An Open Letter to NBC 13 (with commentary)

Before I get to the letter, I should tell you, dear readers, of the actions taken by NBC 13 News that made them worthy of my scathing tounge lashes.

NBC 13 News aired a wonderful segment last night - "Does God Want You to Pay Taxes?" - in lieu of actual news, or even fake human interest news. The segment features "journalist" Mike Royer interviewing a scatterbrained employee of the UA School of Law. The lady, speaking like a bad evangelical preacher, rambled on about greed. Mike Royer responds with how much time and money he has given to his church and other charities. What this has to do with taxes, I don't know. Supposedly, this law person had been doing years of research on the subject (the details were never discussed.) She only quoted Genesis, and only spoke of greed. How does wanting to keep your earnings be considered greed? Royer did mention the famous Bible quote "Give unto God what is God's, Give unto Ceaser what is Ceaser's." He then followed up saying that his interviewee stated that the verse does not mean what most people think it means (i.e. God says paying taxes are okay.) But they never go into what that verse is supposed to mean. All in all, they never answered the question. They only touched on greed v. giving to the needy. But that is only a small part of what your taxes goto - lest we forget that are taxes are paying for roads, cops, oversea wars, etc.

Aside from all of that, the question is assinine! There is a seperation of church and state. It doesn't matter what the hell any God has to say about taxes. We live in a country where we are obligated by law to give a portion of our wages (provided you aren't as poor as I am) to the government - no matter what any imaginary being has to say about it.

Without further adieu, here is the letter that I sent to NBC 13.

Does God really want you to keep making stories like this?

This is regarding your "news" story "Does God want you to pay taxes?" I'd like to thank you for squandering a few minutes of valuable TV time set aside to inform the local people of things going on in the world. I especially like the way you cut short the story about new pet foods being recalled. Maybe next week my cats will fall dead.

But seriously, what did you think this would accomplish? There is a separation of church and state. We live in a country where we are obligated by law to pay taxes. So, it doesn't matter whether or not the Bible were to say anything about taxes.

Could you have found a more scatterbrained "expert" on the subject. For someone supposedly doing research on the topic of Alabama Taxes and the Bible, she just rambled on about greed. Wouldn't one think that if one had years of research on the subject, they would be able to quote more than a single verse in Genesis.

Not only did you not answer the question that nobody wanted answered, but you have helped central Alabamians remain ignorant of the world outside. That's right, keep us stupid and we might not realize that your program isn't news and isn't entertaining.