Broadcasting: Room to Grow

It was a pleasant surprise for evangelists Festo Kivengere and Michael Cassidy when they learned that their “Mission ’78” meetings in Panama (see February 24 issue, page 43) would be broadcast on the radio. Why? Both of them come from countries (Uganda and South Africa) where the government controls all broadcasting, and where evangelicals have limited opportunity to get any time on the radio, much less operate radio stations. Not only did the station provide time on the air for the evangelistic services, but it also furnished staff members to assist with physical arrangements for the meetings. The privately-operated Christian station was an important part of the team that brought the Gospel to thousands in Panama who might not have otherwise heard these African evangelists.

In many areas of the world (and especially on the continent from which Kivengere and Cassidy come) the state is silencing more and more Christian broadcasts. The past twelve months saw severe blows to Christian radio in Africa. First, the new Ethiopian government took over the powerful Radio Voice of the Gospel transmitters. FEBA in the Seychelles (off east Africa) was put off the air for several weeks and then allowed to return, but only with greatly reduced power. CORDAC was silenced in Burundi. Early this year Angola took over Radio Ecclesin, a Catholic station. In contrast, there are still such countries as Liberia and Swaziland that allow private religious stations to exist. Some African government broadcasting facilities air programs produced by Christian groups.

Another bright spot on the global radio dial is the Broadcasting Corporation of China, the government radio agency of Taiwan. Nearly sixty hours every week Christian programs are broadcast over five networks. A total of forty-three programs are sponsored by various denominational and non-denominational groups. The amount and diversity of Christian broadcasting on Taiwan contrast quite favorably with the record of the government of mainland China. Whatever the shortcomings of the government of Taiwan, they are minor compared to the massive restrictions of freedoms on the mainland. It is true that programs from outside are beamed to the People’s Republic from a number of Christian stations. But within the country where about one out of five of the world’s people lives, there is no freedom for religious broadcasting, or for very much else.

The picture in the United States is quite different, of course. Religious broadcasting is a growing industry. The 1978 National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) convention (see February 24 issue, page 41) took some steps in the area of fund-raising and financial accountability that could have the effect of regulating that growth and making it healthier. Not only is there a new Christian radio station every week and a new Christian television station every month, but there are also many new producers placing their offerings on secular stations. We hope that the NRB will be used to make constructive contributions.

The rapidly-expanding NRB and its parent, the National Association of Evangelicals, were started over three decades ago because of the concern of Charles E. Fuller (of “The Old Fashioned Revival Hour”) and others that evangelicals would be denied access to the airwaves. They won a clear-cut victory, and accessibility has been maintained without significant challenge ever since. (Widely and still circulating but utterly false rumors linking Madalyn O’Hair with a move to force the government to ban religious broadcasting are unfounded and people should stop writing Washington about it.)

Back in the forties, the Federal Council of Churches wanted to determine what religious programs would be carried on the networks, and that policy, carried to its logical conclusion, dictated that local councils of churches would determine what would be aired on local stations. After the National Council of Churches (NCC) succeeded the Federal Council, it adopted a policy statement against the sale of time to religious groups. All such programs should be carried on (non-paid) sustaining time, the council believed. In an interesting turnabout, the communications commission of the NCC has now voted to shift positions. It is asking the NCC governing board to amend the 1956 policy statement and to support the right of religious organizations to purchase time from networks and stations. The vote within the commission was not unanimous, and the governing board may not give 100 per cent approval. The shift is overdue and brings the NCC into line with the thinking of the vast majority of its constituency. This council policy has for years had an undue influence on many network and station executives. Now, perhaps, they will also help to provide America with a healthy balance of religious broadcasts, reflective of the needs and interests of their listeners. We hope that America’s proper handling of religion in the electronic media will offer foreign visitors patterns that they can adopt for the cause of Christ.

Public Reading Of the Word

In some worship services Bible reading gets short shrift—even in some well-known evangelical churches. Neighboring liturgical churches may spend more time reading the Bible, though they may have fewer expository sermons. There must be a balance, of course, but neither the reading nor the exposition of the Word should be left out.

