Fear or Bigotry? PBS to Reveal 'Truth' of the Inquisition

May 8th, 2007 12:00 AM

ALEXANDRIA, VA – PBS's decision to run “Secret Files of the Inquisition” this week after recently canceling a program that might have offended radical Muslims “smacks of either religious bigotry, fear or both,” said Robert Knight, director of Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute.  


The 4-hour docudrama is set to air May 9th and May 16th. According to the PBS website, the programs are underwritten in part by the Floyd and Delores Jones Foundation, which has also supported the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. 


The PBS Web site describes the series about an infamous period in the history of the Roman Catholic Church this way: “The Truth Behind the Most Notorious Suppression in Religious History Told in the Words of the Victims Themselves.”


“Most Notorious? PBS apparently is unfamiliar with the 20th Century, in which millions of Jews and Christians died at the hands of Nazis and Communists,” Knight said. “Or they could take a look at the modern day Darfur genocide by the Muslim government in Sudan. The decision to air this series reeks of religiously motivated hypocrisy.  Just two weeks ago, PBS pulled the plug on a balanced program called 'Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the MuslimCenter' because it claimed the program might be offensive.”


Kristen Fyfe, Senior Writer for the Culture and Media Institute, made this comment: “Pope John Paul II was on record saying that the Inquisition belonged to a tormented part of the Church's history and that we should be open-minded when looking at it.  One wonders, though, how open-minded the activists at PBS were when they made this docudrama.  That they claim the series presents the 'truth' behind the Inquisition should raise a red flag to every Christian in the viewing audience.”

 

 

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