ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 12, 1996 TAG: 9610150051
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: JANE HALL LOS ANGELES TIMES
When Bill Moyers was a boy growing up in eastern Texas, he learned about the book of Genesis through Biblical trading cards for children. ``I can still recall the drawing of Noah and the Ark,'' the journalist reflected. ``It was Mr. and Mrs. Noah on the Ark, the happy family of animals, the rainbow in the distance. The stories were sanitized for children, and that's how many of us learned about the Bible.''
``In fact,'' Moyers said, ``when you read the story of Noah in the Bible, it's about a God who becomes so angry - or saddened - by the corruption of the world that he destroys the world, including innocent children. The story raises important questions about the unpredictability of God, the fate of innocents and what it means to be a survivor.''
Those questions and others that come from the familiar stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac in the first book of the Bible are debated with joy and vigor in ``Genesis: A Living Conversation,'' Moyers' new 10-part PBS series, premiering Wednesday (at 8 p.m. on WBRA-Channel 15).
In what may be the ultimate ``talking heads'' show on the ultimate subject, a group of scholars, theologians, teachers and artists examine the Genesis stories for what they reveal about God and humankind.
``All of the great themes in our lives are in these stories,'' said the 62-year-old Moyers, who was ordained as a Baptist minister before he became a journalist. ``The people in the Bible rage at each other and at God, they have sibling rivalry, they lust after other people's wives, they hurt, they grieve.''
Based on a Genesis seminar started by Rabbi Burton Visotsky at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, each episode of the series begins with a dramatic reading of the story under examination by either Alfre Woodard or Mandy Patinkin. Then the issues raised in the story are discussed by Moyers, Visotsky and a revolving group of participants that includes scholars in Christianity, Judaism and Islam and others such as novelist Mary Gordon and painter Hugh O'Donnell.
The mix can lead to surprising moments - O'Donnell comparing God to a creative artist; a Muslim and a Christian disagreeing about the character of Abraham; women and men of several faiths debating the temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden.
The aim, Moyers said, ``is to have a dialogue about religion that does not require people to surrender their own deeply held beliefs in order to engage in ecumenical talk.''
There are evangelical Christians and some nonbelievers in the series, Moyers said, but no fundamentalist Christians. ``I talked to some fundamentalists about being in the series, but they wanted to debate creationism vs. evolution, and abortion - and they didn't really think there was anything more to say'' about how the world was created. Moyers said he doesn't know how fundamentalists will react to the series.
Although he said he was first drawn to the original Genesis seminar as simply a good story to tell, Moyers said that he hopes the TV series will help ``de-politicize'' religion in this country.
``There are a lot of people, including yours truly, who are fed up with the religious right having dominated the religious discourse in this country for the past 20 years, with the complicity of the media,'' Moyers said.
``There are many other voices among the religious community, and I believe most people do not want to politicize or polemicize their beliefs,'' Moyers continued. ``But there's been almost no religious discussion on television in recent years. The religion shows the broadcast networks used to do years ago in the `Sunday-morning ghetto' have been replaced by the Sunday-morning talk shows about politics.''
It took Moyers six years to raise the funds for ``Genesis,'' in part, he believes, because ``religion had been so marginalized on television that it was hard for people to visualize what we wanted to do.''
That may change. The TV series - which is coming at a time of renewed interest in Genesis, as evidenced in several new books - is accompanied by a book-length transcript of the show's discussions and a separate study guide meant to promote discussion among viewers.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Actors Mandy Patinkin (left) and Alfre Woodard (right)by CNBwill join Bill Moyers
(center) for his ``Genesis: A Living Conversation'' series,
premiering Wednesday at 8 p.m. on WBRA-Channel 15.