Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Freethinker

Home
Nonreligious
God needs to come up with a new plan to save Shelanu TV

God needs to come up with a new plan to save Shelanu TV

Last updated on: June 29, 2020 at 11:18 pm by Barry Duke

God needs to come up with a new plan to save Shelanu TV 2020-06-29T23:18:49+02:00 Barry Duke

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

‘THE Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.’

Image via YouTube

Last month Ward Simpson, above, President and CEO of God TV, said in a YouTube statement that God has “supernaturally opened the doors” to God TV in Israel:

To bring the gospel into the homes and hearts of the Jewish people.

Well, God – true to his capricious and schizophrenic nature – seems to have had second thoughts, and Israeli media at the weekend reported that GOD TV, all koshered up and rebranded as Shelanu TV for Jewish consumers – is about to be shut down. The Jerusalem Post, for example, said:

The license for Shelanu TV, the Hebrew-language Christian evangelical TV channel which has been accused of seeking to proselytize in Israel, has been suspended.

Shelanu TV, owned by parent company God TV, began broadcasting in Israel on the Hot cable network at the end of April after it received a license from the Council for Cable and Satellite Broadcasting earlier this year.

But when exposure of the kind of content broadcast on God TV, including comments by channel CEO Ward Simpson about the importance of bringing people to embrace Christianity as well as a strong reaction by then communications minister David Amsalem, the council threatened to suspend Shelanu TV’s license, pending a review by the council into Hot’s contract with the channel.

But Kehila News, which appears to be an outlet for messiah-minded Jews and their Christian supporters, has branded the reports as ‘fake news’, saying that the ‘missionary’ channel:

Has merely been suspended and that it can reapply for a license. The authorities imposed a difficult bureaucratic hurdle, which might render the channel suspended for a while, but it has not been shut down. In fact, Shelanu continues to air while the cable company, Hot, has seven days to take it down and appeal the decision if it chooses.

Hot applied in the spring to the Cable and Satellite Council for a licence. It was approved in April 2020 by the council head, Asher Biton, without going through the council itself. Biton was the one who suspended the license, saying:

The channel I approved is not the one you are airing.

image via YouTube

Avi Mizrachi, above, a board member of Shelanu TV, explained what was really happening.

What Biton is doing is illegal. It’s his very last decision before he leaves the council for another job. He just doesn’t want ‘approved a missionary channel’ on his resume, that’s all. We have asked them to let us keep airing until we reapply. Biton claims that we deceived him, but that is not true.

We were very upfront throughout the entire process. We said that we will air Christian and Messianic content in Hebrew to Israelis, and he signed the license, in black and white.

Ron Cantor, God TV’s representative in Israel, agreed.

Biton is spreading this lie to reporters that we violated our license. He is embarrassed, he didn’t realize that this would blow back on him by the Orthodox, so he is under tremendous pressure. He is leaving the office, and he tells us to reapply, so when we get the license it will be signed by his successor, not him. My guess is that he wants to show the Orthodox that he did what he could and took us off the air.

Kehila News identifies the true villains in this row as “the anti-missionary organization Yad l’Achim” which declared victory on its Facebook page. The post said that when Yad l’Achim discoverd that missionaries created this channel to preach to hundreds of thousands of Israelis and convert them to Christianity it laid the facts before the Ministry of Communications and:

Because of the hard evidence, the license was revoked.

Interestingly, says Kehila News claimed that Benzion Gopstein, “head of the extreme and violent anti-missionary organization Lehava”, took credit for the suspension and quoted him as saying:

Our organisation has warned against this from the start. We are happy they realize that in Israel there is no place for missionary activity, which throughout history was a key ingredient in the persecution of the Jewish people.

Shelanu is preparing to move forward in face of this opposition.

Mizrachi said:

We are here to serve the whole body of believers in Israe. There are over 100,000 Christian Arabs, 20,000 Messianic Jews, and thousands of evangelical Christians who live in this country. Many of us are Israelis and speak Hebrew. If the channel is denied the right to operate, that is discrimination against all of them. Shelanu is a national Christian Messianic TV channel in Hebrew for the Israeli body.

We need your prayers now, more than ever. We call on all born again believers, Messianic Jews, Arab Christians, Evangelical Christians, to pray against this shutting down of Shelanu.

• If you wish to report any typos/incorrect info in this piece, please email me at [email protected]

If you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee – and boy, do I get through a LOT of coffee keeping this site active – please click the link below.

Previous Post

June 29, 2020

A female Jesus? Imagine how this will upset Christians and Muslims.

Next Post

June 30, 2020 Rabbi 'shudders' as he reveals the existence of ... atheists

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Archive My Atheism News Opinion Reviews Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 March 2007 April 2006 February 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Jesus wear on His head during the crucifixion?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A cloth A helmet A crown of thorns Nothing

Books by This Author Books by The Freethinker

See All Titles »