God, Bible and You - Starting My Public Access Journey

God, Bible and You Produced By: "Brother" Walt Belsito

Article By: Chris "Sledge" Douglas



Way back in 1998, I had the chance to meet "Brother" Walt Belsito. I was invited to work on his show.

Here are my experiences, done in the style of his former Angelfire website: http://www.angelfire.com/ct/GBY/ (no longer active).

In 1998, I received a message from a longtime friend who was doing work on someone's public access show that this show was in need of extra help.  Having just gotten into performance arts that very year, I was really excited about the idea of doing anything having to do with television. And thus started the as-of-yet unnamed Sledgecorp Productions assist work on: GOD, BIBLE, AND YOU HOST - BROTHER WALT (gby13@juno.com) Brother Walt was an interesting character. According to his website: In 1969, Brother Walt read the entire bible to disprove it. After one year of intense research, he came to the conclusion that there are no geographical, linguistic, chronological, historical, or scientific errors in the bible. He was also fiercely anti-denominational, meaning he essentially refused to pick a side when it came to his Christianity. So needless to say, this kind of stuff was QUITE in conflict with my burgeoning Atheism (then only Agnosticism) at the time, and to ask what I was thinking at the time is a fair question. And honestly, alot of my decision to help on the show had to do with simply getting to work on TV. However, Walt was charismatic enough to ensure I did not regret my decision. Wondering where the title God, Bible and You came from? Ok, probably not.  But here is the answer, according to the website: Where do you stand with GOD Have you read the BIBLE Where will YOU spend eternity? "I'm God, and you're not." Most episodes were dedicated to aspects of the bible and how they related to current events.  For example, he was one of the first people I noticed talking about the hidden 'sex' message in the Lion King when it came out on VHS.  This was before my time there, but one I WAS there for was when he was attempting to explain that scientists could not explain how bumble bees were able to fly, and therefore that was proof God exists.  Needless to say, this is perfectly explainable, but these were among the topics Walt covered in his LONG public access career. But what made the show REALLY fun to work on was his temper. And OH BOY the man had a temper.  Add that to his refusal to take criticism and you had a powder keg just waiting to go off.  And go off it did.  On MULTIPLE occaisions! "DON'T CRITICIZE IF YA DON'T KNOW WHERE YA STAND!" Often, Walt would bring up personal and insider SKYE topics on his show, particularly if they affected him negatively.  On one such episode, he called the then studio manager an "asshole" for insulting his wife, and described the way he ran the studio as being "assholey." Another regular aspect of the show were the religious quizes he would often give his call-in viewers to answer.  Here are some examples from the website: Test your knowledge, or better yet look up the answers in the bible; Q1.  Who came first, Moses or Noah? Q2.  What was the name of the giant that David killed? Q3.  Who was Sampson's girlfriend? Q4.  Was St Paul one of the original apostle's? Q5.  Did Jesus give the sermon on the mount? Can't find the answers? Brother Walt says: "Find it in the Bible" Answers to the questions on the Bible. Question One: Noah is in Genesis; the first book in the Bible and Moses is in Exodus; the second book of the Bible. Question Two: David killed Goliath. Goliath was a giant who was killing David's people. Question Three: Delilah was Samson's girlfried.  She betrayed him and as a result he lost all of his power and was arrested. Question Four: St. Paul was not one of the original apostles.  His real name was Saul and he was a Christian persecutor.  Jesus appeared to him and asked "Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?" Question Five: Yes, Jesus did give the sermon on the mount. While these questions were fairly easy, the questions on the show would often range in difficulty. My assistance on this show more or less ended in 1999, just after my participation in ShockWave Wrestling ended.  I would come back every now and again, but it pretty much ended there. This, like many of my other entries, are always evolving, so if something comes to mind, I will add it to this page. In 1969, Brother Walt read the entire bible to disprove it.  After one year of intense research, he came to the conclusion that there are no geographical, linguistic, chronological, historical, or scientific errors in the bible. Tune in every Monday on channel 13, WSKY. Call him live at (203) 753-7593 on Monday nights between 10:00 and 10:30 P.M.