Freethought & Rationalism Archive

FreeToThink · 01-22-2002, 10:21 AM

Sometimes it pays to be on all these fundie email lists. You get some valuable info that otherwise wouldn't come your way...

That said, it seems that <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/102/21.0.html" target="_blank">Christianity Today Magazine</a> is reporting that the new president of the National Religious Broadcasters is under fire for his comments that "christian radio is too political". His comments, from the article:

Quote:

When people think of Christian radio, they think of the political right, and I think that's unfair. We missed our main calling with that.�[What's] disturbing to me is that evangelicals are identified politically more than theologically. We get associated with the far Christian right and marginalized. To me the important thing is to keep the focus on what's important to us spiritually. We're all entitled to our political views and evangelicals tend to gravitate toward more conservative politics, but sometimes in taking our stands we've allowed ourselves to be typecast and the effectiveness spiritually has been diminished.�There's an element in NRB that wants us to be politically oriented�to take stands on public issues, but that's not in our constitution. Our constitution says we're to make the Christian media as effective as it can be. We need to not be pulled into the political arena. We do have a political orientation for [Federal Communications Commission] stuff, but that should not be what we're known for.

All this guy seems to be saying is that Xians should be promoting their faith, and instead they are (surprise, surprise!) promoting a far right political agenda.

The fundie responses to his statement are very telling. Among the list of those who have blasted him for his comments: Don Wildmon (head of the American Family Assoc.), Tom Minnery (VP from Focus on the Family), and NRB Board Member and fundie-porn-best-selling-author Tim LaHaye.

So... not that we needed these yahoos to prove it to us, because they already have by their previous actions, but - Now they've shown that their real motivation is not to help people, or even to promote a faith of love, but is in fact to promote the politics of the far right.

Nice, huh?

FreeToThink · 01-22-2002, 10:23 AM

Or maybe that should be "fear right" instead of "far right".

lpetrich · 01-22-2002, 12:50 PM

What, exactly, did Mr. Wildmon, Mr. Minnery, and Mr. LaHaye accuse the head of the NRB of?

FreeToThink · 01-23-2002, 07:00 AM

lpetrich, sorry for the delay in replying.

To answer your question - you could look at the article I linked to

or, here is a summary:

Mr. Wildmon says Perderson's comments are "a tragic thing for the NRB" and says that "Mr. Pederson has criticized those he calls the members of the religious right." He goes on to say that he "really think[s] Mr. Pederson would best serve the cause to step aside, because if he does not there is a good chance, a real good chance, that either he would be replaced or that another organization more representative of our views would come forth."

Mr. Minnery puts it all out there when he says "There will be an effort at the next board meeting to get the organization on track", and the ever-so-subtle Timmy LaHaye adds ""I think we need to reappraise whether we want him to run this organization".

So it seems like they have accused Mr. Pederson of the worst crime imaginable in fundie-land: Not Towing The Line.

[ January 23, 2002: Message edited by: FreeToThink ]</p>

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01-22-2002, 10:23 AM	#2
FreeToThink Regular Member Join Date: May 2001 Location: Florida Posts: 167	Or maybe that should be "fear right" instead of "far right".

01-22-2002, 12:50 PM	#3
lpetrich Contributor Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Lebanon, OR, USA Posts: 16,829	What, exactly, did Mr. Wildmon, Mr. Minnery, and Mr. LaHaye accuse the head of the NRB of?

01-23-2002, 07:00 AM	#4
FreeToThink Regular Member Join Date: May 2001 Location: Florida Posts: 167	lpetrich, sorry for the delay in replying. To answer your question - you could look at the article I linked to or, here is a summary: Mr. Wildmon says Perderson's comments are "a tragic thing for the NRB" and says that "Mr. Pederson has criticized those he calls the members of the religious right." He goes on to say that he "really think[s] Mr. Pederson would best serve the cause to step aside, because if he does not there is a good chance, a real good chance, that either he would be replaced or that another organization more representative of our views would come forth." Mr. Minnery puts it all out there when he says "There will be an effort at the next board meeting to get the organization on track", and the ever-so-subtle Timmy LaHaye adds ""I think we need to reappraise whether we want him to run this organization". So it seems like they have accused Mr. Pederson of the worst crime imaginable in fundie-land: Not Towing The Line. [ January 23, 2002: Message edited by: FreeToThink ]</p>

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