Subject: IWG Medved/TV12 PBS letter Date: Mon, 8 Jan 1996 17:33:25 -0500 (EST) From: Chris Purdom The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 2 congregations, 4 religious organizations and 20 clergy from 9 denominations. If you are in the general Philadelphia area and represent a congregation or religious organization or are clergy, let us know if you want to be added - all faiths are welcome. We will also be happy to help start similar organizations in other areas. Visit the web page at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/religion/orgs/iwg/. Please join in writing to Mr. Rubinsohn and/or your local PBS station if they ran this film. January 8, 1996 David Rubinsohn Director of TV Broadcasting WHYY TV-12 Independence Mall West Philadelphia PA 19106 Dear Mr. Rubinsohn: Until Friday we had been unable to reconcile civilized reviewer Michael Medved of Sneak Previews with Michael Medved who works with Focus On the Family and blames anti-Semitism on "anti-Christian attitudes" of Jews in Hollywood. We realize that with a conservative Congress paying the bills TV12 is likely to be showing more conservative fare, but we were surprised that you would give time to a member of a supremacist group, especially when the individual in question can easily be confused with the character he plays on TV, and the content is as blatantly inaccurate as "Hollywood vs. Religion." As religious people we are all too aware that religious beliefs frequently lead to violence (Bosnia, India, Northern Ireland, Israel, Brooklyn, Philadelphia). Religious violence in movies can hardly be called an attack on religion. Medved claims recent movies fail to portray religious people, religious themes, or daily religious life; we came up with a list (next page) of recent films refuting this claim. This list includes four films about historical religious figures, seven in which the main character is a sympathetic religious person, three with religious plots, ten with religious themes, seven in which religious beliefs and practices are central, and seventeen in which religious practices are part of characters' daily lives. We have probably forgotten many that could also be included. Medved complains about films of con-artist evangelists as Hollywood takeoffs of the Bakkers and Jimmy Swaggart; we must conclude that he has never read or heard of Elmer Gantry, written in 1927. From Sinclair Lewis to Margaret Atwood, Bill Moyers and a host of civil rights and religious groups, filmmakers are hardly the only ones criticizing the political excesses of the Religious Right, as shown by Rob Reiner's censored quote in Medved's film. These are not criticisms of religion in general, or of evangelical Christians in particular, but of groups that have announced the intention of creating a theocracy in America, dismissed by Medved as a bizarre fantasy from The Handmaid's Tale. An on-air rebuttal is clearly in order, preferably at the beginning of Sneak Previews' time slot. In addition, we would suggest airing The Handmaid's Tale, so that TV12 viewers can see what Medved was criticizing. Please let us know what response you are planning. Sincerely, Barbara Purdom Christopher Purdom Interfaith Working Group Coordinators