Howls of Protest Over a PBS Series About Gays in the South


This is an example or how negative publicity can have a positive affect. I don't watch television much or keep track of what goes on there. Probably I would never have heard about this TV series but for big stories about it on religious websites that I follow for blog material.

The series was produced by a gay minister who is also a film producer. He seems to have a knack for finding the most explosive buttons to touch. In this case he ended up being a preacher in the South, he grew up there. According to promotional material he talks to many gay people about their life there and how it has changed over time. The producer claims the majority of gay people in the U.S. live south of the Mason-Dixon Line. According to the promotional material the documentary will show there are thriving gay communities in the deep South.

The South has many contradictions. Alabama has one of the largest and most active atheist groups in the U.S. Most years we visit friends and family in Atlanta. If ever there was a cosmopolitan and international city that is it. It is said Georgia is no longer a safely in the Republican column. There is a huge Unitarian church in Tulsa, OK.

Christians protesting the PBS program assume that if there is a production that informs viewers about some subject Christian don't like, the company is promoting a behavior they don't approve of. This even if PBS does not endorse, in this case, homosexuality. When Ellen Degeneres first came out as a gay person on TV there were complaints. It has never stopped.

The story of a gay pastor would not be quite as interesting if it happened north of the Mason Dixon line. There are still plenty of denominations and individual churches in the North who are proud to discriminate against gay clergy but members are usually older the practice will fade as they die off. 

That change in underway in the South makes for an interesting program.


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