Do reglious people still persecute others?
Do reglious people still persecute others?
(originally written in 1997)
For several years our church had a Sunday afternoon broadcast on a local radio station. For almost 30 years, the station had been country-western station. On Sundays, they played gospel music and had preaching all day. In mid-1994 someone bought the station and decided to make it a full-time "Christian" station. Well, from the start we could tell that it was going to be more ecumenical than anything, because they played almost any music that called itself Christian, even rock-n-roll. They still took ads for events that were sponsored by beer companies. We also noticed that they wanted to allow anyone on the air who claimed to be called to preach, whether it be a woman, a Pentecostal, a Methodist, a "non-denominational," whatever. No matter whether you had one wife or forty-eight, as long as you paid the money, you could preach. They also emphasized that they were now "Love radio." Yes, tolerant, compromising, no-stance-on-anything, I-wouldn't-yell-snake-if-it-was-around-my-neck love!
Naturally, we felt compelled to speak out concerning much of the error we saw going on around us. For most time since they became "Christian," they "put up" with us. From time to time, we would get little side-speeches from management about hate-preaching. We had also been notified occasionally that we were mysteriously behind on payments, even though we paid a whole month in advance. It all came to a head on February 22, 1997. Our county was scheduled to vote on whether to allow liquor by the drink on March 18, 1997. For this vote to be put on a ballot, 3 of the 5 commissioners had to vote in approval of this. We called their names on the air on February 16 and told the listeners that those commissioners who voted for the liquor are a shame and a disgrace and needed to be saved. The next Monday morning, with no advance notice, we had been replaced by "The Baptist Hour," the weekly SBC three-ring-circus. Incidentally, that broadcast is sponsored by the son of a local IFB pastor. It gets better. Wednesday of that same week, we finally received a letter that our broadcast had been canceled. The reason: we supposedly owed $36.00. This was the first we had heard of this. Moreover, we know of at least 3 others who were consistently late in paying their broadcast but are never warned or canceled. So, Thursday morning one of our preachers went to the station to ask the manager and his associates what the real problem was. Unbeknownst to them, he had a tape recorder in his pocket. As the conversation proceeded, it became clear that the real reason for our dismissal was our preaching, especially our name-calling. Near the end, they specifically stated, "If you sign this agreement that you will no longer call names on the air, we will drop the issue of the money and let you back on." Our stance was (and is) that we will not let anyone dictate to us how to preach what God tells us to preach (besides the fact that we were not behind in our payments). Saturday morning, another brother and I had a broadcast. We asked our pastor to preach this broadcast so that he could use the time to expose the station and its management for that they are. We also had already determined that to be our last broadcast and to let those that support us put the money elsewhere. So, out of a 30 minute broadcast, we got through 15 minutes before they cut off the man of God in the midst of rebuking the heretic, compromising, hireling station owner/manager, a man who has repeatedly attacked the KJB, the people of God, and any truth that stood in his way.
Three local IFB pastors went to the station that same Monday. They were handed a copy of the "past-due" bill and a copy of the letter that they sent us. Nothing was said about the real reason. Two of these men, who used to support us in all areas, commenced then to propagating the lie that we were cut off because we would not pay our bill. One of these men told one of our preachers that we are too controversial, and should not even be preaching on the streets. He also says we should not deal with sin - that is the Holy Spirit's job. This same man runs a camp meeting here annually in which he always says, "Just preach Jesus!" Yeah, right! You know what he means. He can't stand to lose support so don't offend anyone. Lastly, a "good friend" of ours who is a local IFB pastor said that if we got removed from the air, he would "deal with it" on his Sunday morning broadcast. Did he? Well, it was a good Sunday school lesson, but he said nothing that could have been construed as support of us or condemnation of the radio station. He knows which side the bread is buttered on. So far, 4 local pastors who used to be "with us" have shown their true colors and have basically sided against us.
