Aka Christo-American Radio
-Some reflections on
an episode that demand comment
I know there are some readers at this site who listen or
have listened to the programme CrossTalk. It's a pretty popular Christian radio
show that's broadcast all across the country. I don't actually get it where I
live but every once in awhile I will download and listen to a podcast.
They come across as very conservative, very committed to
Biblical fidelity. But this programme and those put out by others, play no
small part in what started me wanting to write, to do something, to counter
their message. They are reaching a considerable number of people that really
are sincere in wanting to adhere to Biblical Christianity. I'm arguing that
programmes like this are actually leading them astray.
CrossTalk and some of the folks affiliated with the
programme call out and denounce people like Rick Warren and others who are
perverting the Church. However, they're just as guilty.
CrossTalk is not merely tainted but completely saturated
with what I call Christo-Americanism. America is the supreme object of devotion
and it clouds all their discussions. We get all the pronoun confusion that
frequently happens in these circles. The 'us' and 'we' one moment refer to the
Church, and without missing a beat the Church is substituted for America. The
language of the collective is schizophrenic, as is their identification and
concept of the Kingdom of God. One moment it's spiritual, the next it's
superimposed on if not coextensive with the Western Christendom. And in the
American narrative, the United States alone is the faithful remnant, the true
heirs of the Sacred West. Their Dispensationalism only exacerbates this.
Just the other day, (and I'm providing the link for those
who are curious or perhaps new to either this type of show, or my type of
argument against it) they set out to paint a dark picture of the Wall Street
protest movement.
As with all these programmes, there's always a lot of fear
being peddled.
In this episode they decided to play the conspiratorial
connect-the-dots. Basically every Islamic, Communist, Left-wing,
Environmentalist, and any other organization that might not ally itself with
the Republican Party or the Christian-Right narrative is involved in this
protest or somehow backing it. It's a grand conspiracy, not against corrupt
powers...it's as if the Kingdom of God and Righteousness is under assault.
There are so many false assumptions and bad arguments it's
hard to know where even to begin. Despite their efforts to link these groups in
many cases they are in absolute opposition. Whenever there's a challenge to the
power status-quo, all the vultures show up. It hardly means they're all on the
same team. If they bothered to study any history they would learn every social
conflict let alone every war is fought for a complex of reasons and sometimes
people on the same side fight for very different causes and with divergent
goals. Instead of history, we get what can only be called erroneous and
childish expositions as can be found at this link to a talk by William Federer.
I can't seem to secure a transcript of this talk. I wish I could, because
there's barely a sentence in it that is accurate or can stand up to the most
basic criticism. This is a perfect demonstration of what they call Christian
Worldview being applied to History being nothing more than self-vindicating
propaganda, and consequently not a Christian Worldview at all.
The show is most telling during the call in segments. I'm
sorry to say it, but the United States has gained a reputation for being
uneducated and certainly provincial in outlook. The Church is not only not
exempt but perhaps a stronghold of this type of ignorance. The call-in segments
put it on display.
I don't say this to simply bash on Americans. Americans do
have their problems, but in the Church the ignorance has grown exponentially
over the past thirty years. This is largely due to an utter failure on the part
of Church leaders and in many cases rather than being taught to think, the
average 'person in the pew' has been force fed Dominionist propaganda
concerning history, politics, economics, and the rest. Before the rise of the
Christian Right things were pretty bad, but since its ascendancy we're reached
the point of utter crisis.
The average caller and the hosts for that matter seem to
grasp very little of the issues they talk about especially when it comes to
history or political ideas. They throw terms about obviously having no idea
what they mean. Just one example from this particular episode. The host
referred to the Wall Street Journal as Marxist-Leninist.
Now the Wall Street Journal is probably not as extreme Right
Wing as they come, but just about everyone would consider the Wall Street Journal to be a Right Wing, and in the American system a Conservative or
pro-Republican periodical. Calling it Marxist makes about as much sense as
calling John Wayne a hippie.
But to the CrossTalk folks they've painted themselves into
such a narrow ideological corner that they're seeing bogeymen and adversaries
on every front. Republicans and Conservatives who don't use the right
watchwords and who may verbalize something even conciliatory to one of the
wrong groups....are immediately pegged as some kind of Communist infiltrators.
But it is quite evident that very few in Christian circles
can even begin to elaborate and provide even a basic definition of these terms.
Socialism is...the government owns everything. Fascism is...the government
tells everyone what to do and controls everyone. These types of definitions are
not only unhelpful but perhaps even harmful.
Albert Mohler (another Christian media celebrity) regularly
berates the Occupy Wall Street movement for not having any kind of clear
objectives. He keeps trying to paint them as lost and wandering nihilists. Not
only does he misrepresent them, but I would say just go on YouTube on watch
some of the attendees at Sarah Palin rallies, or Tea Party events...not FOX news
clips, there are others available...and you'll quickly see a good portion of
the people have no clue as to how their own country or society works, the way
America projects its power, let alone economics. And when asked why they
support Palin or why they march with the Tea Party?
'We're trying to stop Socialism!'.....but then they don't
seem to know what it means.
'We're taking our country back!'....but then they can't seem
to elaborate what that means.
Of course there were also many classics...like the signs
saying things like 'Get your government hands off my Medicare.'
Am I alone in finding it scary these people are allowed
to vote?
Every popular movement sweeps up a lot of people who cannot elaborate the agenda. It doesn't matter what side of the political spectrum they are on. Mohler's comments don't reflect Biblical Worldview. They reflect a political agenda.
This does not mean I support Occupy Wall Street...but then
again I'm not trying to argue the Capitalist system is the Biblical blueprint
for economics. I'm sitting on the outside watching everything with great
interest, but I don't have a stake in the power game. I'm not trying to make
Babylon into Zion. That's what it's all about...power. The story of Church History has been dominated by those who think the Church is supposed to acquire and accumulate social and political power...making the Kingdom very much of this world.
