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Wayne Pederson, who had planned to be installed at that organization's February convention, held that Christian broadcasters would do well to curtail what is often --- for lack of a more precise designation --- considered political involvement. Pederson told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "...what's more disturbing to me is that evangelicals are identified politically more than theologically. We get associated with the far Christian right and marginalized. ...the important thing is to keep the focus on what's important to us spiritually."
Fortunately, this broadcaster so out of touch with both the issues facing the world today and the role of Christianity in confronting them was prevented from taking the helm of this influential professional association. As a result of an intensive lobbying campaign by prominent Evangelical leaders such as James Dobson and Jerry Falwell, Pederson resigned before ever formally taking office.
Yet Pederson's is a perspective that is widespread and one that is not likely to go away.
For someone who in their Star Tribune interview spoke of the dire need for Christian media to adapt to proliferating technological innovations or face stagnation and marginalization Pederson is remarkably shortsighted as to the mode of communication he has spent his career promoting. It must be noted that, while all pastors on the radio are religious broadcasters, not all religious broadcasters are pastors.
There are topics in need of discussion suited to forms of expression other than the three-point sermon delivered from behind a pulpit. Most Christians don't drag themselves out of bed Sunday mornings for a roundtable discussion as to the impact of Christian principles upon foreign policy and the need for a strategic defense initiative.
Take for instance "Focus on the Family", which often addresses the psychological, ethical, and policy dimensions impacting the home, or "Jay Sekulow Live", which confronts the legal and constitutional issues impacting the exercise of religious freedom. While each tackles matters from a Christian perspective, neither is exclusively devotional, theological, or evangelistic in the sense of the traditional sermon. Nor should they be since there is life beyond the church pew that cries out in need of a Christian response or at least one steeped in common sense, a commodity that ends up in short supply when Christian principles are cordoned off as suggested by both radical separationists and obsequious pietists alike.
In his criticism of contemporary Evangelical media, Pederson laments its affiliation with the so-called "far Christian right", claiming that such political involvement dilutes the Christian witness. However, it must be pointed out Christians weren't the ones to politicize nearly all aspects of existence.
Use to be that once upon a time politics confined itself to issues such as tax rates, trade agreements, and treaty negotiations --- not whether or not one possessed the right to slaughter their unborn child or to marry someone of the same sex. If anything, political involvement by conservative Christians has skyrocketed the past few decades only as a final effort of desperation to preserve what little sanity and ordered liberty remain in a rapidly deteriorating culture.
Being that Wayne Pederson has taken the consequences of Evangelical political engagement to the extreme, perhaps the same should be applied to his preferred ecclesiosocial strategy as well.
In Pederson's saying that Christians ought to concentrate exclusively on "spirituality" at the expense of practicality, one could contend that this is simply an excuse to stick one's head in the sand in an attempt to hide from the marauding evil on the rampage in the world today. Or even worse, it could serve as a pretext to Christianize political correctness. After all, how many times have you heard, "Oh we don't judge. We just talk Jesus." That's all well and good, but when the ultimate goal becomes not to offend, the Jesus they talk about is about as wishy-washy as the whiners yammering about him.
While there might be a certain appeal in remaining above the fray in order to concentrate on higher truths, as the foes of righteousness continue to lay claim to more and more of existence as their exclusive domain, less and less remains in the realm of unvarnished truth existing beyond debate and question.
For example, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington has elected a diocesan bishop who supports the normalization of homosexuality in the church and who has condemned African and Asian bishops who have stood in favor of Biblical injunctions opposing these abominations manifesting themselves in the Western branches of Anglican ecclesia.
According to the Culture and Family Report for January 30, 2002, Rev John B. Chane met the search criteria for the ecclesiastical office he now occupies by "being firmly ... committed to the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the life of the church." This means more than allowing them to attend until they get their lives straightened out; this is code that they ought be allowed to run the entire show.
Would Wayne Pederson suggest we stay spiritual and not speak out in the face of such outright abominations slithering right into the heart of the church since such an issue is perceived as one of the foremost political issues of the day? These people won't be satisfied controlling institutions such as government or even the media; their real goal is to control you, your children, and ultimately your hearts and your minds. And if Christians have to exercise their God-given political rights to put a stop to it, then so be it.
Christians involved in political and media outreach would like nothing better than to live in a morally pristine world where there was nothing to play on the radio other than soothing hymns and nothing but happy positive things to say. Yet in a world where deviants lay in wait for our children and where apostates fly jetliners into skyscrapers those proclaiming the truth to the world cannot afford to wear those silly plastered-on smiles considered the epitome of spirituality in the boondocks of Christendom or fritter away the time discussing the ridiculous erratum characterizing those withdrawn from the world beyond the degree of legitimate sanctification.
Copyright 2002 by Frederick B. Meekins
Published by Permission
For additional commentary by this author and links to stories around the Internet, please check out the following: The American WorldView Dispatch.
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