[1]MANASSAS, Va. (BP)–The National Religious Broadcasters has come to the defense of syndicated radio psychologist Laura Schlessinger, whose upcoming television program has drawn angry protests by homosexual activists.
NRB President Brandt Gustavson wrote a letter to Paramount Television encouraging the company to stand firm against homosexual activists’ protests of Schlessinger’s show, which is slated to begin Sept. 11. The NRB encompasses more than 1,250 Christian communicators in the United States.
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, in late March encouraged telephone calls to Paramount in support of Schlessinger during the agency’s “For Faith & Family” radio broadcast. Paramount’s number is (323) 956-5000.
Gustavson, in a letter to Paramount executive Kerry McClugage, wrote: “Of course, in these days of political correctness anybody who dares to say some decisions are right and some decisions are wrong will be subjected to a barrage of criticism. This is precisely what has happened to Dr. Laura. The logic these protestors are using clearly doesn’t make sense.”
Land told Baptist Press, “Dr. Laura is a strong voice for traditional Judaism and as such does not condone the homosexual and lesbian lifestyles as healthy or normal. What we are witnessing is an attempt to intimidate and threaten Paramount Television into canceling Dr. Laura’s scheduled syndicated show by radical homosexual groups who are attempting to suppress her right to express her convictions.
“Dr. Laura has every right to express her views and Americans have every right to hear them,” Land continued. “It can only serve to provide some balance to the radical homosexual propaganda machine which so dominates national entertainment and media outlets.”
[2]Schlessinger’s radio show reaches an estimated 20 million people through 500 stations in the United States and Canada. Paramount executives said her television program will feature the same type of material featured on the radio program and that has homosexual activists in an uproar.
Paramount said 85 percent of the country’s television markets have signed up her hour-long program, despite the protests.
On March 10th, Schlessinger issued an apology to homosexuals saying she never “intended to hurt anyone or contribute in any way to an atmosphere of hate or intolerance.”
“Regrettably, some of the words I’ve used hurt some people, and I am sorry for that,” she said in a prepared statement. “Words that I have used in a clinical context have been perceived as judgment. They were not meant to characterize homosexual individuals or encourage others to disparage homosexuals.”
Homosexual activists said Schlessinger’s statements that homosexuals can change their behavior is intolerant.
However, Gustavson said the homosexual activists are the ones practicing intolerance. “The logic these protestors are using clearly doesn’t make sense. To say Paramount should silence Dr. Laura for her lack of tolerance is on its face intolerant,” Gustavson wrote. “Such twisted logic should be rejected as laughable and the issue put to rest.”