Barney’s New Challenge

If they weren’t so pathetic, I would be laughing at the charges made by the Rev. Joseph Chambers, a Free Pentecostal pastor who thinks the kid’s show “Barney & Friends” fosters a belief in the occult and promotes pedophilia and homosexuality (“Barney, a Dinosaur Demon? Pastor Says He’s Too New Age,” View, Dec. 24). These charges are even more preposterous than the charge from similar circles that “Sesame Street” characters Bert and Ernie are a gay couple.

What the right-wing fundamentalists really object to is not Barney and “Sesame Street” but the fact that they’re carried on PBS, the network that the right loves to hate. They dislike such current-events shows as “Frontline,” which is often critical of government policies and action, especially during the Reagan Administration, and such science shows as “Nova” and “Nature” that treat evolution as scientific fact. Attacking these children’s shows is their way of getting even.

TIMOTHY PABIAN

Panorama City