex-gay people. This special was produced mainly for commercial television stations under the purview of paid programming time, where the AFA purchases the airtime from the station in the same way as a regular infomercial broker would do. The special also served as a tie-in to the Donald Wildmon book of the same name, which was released in early 2009. [1] [2]

WFLA controversy

In the Tampa Bay television market, Media General's NBC affiliate WFLA-TV (channel 8) aired the special on June 27, 2009, on the same day that the annual St. Petersburg pride parade was held, on the weekend of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Prior to the telecast, the station was swamped with numerous phone calls and e-mails against the station showing the program. [3] After the program ended, the station logged hundreds of phone calls and over 1000 e-mails, all in protest against the show. General Manager Mike Pumo refused to elaborate on the decision, other than saying that the show's content did not "raise the red flag" during pre-screening. Stratton Pollitzer, deputy director of homosexual rights organization Equality Florida, considered the show hate speech, saying, "I think this program is a piece of homophobic propaganda and it has no place on a major network like NBC." [3] NBC is merely the station's affiliated network, and holds no role in endorsing or being able to determine the station's content outside of network programming.

Brian Winfield, Equality Florida's director of communications, said the special "paints the entire gay community as being anti-Christian and that's just not true. On a day when tens of thousands of Tampa residents and their friends gathered together to celebrate diversity and pride, WFLA chose to profit from screening a show that was dehumanizing to gay people." [4]

On July 15, 2009, reports ranging from about 70 to almost 100 protesters gathered outside of WFLA's studios to protest the airing of the special; the protesters carried red flags (in a reference to General Manager Pumo's remark), as well as signs that parodied the station's moniker, reading News Channel H8 (hate). John Schueler, a Media General executive responsible for WFLA, wrote in a prepared statement: "Our overriding mission is to provide platforms for the broadest points of view and be responsible to the community we serve. We understand that doing so can cause strong disagreement. We screened this program and ran a disclaimer before and after it ran noting that this does not reflect the views of WFLA." [5] [6] City of Tampa councilman John Dingfelder asked WFLA to apologize for carrying the program, saying that "This community wouldn't accept a racist infomercial, it wouldn't accept an anti-Semitic infomercial and we shouldn't accept a homophobic infomercial." [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) people frequently experience violence directed toward their sexuality, gender identity, or gender expression. This violence may be enacted by the state, as in laws prescribing punishment for homosexual acts, or by individuals. It may be psychological or physical and motivated by biphobia, gayphobia, homophobia, lesbophobia, aphobia, and transphobia. Influencing factors may be cultural, religious, or political mores and biases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westboro Baptist Church</span> American primitive baptist church and hate group

The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, that was founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps. It is widely considered a hate group, and is known for its public protests against gay people and for its usage of the phrases "God hates fags" and "Thank God for dead soldiers". It also engages in hate speech against atheists, Jews, Muslims, transgender people, and other Christian denominations. The WBC's theology and practices are widely condemned by other Christian churches, including the Baptist World Alliance and the Southern Baptist Convention, and by politicians and public figures, including former U.S. President Barack Obama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Family Association</span> American nonprofit organization promoting fundamentalist Christian values

The American Family Association (AFA) is a conservative and Christian fundamentalist 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States. It opposes LGBT rights and expression, pornography, and abortion. It also takes a position on a variety of other public policy goals. It was founded in 1977 by Donald Wildmon as the National Federation for Decency and is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WTTA</span> The CW-owned station in St. Petersburg, Florida

WTTA is a television station licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, serving as the Tampa Bay area's local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by The CW's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, alongside Tampa-licensed NBC affiliate WFLA-TV and Sarasota-based low-power MyNetworkTV affiliate WSNN-LD. WTTA and WFLA-TV share studios on South Parker Street in downtown Tampa; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WFLA-TV's spectrum from a transmitter in Riverview, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WFLA (AM)</span> Radio station in Tampa, Florida

WFLA is a commercial AM radio station in Tampa, Florida, and serving the Tampa Bay media market. The station airs a news/talk format and is owned and operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. The station's studios and offices are located on Gandy Boulevard in South Tampa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional Values Coalition</span> American conservative Christian organization

The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) was an American conservative Christian organization. It was founded in 1980 at Anaheim California by Rev. Louis P. Sheldon to oppose LGBT rights. Sheldon's daughter, Andrea Sheldon Lafferty, was initially the executive director and presently serves as president. TVC was influential in the 1980s and 1990s in lobbying for government policy based in Christian fundamentalism.

