The No Kool Aid Zone

The Laodicea Chronicles III: Trampling on the Church

Posted by Byron May 10, 2005 at 8:39 pm
Filed Under Life as a Jesus-follower | 6 Comments |

A Third Installment in an Occasional Series on the Church in the Age of Laodicea

Three weeks ago, in this space, I posted on my concern that some in the Godblogosphere had jumped a bit too quickly to some conclusions regarding the firing of Marty Minto, radio personality at WORD-FM in Pittsburgh, who had gotten the boot after entertaining questions regarding the state of the pope’s soul. I said, among other things, Are we doing our homework before we cut loose? Or are we only getting one side of the story? It seems to me that we need to take the extra few minutes to check out both sides. I stand by those questions and comments.

At the same time, I also suggested that I share some of the same very significant reservations about the current state of “Christian media” in our country, and promised a post on the subject. This is that post.

Brannon Howse’s article entitled “Christian Happy Talk” referenced Chuck Gratner, station manager at WORD-FM, as saying, “WORD-FM needs to function in this city in support of the entire church…” How true that is…Christian media needs to do exactly that—which is exactly what it does not do, in my experience.

It’s been two years ago since I received the nastiest email note in my entire life. I received it from a person in management in Christian media; I’ll be gracious and not reveal names. Ugly words were used; my integrity was denigrated, and my motives were judged. What was my crime? I had attempted to call this particular arm of Christian media to account for a decision that it had made. My attempts were not well-received, and my thanks was a verbal assault. The best response I got for my efforts was stonewalling; no one was particularly interested, it seemed, in hearing words of concern, and a call to accountability, from a pastor. Is this “supporting the church”?

I think not.

Further, it seems to me that we have a serious tail-wags-the-dog situation going on here. Christian radio ostensibly serves the church, as does Christian TV, and Christian publishers, and Christian bookstores and other retailers, and the Christian music industry, but where is the accountability to the local church? It doesn’t take much of a cynic to at least raise the question of what the real “bottom line” is, when

—attempts at accountability, such as Steve Camp made several years back, are not taken seriously;
—many “Christian” publishers seem to be willing to publish nearly anything that promises to make a buck;
—”Christian” bookstores follow suit in their selling, eschewing discernment in favor of profits;
—the methodologies of the world are aped in order to maximize sales, and so on.

Granted: the evangelical church cannot claim to be innocent on all counts when it comes to some of these areas either. That said, are any of these entities really that concerned about what the church has to say (and again, a fair question is, “is the church willing to say it?”)? Our church members are asked to trust these Christian media outlets with their dollars, but can they really be trusted? Should we tell our people to steer clear of Christian media until some real accountability begins to take place? And what ought that accountability to look like, anyway?

I certainly have a lot more questions than I do answers right now, I’ll admit. But it is very clear to me, after some level of exposure to these issues, that we have a pretty big problem, and I have little doubt that some of my readers have some stories of their own to tell.

“Supporting the church” ought to mean more than taking seriously the concerns of pastors and church leaders, but it should never mean anything less.