There is ample precedent for including reading of the Scripture when the people of God assemble. One of the best known is the Water Gate assembly recorded in Nehemiah 8. Rather than a brief reference to a text, the people heard Ezra read from the Law all morning (v. 3). It was indeed a service of worship (v. 6), but other elements took second place to reading the Scriptures. The people showed their reverence by standing when the book was opened (v. 5). (Even today, many churches of various traditions and locations have the congregation stand whenever the Word is read.)

Simply presenting God’s Word, letting it speak for itself, has a powerful effect. Men and women in Ezra’s assembly wept (v. 9) after hearing it. And they went forth from the meeting with joy, determined to be obedient to the biblical law (v. 12).

The more they heard, the more they wanted to hear. Ezra kept coming back every day that week, reading portions to them (v. 18). The overall effect of this unvarnished teaching is recorded in the remainder of Nehemiah.

The salutary effect of reading a substantial portion of Scripture in a worship service is hard to measure. But there is ample evidence that God blesses that practice. It should not be ignored.

Irving Hexham, assistant professor of philosophy of religion, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia.

In recent years the appearance of books from Christian publishers such as UFOs: What on Earth Is Happening? and The Bible and the Bermuda Triangle is regrettable. They seem to align Christians with the current fad of pseudo-scientific and semi-occultist books that are so popular with secular publishers and readers. Now with the popularity of the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (for a review, see p. 40) more such books and articles are bound to appear.

These books give a biblical veneer to material that can be found in a more coherent form in secular writers. For example, neither of the two books mentioned above, the former released in 1975 and the latter in 1976, adds anything significant to the discussion. A look at the arguments and the quoted sources of the books shows that their assertions cannot be supported. Unfortunately many people, Christians included, seem to think that anything in print must be true, especially if an author uses footnotes. The proper use of footnotes is not merely to give the appearance of careful research but to enable the concerned reader to check the sources for himself. These books, like their secular counterparts, misuse scholarly apparatus to confuse the reader.

This is not to say that repeated claims of encounters with unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or with “ancient astronauts” or strange disappearances over the Atlantic should not be investigated. But there is a right way to go about it. A good example is the carefully reasoned book The UFO Enigma, published last year by Doubleday. Co-author Donald Menzel is an astronomer and the former director of the Harvard observatory. His collaborator, Ernest Taves, is a psychoanalyst who has done extensive research in parapsychology and in visual perception. These men are well qualified to investigate such a complex issue as UFOs and related claims.

The UFO Enigma covers most aspects of the phenomena. It deals with the flying saucer scare of 1897, the Condon Report, the role of media, the use and misuse of photography, Von Däniken (Chariots of the Gods?), the Bermuda Triangle, and a host of other topics. Regrettably their weakest chapter is on UFOs and the Bible. The authors demonstrate that their knowledge is limited; they display an ignorance of biblical scholarship and of the various genre of biblical literature.

The authors do not shrink from examining the “unexplained” cases. They devote a chapter to explain those cases that the famous Condon Report classified as “unexplained.” They make some very good points, but I must admit that in a number of cases they seem to be stretching for explanations, even though they may be correct.

Despite those minor weaknesses the book as a whole presents an overwhelming amount of evidence to convince non-members of UFO cults that they are not missing out on the true “religion.” (A Directory of Religious Bodies in the United States [1977, Garland] lists twenty-three distinct denominations resulting from purported contact with flying saucer beings.)

The chapters on Von Däniken and the Bermuda Triangle are particularly helpful. The authors clearly demonstrate the way in which a certain kind of mentality creates scientific mysteries where none really exist.

No doubt many readers will feel that I have dealt too harshly with books by Christians, which they found edifying, and which make reference to biblical prophecy. Or people may think that I have been too commendatory of a book that makes no appeal to the Scriptures. Nevertheless, I urge everyone to examine the way in which claims and evidence are handled by the authors of a book like The UFO Enigma. Then compare such restrained and judicious scholarship with that too often employed in Christian books on the subject.

We live in an age of increasing irrationality; Christians have a duty to think clearly and to refuse to be swept along by the latest fads. We do not honor the Gospel when we seem to lower its message and the evidence that supports it to the level of the claims for UFOs and ancient astronauts. Propaganda for close encounters can be an ensnaring and deadly mythology, a variation of ancient pagan occultism. Christians should be opposing such movements rather than jumping on the bandwagon.

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