Monitoring Evangelical Radio

I gave up on Big Media completely on "Ash Wednesday" (Nov 3, 2004).

I can't even pull my basic liberal duty of "surveillance" anymore (just can't bear it), and I'm relying on bloggers full time now.

Not to be AWOL, I try to fulfill my service duty by monitoring a local Evangelical station on my clock radio for 10-15 minutes in the early AM.

Below I report some "recon" I did on a series of pre-taped "family values" sermons.

My qualifications?  Membership in a church of moderation, and an interest in freedom of worship.

First point to emphasize is that most of these radio preachers come on all southern fried at first, all homely and sweet, with a message that is actually quite unobjectionable.

The early going is fairly basic, for me, a kind of elementary inspirational review.  What might be called "Biblical milk" as opposed to "Biblical meat."  A generic mix of moral and religious exhortation along with a kind of simple Doctor Phil wisdom that would help anyone raising a family.

"Kids learn from example,"
"Parents should practice what they preach,"
"Love heals all wounds," etc.

Then there's usually a little story with a moral ("...which just goes to show, we'd be lost without our families").

At which point I'm usually thinking "darn I would be lost without my family!"

Then there's a call for soul-searching, a little gentle scolding, a little "nobody's perfect," "make an effort," "for better or for worse," etc.  No problem.

But then everything starts to go south (pun intended).  When he's got everyone's attention, and we're all warm as toast, preacher Doctor Silver-tongue will start to sound very grave.

And the next thing I know he ... well, in my opinion, he puts the wrong emphasis on some hard-boiled out-of-the way place in the Bible, or else he finds a more familiar spot and gives it a kind of nasty, judgmental, materialist spin that takes the heart right out of it.

Then he proceeds to spread a banquet of calumny and fear, He leads me to dark and turbulent waters, he takes away my strength, he guides me into wrong ways, and makes me feel alone and unprotected, kind of shepherd-less.

I'm given to understand that there's a dangerous enemy of families out there, a cosmic enemy, who wants to bring an end to the family.

Suddenly all the simple little truths and good feelings I had learned to appreciate in the first 10 minutes of the talk are at stake in a battle of some sort.

In fact, Silver-tongue is by now shamelessly preaching the power of the devil, so much so that I wonder if he believes there is the least bit of Holy Spirit in this whole wide universe.

Then I find out this great cosmic evil is being ably challenged by ... by Dr. James Dobson (er?).

Except, Silver-tongue says, the enemy is very crafty, and the battle is a lot tougher than it needs to be, due to the fact that there are a lot of well-meaning but utterly misguided and dangerous efforts coming from some people out there (the "Libruls") who are just making the enemy's work that much easier... etc.

O-M-G!

I thought I was projecting when I imagined people scowling at my bumper sticker!

May God watch my back!

•  Bad-Shepherd Fundy Masters

  Purpose here is to report the MO of these bad-shepherd Fundy Masters.

  A familiar pattern.  Warm fuzzy Intro followed by threats of loss and vicious finger-pointing.  All of which contributes enormously to our problem of living day to day in the same world with these brothers and sisters in Christ.

  If we feel that one of these Kingdom citizens is bristling at us, remember he's only guarding his li'l cave and his li'l kids from a perception of danger.  Chances are he's been flat-out lied to about the Bible, and about God's will, and about your real intentions.

  But I believe there's a realm of value somewhere in his heart in which he treasures the same intangibles that we do.

  by Upstream Review on Thu May 12, 2005 at 07:22:23 AM PDT

  •  One on One

    Is the only way to defeat talk radio.  When I go home to the country, everyone gets to see and feed the liberal.  They get to see that I have a nice family, that my kids are kind and generous and happy, and that we care about our country.

    Just like when my wife was in the Peace Corps, she didn't change radical Islam, but the people in her village had a face for America - a kind and loving one.

    by chuckles1 on Thu May 12, 2005 at 07:25:41 AM PDT