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With Christian radio's new growth and new constituencies have come new chalenges. Initially, much of religious broadcasting was denominationally based or revival-oriented. Today, parachurch professionals and other Christian ministries are profoundly reshaping the industry. In 1990, the Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville, Virginia, religious-liberties organization, began airing a two-minute Freedom Under Fire spot on 48 stations. Less than four years later the program is aired on 970 outlets, with a toll-free number at the end.

Likewise, Charles Colson started his daily four-minute BreakPoint in 1991. It is now on 300 stations. Colson, the author of a dozen books and the founder of Prison Fellowship—which has 60 field offices—is hardly unknown in Christian circles. Yet Prison Fellowship has received 80,000 new contacts via Breakpoint.

Equally significant, the unofficial alliance between Christian and secular conservatives on political issues has become a highly potent and nationwide force. The attention to political issues has shifted the focus of religious broadcasting toward closing the cultural divide in America and catering to the felt needs of listeners.

From the earliest days of broadcasting, religion and radio have shared mutually ambitious aspirations. The question of whether contemporary Christian broadcasters can continue to perform their high-wireless act of balancing politics and piety is certain to be the talk of the airwaves for years to come.

Copyright 1994 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

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August 15 1994, Vol. 38, No. 9