Friday, December 12, 2008

I get it now...

I think i finally figured out my problem with Xn radio (well, at least one of my problems).

Because I am a sucker for all things Xmas-ie (Xn, secular, Hanukkah, heck I'd even say Kwanzaa except I know nothing about it at all) I have been listening to the local Xn radio station non stop this last week to get my fill of Xmas music. And knowing that many people (like me) who don't usually listen to their station (wouldn't be caught dead comes to mind) are listening to it during the holidays they are trying everything they can think of to convince us to keep listening after the first of the year.

Their primary tack is to say that i should listen to them because it will improve my life by adjusting my attitude because their station is always "positive" and "uplifting".

And my question is (to myself really since I know there are only 2 people who will read this, "hi, Mikes") where is the connection between Xnty and being "positive" and "uplifting"? Its a serious question. Is this based on anything in Xnty at all? We are a religion centered around a cross for cryin out loud! Even the birth of Jesus is set in a time of infanticide! I mean seriously.

Now there is certainly hope in the Xn message, more than in any other story, I beleive. But that hope means nothing if it is not serious about the reality of the darkness in the world. There is no resurrection without the cross, there is no Xmas without advent.

So I actually think that by being universally "positive" and "uplifting" (if they even are, and if they're not, then they're lying, and that's another problem) contemporary Xn radio is being false to the Gospel. (I'm sure their nice people; I mean no disrespect, just a theological disagreement, that's all.)

5 comments:

  1. Yea, verily. Also, you should read Nadia's book. (Google Nadia Bolz-Weber - the book is _Salvation on the Small Screen?_, and it examines Christian TV through a somewhat similar lens, but one that's also extremely cynical, humbly vulnerable, and gut-busting hilarious. You can prolly borrow it from one of us.)

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  2. Dude, you are singing my tune... 'positive and uplifting?', when they're constantly hanging trash on people, etc.? I'm not buying it. Plus, it creates some serious cognitive dissonance for anyone who listens and is not miraculously delivered from the darkness and disappointment in their life. And their 'magical' view of the Bible-- random verses incanted during commercial breaks-- is highly suspect, too.

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  3. hi, I'm not a mike, and have nothing to add to the 'positive and plifting' conversation that you didn't hear me say many times in person...but
    1. you're right
    and
    2. hi

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  4. by the way, I listen to WASH (97.1) which is programming all Xmas all the time for the season...large portions of crap, but a little less of Amy Grant and Sandy Patty singing the same songs.

    They're also kind of positive and uplifting, vaguely in the manner of a woman in her 40s who decorates her cubicle with cat figurines. At least they don't bother Jesus about it.

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  5. I've thought about this alot actually. I feel the same way sometimes and other times I feel bad that I feel that way. It has to do with cheesyness in my mind.
    I just saw an ad on facebook (didn't click on it). there was a picture of Maya Angelo and it said: "I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you." Now, (of course putting aside that this is an ad), if the picure of Maya wasn't there I would say this was extremely cheesy/meaningless/words without content/pointing to a reality that isn't there. But with the picture there and all the other connotations I have of Maya, I think its a sweet ad. Because if she really said that, she actually meant it, and has demonstrated it in her poems and public speaking etc. The kind of radio stations you speak of are the same way. We've heard their message too many times that it doesn't have meaning anymore. It sounds cheesy and empty. "Uplifting?" we wonder, "how does me wanting to throw the radio through the window uplifting?" But its easy to forget that there IS a genuine heartfelt message behind those words. Hopefully the people that wrote the scripts and the people that own the radio and the DJ's etc take it to heart and mean what they say. Hopefully those short verse segments are well thought out and put there purposefully because they have meaning. Because Christianity IS uplifting; forgiveness is very positive. Freedom in Christ is uplifting and positive. Joy, peace, and love? Definately positive. But people like us just see the same old empty (may I even say hypocritical?) words. We think to ourselves that its just a radio station thats trying to get money. But some people do hear the genuine words and want to keep hearing them so they listen to that station.
    ~Dorothy Kern

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