Christian Talk Radio

[Preston]

Hello,

I've been monitoring, and calling into, a lot of talk radio over the past few years. I've noticed that the forum is used to define "Christianity" as supporting the right-wing, damning gays, supporting belligerent foreign policy and so forth. To their credit, many talk radio hosts will take calls of dissent. I just got off the phone with the substitute host on the Michael Reagan Show (Dan Patrick), and I mentioned how abortion rates go down when Democrats are in office (because they support things like pre-natal care, sex ed, birth control accessibility, job training, child care, etc.), and I put in a plug for Sojourners magazine. The host said some silly things, but when I call in I kind of have the audience in mind and don't worry so much about what the host might think.

I've also talked about charlatans like Pat Robertson and his investment in gold mines in Liberia and his support of dictators like Rios Montt.

Anyway, people may want to reach out to people via the talk radio airwaves. There are even some progressive talk hosts who welcome the Christian Left, like www.AirAmericaRadio.com, www.ThomHartmann.com, www.TheGuyJamesShow.com, Enid Goldstein on www.KNRCradio.com, and Mike Newcomb on www.1100kfnx.com, and a couple others.

[ShinyPebble]

I do that quite a bit myself. We have a local call-in show here in Asheville and the host does actually strive for some measure of objectivity.

My main beef with most conservative talk radio is the lack of moral consistency. There are always two standards of proper conduct, one for America and one for the rest of the world. As for christianity, it seems to me the Rush Limbaughs and Michael Savages' Idea of Christianity is so far divorced from the teachings of Jesus as to be unrecognizable as such. To their credit I will say that their verbal bullying skills are second to none .

[TheMeekShall]

We should publisize statistics that show whose ideas are better. Republican states have higher divorce & abortion rates. With all the hate mongering on the right, we'll be hitting a brick wall for a while, but as more and more people get sick of things like Iraq's occupation, outsourcing jobs, we'll have laid a foundation for a more rational country.

 

The road will be hard: I'm an ex Math tutor, and there sure is alot of resistance, and as a veteran of Hannity's forum, I've seen how the right fuels antiintellectualism, Fox etc. pushes hate as effectively as dealers push herion, and thinking can get in the way of that fix.

 

Even people who are simathetic to your cause can be terrified of Math: after the "election" on Thom Hartmann's board I'd talk about how the difference between the exit polls and the results that we're found on machines that could be downloaded with bogus results (in over 1/4 of the country), as simply slowly as possible, with graphs to help people along. Even though many on the board were intensely interested in the subject, inevitably someone would say my explaination was too complicated. America is quite mathphobic.

[GreenPartyVoter]

I have been desperate to find a progressive Christian talk radio station or program. There really seems to be nothing out there, othe rthan Speaking of Faith on NPR.

[Cynthia]

Sorry - don't know of any... esp. in the deep south where I am! I listen to Teaching Co tapes and books on tape when I don't want music. Then I check this board!!!

[GreenPartyVoter]

Sorry - don't know of any... esp. in the deep south where I am!  I listen to Teaching Co tapes and books on tape when I don't want music.  Then I check this board!!!

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I am not surprised to not hear liberal Christians via the airwaves, but I am very surprised there don't seem to be any doing webcasts.

[jasn]

I do that quite a bit myself. We have a local call-in show here in Asheville and the host does actually strive for some measure of objectivity.

My main beef with most conservative talk radio is the lack of moral consistency. There are always two standards of proper conduct, one for America and one for the rest of the world. As for christianity, it seems to me the Rush Limbaughs and Michael Savages' Idea of Christianity is so far divorced from the teachings of Jesus as to be unrecognizable as such. To their credit I will say that their verbal bullying skills are second to none .

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objectivity is probably indirectly proportional to ratings (see references to math in this thread) - this is not anything new, but radio and tv survive b/c of ad revenue, ads are paid for based on number of listeners - when these guys have their meetings to plan shows, the producer is not asking the host "how can we best represent both sides so that we can better educate the listener/viewer on euthanasia or gun control or the war in Iraq" - it is more like "what is the most outrageous thing we can say so that people will be outraged and stay through the commercial breaks" - why is Jerry Falwell so often brought in as a spokesman for christianity, because he is going to stay on message with gay marriage and not get bogged down with dialogue or trying to understand the other side or the feelings of those involved in the discussion

 

i always laugh when people say "i heard on the news that . . ." and they are talking about fox or cnn or talk radio - that ceased to be "news" a long time ago