A few posts ago I gave the example of the loss of Christian bookstores....I'll give a different example here....talk radio....or what was once conservative talk radio. I have been a talk radio listener since the mid-1960s....if you can believe that....primarily through KDKA radio in Pittsburgh. I know a little bit about talk radio....from the listeners side. It used to be....for the entire time that I was a regular listener....a genuine conversation.....sometimes boring as all get-out....but always at least a give-and-take. You could express your opinion....vent if you will....and the host could do his thing. There were a lot of bad ideas shared over those airwaves....but even more good ideas....and we as a society benefitted.
Well that is all gone. It began to disappear in the spring of 2017. Opinions opposing in any way Donald Trump....were no longer allowed....not like they were during the primaries. Every minute of every three hour show had to be reinforcing the MAGA narrative. Some like myself....just abandoned talk radio....frustrated that no other opinions were acceptable to the call screeners. Others just accepted that they were no longer part of the conversation....no longer read or researched or even thought on their own.....no longer questioned anything.....but just set about to memorize all the talking points.
Our minds slowly....but now completely....atrophied. There are no Christian bookstores....and few good books even if there was....and no evangelical leaders of stature....steeped in discernment that they learned from Christian leaders of the past. All the sermons today are....corporate sermons....in other words....an acceptable....lowest common denominator sermon.....that offends no one....entertains many....and fits in nicely with the image of a loving and caring and friendly and family community church dominated evangelicalism.
Redeemed Christians are a remnant in America today. Pat Robertson's progeny did not carry on his legacy of discernment....nor did Billy Graham's....and certainly not Jerry Falwell's. John MacArthur's pulpit apparently will not have a thundering voice of warning. Alistair Begg made a legitimate mistake....a slap on the hand mistake....the thing spiraled out of control....and we lost that influential pulpit....and there is no one to fill the shoes of R. C. Sproul....(those are shoes that cannot be filled without God's direct intervention.)
Podcasts have taken over....and they rely on that which titillates....and at times mesmerizes....the visual element. Gone are MacArthur's and Sproul's powerful daily teachings. Everyone is playing it conservatively. No one wants to actually say it let alone shout it out....to prepare quickly....for what all of the signs in God's Word point to.
