Inland Radio...
Christian Radio in the "Inland Empire" area of Washington is an entirely different beast from the radio as it plays here on the very leftist coast. Here, the radio is a combination of exhortations to stay with the faith, reminders that no, really, we do have a way to explain away all those nasty things the scientists and historians are saying and doing about the biblical "truth," and reminders to send in your tithes and donations as necessary.
Inland radio is both more communal and encompassing.
The encompassing part is kinda scary: in their world, in the news, there are no Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc: there are only "Believers" and everyone else. You're either a "Believer" or an infidel. That's one very scary shift in vocabulary.
The biggest piece of news was how the ongoing turmoil in Iran is making it much harder for "Believers" to preach inside Iran, but how it also presented an opportunity for "Believers" to press harder.
In fact, that was one of the things that really made my hair stand up-- every single news article contained an examination of how the incident being described could be used to extend the power of the Believer Hegemony. Often, in the mainstream media, there's an examination of who's up and who's down in any conflict, but in every case, every news article included an "We can and will exploit this event to the Church's benefit by doing such-and-such." Very creepy.
The more communal part was an hour-long "Let's pray for..." message. One prayer, for a boy with brain cancer, reminded me of Heather MacDonald's piece, The Conundrum of Prayer. But it was strange to hear "We're still praying after two years for Bob to settle his legal troubles..." as if there were no more to be said, and the whole audience had been following this obscure, talked-in-whispers legal issue, and knew everything about it. And I still wondered, what good did all that praying do? Whom did it comfort? Did it feel like accomplishment without accomplishing anything?
Still wondering.
Inland radio is both more communal and encompassing.
The encompassing part is kinda scary: in their world, in the news, there are no Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc: there are only "Believers" and everyone else. You're either a "Believer" or an infidel. That's one very scary shift in vocabulary.
The biggest piece of news was how the ongoing turmoil in Iran is making it much harder for "Believers" to preach inside Iran, but how it also presented an opportunity for "Believers" to press harder.
In fact, that was one of the things that really made my hair stand up-- every single news article contained an examination of how the incident being described could be used to extend the power of the Believer Hegemony. Often, in the mainstream media, there's an examination of who's up and who's down in any conflict, but in every case, every news article included an "We can and will exploit this event to the Church's benefit by doing such-and-such." Very creepy.
The more communal part was an hour-long "Let's pray for..." message. One prayer, for a boy with brain cancer, reminded me of Heather MacDonald's piece, The Conundrum of Prayer. But it was strange to hear "We're still praying after two years for Bob to settle his legal troubles..." as if there were no more to be said, and the whole audience had been following this obscure, talked-in-whispers legal issue, and knew everything about it. And I still wondered, what good did all that praying do? Whom did it comfort? Did it feel like accomplishment without accomplishing anything?
Still wondering.