Donald Ellis Wildmon was an American ordained United Methodist minister, author, radio host, and founder and chairman of the American Family Association and American Family Radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WFLA-TV</span> NBC affiliate in Tampa, Florida

WFLA-TV is a television station licensed to Tampa, Florida, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Tampa Bay area. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside St. Petersburg–licensed CW owned-and-operated station WTTA and Sarasota-based low-power MyNetworkTV affiliate WSNN-LD. WFLA-TV and WTTA share studios on South Parker Street in downtown Tampa; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WFLA-TV's spectrum from a transmitter in Riverview, Florida.

"Gay agenda" or "homosexual agenda" is a pejorative term used by sectors of the Christian religious right as a disparaging way to describe the advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual sexual orientations and relationships. The term originated among social conservatives in the United States and has been adopted in nations with active anti-LGBT movements such as Hungary and Uganda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chick tract</span> Series of gospel tracts

Chick tracts are short evangelical gospel tracts in a comic book format, originally created by American cartoonist Jack Chick in the 1960s. His company Chick Publications has continued to print Chick's work, as well as tracts in a similar style by other writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Television Network</span> American Christian television network

Christian Television Network, Inc. (CTN) is an American non-profit broadcast television network of small owned-and-operated stations (O&O) that broadcasts religious programming. It is based in Largo, Florida, and the flagship station is WCLF channel 22, which signed on the air in the Tampa Bay region in 1979. It is now available on DirecTV channel 376, Dish Network channel 262, and Glorystar channel 117. The channel was started to produce and broadcast programming to teach and encourage Christian living. It was founded by Robert D'Andrea, who died in January 2022.

WXPX-TV is a television station licensed to Bradenton, Florida, United States, serving as the Tampa Bay area's Ion Television outlet. It is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Tampa-licensed ABC affiliate WFTS-TV. WXPX-TV's studios are located on 66th Street North in Clearwater, and its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WSUN-TV</span> Television station in Florida, United States

WSUN-TV, UHF analog channel 38, was a television station located in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. Operating from 1953 to 1970, it was the first television station in the Tampa/St. Petersburg television market.

Homophobic propaganda is propaganda based on homonegativity and homophobia towards homosexual and sometimes other non-heterosexual people. Such propaganda supports anti-gay prejudices and stereotypes, and promotes social stigmatization or discrimination. The term homophobic propaganda was used by the historian Stefan Micheler in his work Homophobic Propaganda and the Denunciation of Same-Sex-Desiring Men under National Socialism, as well as other works treating the topic.

<i>American Family Assn v. City and County of San Francisco</i>

American Family Association v. City and County of San Francisco is a case in which the American Family Association (AFA) challenged the City and County of San Francisco's actions opposing an AFA sponsored advertisement campaign as a violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Bryan Jonathan Fischer is the former Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association (AFA). He hosted the talk radio program Focal Point on American Family Radio and posted on the AFA-run blog Instant Analysis.

The Florida Family Association (FFA) is an American non-profit organization founded by David Caton and based in Tampa, Florida. It campaigns against homosexuality and Islamic-American relations. The organization is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In 2013 the New York Times noted FFA was a one-man Christian fundamentalist organization.

Faithful Word Baptist Church is a New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist church in Tempe, Arizona, that was founded by Steven Anderson. The church describes itself as "an old-fashioned, independent, fundamental, King James Bible-only, soul-winning Baptist church." Members of the church meet in an office space that is located inside a strip mall. Anderson established the church in December 2005 and remains its pastor.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.