From the Left
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From the Right
Televangelism
Televangelism has brought the Christian faith to many who are unable to attend churches around them. Perhaps they are too ill to travel, maybe they are staying home with a sick child and miss the Sunday morning service, or maybe they are not particularly religious but would like to see what the whole Christianity thing is all about. Of course, televangelism is no longer simply restricted to the Christian faith. As a matter of fact, with the advent of a variety of Arabic speaking television stations, Islam is now also making a foray into the airwaves and homes of many. Agnosticism also has a long history of spreading its tenets of the faith by way of various television channels.
Sadly, as is the case with anyone who is on the airwaves and whose messages are heard by thousands of people, there are some corrupt televangelists who could not care less about their flocks – regardless of the faith they are proclaiming – and instead use their airtime as thinly disguised please for money, which is nothing more than a sham to enrich themselves. As a matter of fact, the term televangelist has become a proverbial byword that denotes corrupt, money-grubbing behavior – even though in the vast majority of the cases that is not true!
Republicans understand that even though there is corruption on the airwaves, it does not give them the right to forbid the airing of certain programs. Similarly, it does not give license to anyone to censor what is said on the air – whether it is a plea for money, or a rebel-rousing sermon from the book of Revelation. The airwaves belong to the people, and thus it would not only be philosophically wrong to curtail programming, but it would be downright illegal.
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