And the real story, the one you can barely read about, is about the Remnant who reject and oppose this and are persecuted as a result.
It's no surprise that in these circles Joseph McCarthy is
still looked at as some kind of hero, rather than the fear-monger, attention
seeker, liar and corruptor that he was. This type of Christianity really smells
a lot more of McCarthy, Goldwater, and Reagan than it does Paul or Peter. They denounce this type of behaviour, but then practice it with great zeal.
The Wall Street Journal is owned by Newscorp the same
organization that owns FOX news and nowadays it also controls a good portion of
the Christian publishing industry in the United States. Now as Christians
committed to honesty and truth, certainly we can and perhaps even ought to be
critical of Rupert Murdoch, but with the CrossTalk folks it's not that Rupert
Murdoch is promoting fear and lies and manipulating politics through his media
empire...it's that he's not Conservative enough, not overtly Christian enough.
It's the same with Glenn Beck. They criticize him because he's Mormon and they
don't like some of his loose religious talk. But politically speaking, though
they try to suggest they're not confusing Nationalism with Christianity...it's
pretty blatant in almost every episode they largely agree with the ideas Beck
stands for.
Their fear is not the idea of Christian America. They don't
reject that at all. Their fear is that Christians in seeking to bring about
Christian America will compromise along the way and end up with a kind of
quasi-Christian America. It won't be really and truly Christian. Sometimes it
sounds as if they're trying to warn others not to fall for "Christian
Politics"....but listen carefully.
I argue with every ounce of my being, that all these
Sacralist impulses always end in failures. They will never get the Christian
nations or societies they seek. They will always end up with a hybrid.
What's more dangerous, a pagan country that declares itself
so, or a pagan country that declares itself Christian? I hope you know the
answer to that.
And in that country, the one that thinks it's Christian...what
does that do to the life of the Church? Many things, but one I always think of
was clear today on another Christian radio station I heard. They were talking
about The Atonement and assuming that most in their audience weren't familiar
with such a 'big theological word'. So, we have Churches filled with people who
are fired up about politics, geo-politics, economics, and demographics...but
don't know and cannot discuss even basic theological concepts...and one pretty
foundational to understand the gospel at that.
I have to say if I were trying to come up with a way to
subvert the Church, destroy it from within, but do it in a way that the people
being destroyed thought they were serving God in the process...I couldn't think
of a better way.
Listening to episodes like this, I'm embarrassed for them, that
is when I'm not outraged. It's just a muddled mess of bad conspiracy theory,
myths, guilt by association. There are Nazis hiding behind every rock.
Speaking of terms, how sad that they cannot see that their
ideology dangerously flirts with the combination of social and ideological
forces that historically lead to Fascism. Chris Hedges was right in identifying Dobson and a lot of these folks as nothing more than Fascists. It literally baffles
them. They cannot see that the fierce and deliberately blind nationalistic
religion, coupled with militarism, xenophobia, cultural superiority, and social
engineering all lead down the same road. It employs the same primary tools of
fear and anger. All it takes is a crisis. We got a taste of it in the days
following 11 September 2001. Now with the economic crisis and the continued
polarization...what do the days ahead hold for this country?
There now I'm spreading fear too. My fear is not of Islam
taking over this country. Just visit your local shopping mall. Depending on
where you live you might see some Muslims, but the majority of the population
is certainly not inclined to the social mores and posture of even a moderate
Islam let alone a more conservative form that requires the hijab. American
women aren't interested in covering...quite the opposite. I keep running into
people that literally think that in a few years where going to have the Islamic
call to prayer wafting through Times Square and apparently these same Americans
and going to drop to their knees in prostrations. And the NYPD under Sultan
Bloomberg will be there to enforce it. Let's hope he'll be so motivated that
he'll pick up and move to Gaza where they will give him a warm welcome...since
he regularly applauds Israeli tactics.
We would have another Civil War long before the United
States in Islamicized.
I can see America converting to Buddhism, Hinduism, or many
things...but Islam?
In the deluded worldview of the Christian-Right the Islamist
are teaming up with the Left to destroy America. Yes, Jane Fonda will soon be
donning the burqa and riding in the back of a Toyota with Mullah Omar on their
way to Quetta. Susan Sarandon, Nancy Pelosi, and certainly Barney Frank will
soon be calling for Sharia.
These folks believe the nation is under Judgment. Well, if
they would bother to read some real history rather than their mythologized
interpretations...they would see that even for a Common Grace nation, for a
Babylon among Babylons...yes, this country does deserve Judgment.
What about the American Church? If the Church is under
Judgment...it's the good folks of CrossTalk and the hordes of ministries and
programmes like them. They actually are what they fear, but they can't see it.
Strong Delusion...I don't know how else to make sense of it.
Everyone is being pushed into activism. It's the blind
leading the blind. What many of these folks need to do is Repent and sit back
for a while. These shows spread terror and endless false predictions. What's
the latest one? Well this episode predicted that the Occupy Protests will
worsen, and Obama is supporting it because he wants to declare martial law and
cancel the 2012 elections.
I'm no fan of Obama. He's a complete sell-out. He was
supposed to represent the kind of shift that Kennedy was going to bring.
Kennedy was killed for it...probably 'the' pivotal moment of post-War American
history...and Obama instead he decided to sell out, to capitulate. It had
already started before Election Day in November 2008.
So when the 2012 elections happen, will the CrossTalk folks
repent for their false predictions and lies? I'm not a betting man, but if I
were....I wouldn't bet on it. Hal Lindsey, Van Impe, and all of these folks
have been doing it for years and they'll answer for it.