January 29, 2018
It was the late 80s or early 90s. I kept hearing people talk about Rush Limbaugh, how they would listen to him for hours and really eat it up. These were good people — good Christians, educated, active in church leadership, caring about others, responsible people.
So I tried it. One afternoon I turned on the radio and listened to Rush. I listed for perhaps a couple of hours, certainly no more. I thought, “Why would anybody want to listen to this drivel?”
I was not into the political scene. At election time I compared candidates and their personalities and their views somewhat. I compared their values with mine and voted. When in doubt I voted Republican, as my parents had. I voted for some Democrats as well.
When I listened to Rush, I’m not sure I was even aware of the fact that he was an extreme conservative. I didn’t think of him as being political. But what I heard was extremely offensive. Instead of hearing an intelligent, thinking man discussing things on an intellectual basis, I heard a playground bully ridiculing everybody who did not agree with him, calling them names, exaggerating their positions, putting them down as worthless human beings because they didn’t agree with him. I could not see how this could possibly be beneficial to a society. And why Christians would be listening to this and getting into it was beyond me.
I was pastoring a small church in a small town at the time. We had about 70-80 attendance on Sunday mornings and perhaps 20-25 in the evening. One Sunday evening I mentioned my experience listening to Rush, and how harmful I thought it was — intellectually, spiritually and emotionally. My head deacon stormed out of the church. So afterward I tracked him down, and he was angry with me. He was angry because I had always said I would never talk about politics from the pulpit, and I replied that I hadn’t said anything political. But when I criticized Rush Limbaugh he interpreted it as talking politics.
I’ve tried to stay away from talk radio and television. Once, however, I sat down in front of the tv in the evening and turned on Fox News. Glenn Beck’s show was on. I listened to him rant for awhile against the liberals until a commercial came on. Then I switched to a station where Keith Olberman was railing against the conservatives. Each commercial break I switched back to the other. After about an hour I had had all I could take.
These people are intelligent and knowledgeable. But they are using their gifts to entertain people and make millions of dollars. The more listeners they can hook, the more they make. And the more blatant their attacks, the more people listen. And that cannot possibly be good for the country. And listening to them cannot possibly be good for people who want to follow Jesus Christ in their lives.
In the first three quarters of the 20th century Democrats and Republicans disagreed, but respected each other as having wrong, but legitimate beliefs. However, in the last 40 years that has changed dramatically. Now each accuses the other of hating America and trying to destroy it. They are mortal enemies. Since the country is pretty evenly divided between the two, a very small shift in the line between them brings about very different government policies.
I don’t know that we can blame Rush Limbaugh for the state we are in — but he and his ilk must bear some blame for it — after all, if you are not the solution, you may well be the problem. When democracy dies in America there will be much finger-pointing and blame given. And when the scholars write the books, most people won’t read them, because it would make them think.
I don’t read a lot of scholarly books, but I sometimes do. They may come from authors with a conservative bent, or perhaps liberal, but never attack books. I’ve opened a few of those and discarded them after a few pages. But what I see going on now could well end democracy in my lifetime. Or not, depending on the gatekeepers in the government.
But what I do see is a lot of Christian patriolatry — Christians being far more concerned about the state of their country than about the state of the church. Christian teachings are cast aside in the promotion of fear. In my lifetime we have been driven by fear of communism, socialism, homosexuals, pro-choicers, environmentalism, immigrants, Muslims, and who knows what else. The agenda of fear has kept us from reaching out with the love of God to those who need Jesus.
Our society is less Christian (not necessarily bad, but that’s for another blog), and unbelievers have a much worse view of evangelicals. We have pretty much brought that on ourselves. Fortunately, there are still many good and wonderful things being done by the church, and many people coming to Christ. But our distraction by political fighting is a serious problem that continues to grow.
by Ken McGarvey
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