I am an avid watcher of NPR and NPT. I do not financially support them. I love that they provide the BritBox fare of Masterpiece, to the Antiques Roadshow, and so many other programs I enjoy. I do not pay much attention to their news programs or to their social programming. I much prefer Lawrence Welk and Hyacinth Bucket to their political point of view. It saddens me that they are seemingly blind to this slant and presume that everyone from rural America to the hicks in the South are as dependent upon their news and political commentary as are the erudite liberals of the coasts and educational institutions. I am sad that the loss of governmental money might reduce some of the programming I enjoy but I can always tune into BritBox directly to satisfy me even though it is often easier to turn on my TV and get it from the local national public whatever stations. The whole idea that without governmental support and without the voice of public television there will be people who will not get the unvarnished truth is laughable. My local station is running a financial campaign to make up for the loss of the government money and insists that they are the only ones who ask the "hard questions." As most folks know already, news media hardly ever asks the hard questions of those whom they support and nearly always uses their hard questions to challenge the people they do not support.
I gave up on NPR when the local station decided that experimental music was better than classical and relegated their small offering to some HD channel I cannot get in my car. You would have thought they might keep classical music since it is supposed to be high brow but now they are more interested in music programmed by LGBTQIA+ than the masters -- not unlike some symphony orchestra and their programming directors. I cannot tell you how many times I have tuned into public radio or television only to roll my eyes at their seemingly naivete in displaying a blatant political slant to what is supposed to be neutral news and commentary. However, since the rest of the media has presumed that their job is to tell us what the news means (commentary) instead of giving us the facts, why would we expect the public versions of that media not to follow suit? Thus my growing disdain for nearly all media but in particular for one which enjoys governmental support.
That said, there might be a lesson here. Although the IRS and government seems to be loosening the rules with respect to churches and politics, there is a cost to be borne by becoming political. Yes, the churches do need to address moral issues without restraint but identifying with a particular political party or cause has the downside of diluting what is our own essential purpose. We are here to proclaim the Gospel of Christ crucified and risen. Everything flows from that but, more importantly, is less important than this.
The reality is the politics have always been connected to churches. Some wags once suggested that the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod was the Republican Party at prayer. While not technically accurate since survey after survey has indicated this is not a true stereotype, the tag has stuck. Roman Catholics were once universally seen as Democrats. Again, while it was never quite as true as the image of it, the stereotype stuck. We are not about parties but issues that flow from our confession, not about candidates but about positions, not about telling people who to vote for but urging them to vote from an informed Christian perspective. That will always lead to different outcomes and no party mirrors the causes and concerns of the Church. Public television and radio forgot that along the way and we dare not follow them in this dead end path. If churches enter the stage with an opinion, it better be clear why this issue is one of confession and creed and not simply another attempt to sell a point of view. Without this, it won't be long before the IRS changes its mind and without Christ as our proclamation we will become merely another slanted outlet for opinions. Under it all it better be the Word of the Lord that endures forever.
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Public television (PBS) and NPR are channels my wife and I sometimes watch, but primarily because of the British mysteries, cooking shows, some comedies, and the oldies specials which feature folk singers and early rock. However, in the last few years they have become more woke and unashamedly push slanted dramas advocating LGBTQ lifestyles. Even the “Father Brown” mysteries have this detective/priest spouting things like, “You can’t help who you choose to love,” when speaking to a character involved in a homosexual relationship. It is true that PBS inculcates their biased values into the storyline of these mysteries in keeping with their liberal agenda. They feel that over time they can win the battle for the “hearts and minds” of viewers by tearing down traditional moral and biblical values slowly but steadily. I think their strategy is working for much of the viewing population, but not entirely. By creating sympathetic fictional characters and “oppressed” groups, the writers believe many will abandon the Bible’s definitions of moral behavior and succumb to the modern liberality of Western society. It seems to push some Christians to adopt a neutral position, even if they do not entirely embrace the LGBTQ agenda. The mysteries on PBS nowadays even seem to justify murder, where they create a character that is sympathetic and an antagonist that is a scoundrel, and the scoundrel is killed off. This too is a form of social engineering. I suppose this is why, for Christians, entertainment media generally can be regarded as a minefield. One has to pick and choose where to walk, and while some mines can be detected visually, many more are buried beneath the soil, and deadly. It is not without urgency that the word of God stresses that the child of God guard their heart. Soli Deo Gloria.
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