PER:Ted Turner tries to take on God  by Cal Thomas

   Move over, Donald Trump. Move over, Japan. You may think you're big
time, buying up everything in sight, but Ted Turner has you beat. The
man who has challenged NBC, CBS and ABC by starting his own
three-letter networks (CNN, TBS and TNT) is now going after bigger
fish. Ted Turner is attempting to take on God.

   Honestly, what could have gotten into the "mouth of the South"? In
remarks before a group of broadcasters in Dallas, reported by the
Dallas Morning News, Turner took on Christianity, which he called "a
religion for losers." Turner said Christ should not have bothered dying
on the cross. "I don't want anybody to die for me, " he was quoted as
saying. "I've had a few drinks and a few girlfriends, and if that's
gonna put me in hell, then so be it."

   Turner went further (if that is possible) and decided that the way
of dating time, BC (for before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini, in the year
of our Lord), is outmoded. "Why don't we broadcasters make it our goal
to get the world at peace by the year 2000?" he asked. "Let's make it
the year zero - BP and AP. Before Peace and After Peace."

   Turner also told the boadcasters, "Your delegates to the United
Nations are not as important as the people in this room (broadcasters).
We are the ones that determine what the people's attitudes are. It's in
our hands."

   A few days ago, Turner spoke to newspaper executives in Atlanta. He
told them that the Ten Commandments are out of date, kaput, expired. He
said they need updating.

   "When Moses went up on the mountain, there were no nuclear weapons.
There was no problem with the ozone layer or these other problems."

   Turner wants to replace the Ten Commandments with his own version,
which he calls the "Ten Voluntary Initiatives."

   The first two Voluntary Initiatives are, "I love and respect planet
Earth and all living things thereon, especially my fellow species,
mankind." And, "I promise to treat all persons everywhere with dignity,
respect and friendliness."

   Sorry, Ted. Your initiatives just don't have the same ring of
authority as, "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no
other gods before me." And, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is
in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth."

   As another Ted (Koppel) has said, "Our society finds Truth too
strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form Truth is not
a polite tap on the shoulder; it is a howling reproach. What Moses
brought down from Mount Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions... they are
commandments. ARE, not were."

   Why is Ted Turner offending Christians and Jews with this kind of
talk? Doesn't he need them to watch his networks and buy the products
of sponsors who advertise there? Does he view himself as so powerful
and invincible that he can get away with blatant prejudice? Why did
broadcasters in Dallas and newspaper executives in Atlanta not boo or
walk out on Turner, or at least protest his remarks as "insensitive"
and "bigoted, " as they surely would have done had he made racial or
ethnic slurs or condemned homosexuals or feminists? Not to reject such
language sends a message that his audience members either agree with
him or are at least willing to tolerate bigotry.

   This does not bode well for media cedibility, which is already in
decline among those who are neither fools nor idiots and who give God
far higher ratings than anything that comes out of Ted Turner's
networks or his increasingly large mouth.

   Cal Thomas is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
