By David Emery A quarter of a century ago, two broadcasters petitioned the FCC to consider disqualifying religious organizations from being licensed to broadcast on channels reserved for noncommercial educational use. That ought to have been the end of it. Unfortunately, wildly inaccurate rumors had already surfaced among religious groups to the effect that the petition was instigated by the infamous atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair and called for a ban on all religious programming. In spite of the Commission's best efforts to correct these misunderstandings, they persisted well beyond that date. In fact, they persist to this very day.
Nothing gives a rumor staying power like the printed word.
From snail mail to fax to email, all available means have been used to keep the document in constant circulation ever since. Madeline Marray O'Hare, an atheist, whose efforts successfully eliminated the use of Bible reading and prayer from public schools fifteen years ago, has now been granted a federal hearing in Washington D.C., on the same subject, by the Federal Communications Commission. Her petition, No. 2493, would ultimately pave the way to stop any reading of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on the airwaves of America. She took her petition with 287,000 signatures to back her stand. Cut off, sign and mail the form.