Should God be on Public Access television? It’s a question being raised in the small town of Sandown. And the debate is pitting two first amendment ideas against each other…the separation of church and state verse freedom of speech. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Rebecca Kaufman has the story.
A few weeks ago, Ron Lazisky began video taping church services at St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church in Sandown.
He did it with the intention of later airing the services on Sandown’s public access channel.
5:18 just so other people in town can see it and know what goes on in the church and see how impacting it can be
But before those tapes could make it onto television, Sandown selectmen stepped in.
Selectmen chair Russ Collins says what initially alarmed the board about airing church services was a potential violation of the separation of church and state.
1:07 we didn’t know, since we didn’t know we said let’s check this is out and make sure that the money that’s being taken as a result of a contract with the town isn’t being used to promote religious programming or anything else its not supposed to be
Collins says the board had another concern: who gets to use public access?
2:41 if we give one specific church access to program we need to make sure we have policies and procedures that allow anybody to access under the same set of rules, it has to be fair to other religions and other groups
United Methodist Church member Ron Lazisky says in Sandown, presently, that’s not a problem.
7:12 we only have one church in town, if there were other religions in town that have services we would be happy to film those as well, we are not trying to take one religion and force it down anybody’s throat, it just so happens it’s the only religion in town
But even if Sandown had several churches, whether or not the town should account for fairness is up for debate.
5:16 Equal time is not an issue, its not a matter of if we give the Lutheran church 2 hours this week, we have to give the Methodists, the Presbyterians and the Catholics 2 hours this week.
That’s Dotty Grover…director of cable services in Londonderry and president of the New Hampshire Coalition for Community Media.
5:30 What we have with public access is called equal opportunity, so anyone who is willing to produce their own tape or use our equipment and be trained, they have the same opportunity as anyone else to put that program on the air
And as far as Grover’s concerned, when it comes to public access, freedom of speech trumps everything else.
She says when the town agrees to a contract with the cable company, giving them public access, residents don’t pay to promote specific programs…they are paying for freedom to program.
Grover says it surprises her that airing something such as a church service would become so controversial.
4:00 specifically one of the reason I heard was separation of the church and state, and that’s simply not applicable, because by playing a religious program your simply allowing someone to express their freedom of speech, you are not dictating to them which religions can be on the air and which can’t
In fact, spokesman at the cable company Comcast say that public access programs cannot be edited for content unless they contain obscene material.
Sandown Selectmen Chair Russ Collins admits that he’s aware that several other public access stations around the state air religious programming.
He just wants to make sure Sandown is doing everything by the books…and he says it’s taken a few weeks to consult with the town’s legal counsel about the matter.
At a selectmen’s meeting last week, Collins told members of St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church that there’s no reason to rush.
8:20 One of the messages you are trying to get out is 2,000 years old, a week or so shouldn’t hurt you to badly.
Collins isn’t sure how the remark went over.
The town has another meeting scheduled for tonight …they hope to have a definitive answer from their attorneys.
For NHPR news, I’m RK.
