Former Southern Baptist Convention President Jerry Vines has stirred up an interfaith hornets nest with his description of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, as being a "demon-possessed pedophile."
Vines made the comments at the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference in St. Louis as a criticism of the increase of religious pluralism.
Vines said, "Today, people are saying all religions are the same. They would have us believe Islam is just as good as Christianity. But I'm here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that Islam is not as good as Christianity."
Vines continued, "Christianity was founded by the virgin-born Lord Jesus Christ. Islam was founded by Muhammad, a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives, and his last one was a 9-year-old girl."
And there was more. Refuting the Muslim belief that they are descendants of Abraham and serve the same God as Jews and Christians, though they call him Allah, Vines said, "Allah is not Jehovah. Jehovah is not going to turn you into a terrorist that'll try to bomb people and take the lives of thousands and thousands of people."
Vines' strong but true remarks drew the expected denunciations from Muslims and liberal mainline denominational leaders but he drew some fire from some radio talk show hosts as well – traditionally regarded as a bastion of conservatism.
The remarks I heard from one talk show host about Vines comments greatly upset me, because I'm a fan of conservative talk radio. In fact, I'm more than a fan. I'm a talk radio addict, with my car radio buttons preset for the area news talk stations.
Not surprisingly, my "addiction" follows me nationwide. When I go out of town, I always look for the local talk station and Los Angeles, where I'm pursuing my Ph.D. is no exception.
But some of my listening habits are about to change. Lately, I've been getting increasingly upset about the direction some talk radio is heading and comments I heard on one talk station in Los Angeles this week served to reinforce those concerns.
For example. Commenting on Vines' statement that Jesus was born of a virgin, one Los Angeles talk show host fumed "They're (Christians) always pushing virginity. They're never going to back away from that. Why couldn't Jesus come from a loving sex act? That's the root of some of the Catholic weirdness."
He just didn't get it and comments that I've heard this guy make before make me think that he has no desire to understand why Jesus couldn't have been our Redeemer if He had been born as the result of a "loving sex act." It has nothing to do with Christian attitudes toward sex.
And it's more than some of these shows being unfriendly to religious conservatives. Some of them make no attempt to promote even basic family friendly values. Now I might expect worse behavior in Los Angeles than Albuquerque but the same thing's happening here too. Things have really taken a downward slide on our major conservative talk station..
Take a few days ago, for instance. This radio station's weather forecast is provided by the local ABC television affiliate. During some friendly chatter between the two, the television weathercaster told the substitute radio host that he was really tired. An innocent enough remark, wouldn't you think? Sadly, not any more. In a voice dripping with innuendo, the radio host asked the meteorologist, "Were you BUSY last night?" There was no mistaking what he meant.
The downward spiral continued the next day. The host and his producer were talking about getting their dogs groomed. The host said that after getting groomed his dog becomes very excited. A trivial but harmless enough story if it finished right there, but not a hope. The host said that when his dog gets excited he tells him, "Not on my leg, use hers!"
Haven't the sort of people who listen to conservative talk radio grown past that? Conservative talk radio grew because of its attraction to both Christian and family-minded conservatives. Hosts didn't hesitate to say what was right and what was wrong and their discussion was serious, intelligent and reflected traditional American morality.
I guess that's changed in Albuquerque. When the individual I talked about above substitute hosts, clean intelligent discussion goes out the window and morning shows are endless rounds of banal discussion routinely sprinkled with foul language and bathroom humor. Sadly, this is a station that for many years conservative Christians regularly tuned in to and one that was regarded as a family friendly.
Well, after this guy goes off the air there's relative safety and you can tune into Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura. However, the family friendly zone ends at 3 p.m. when the station's regular afternoon host hits the airwaves. While there's plenty of good discussion on this guy's show, it's also punctuated with profanity, bathroom humor and attacks against conservative Christians.
In a recent article on crosswalk.com (http://news.crosswalk.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID74088|CHID194343|CIID1139204,00.html) titled "Why aren't there any left wing talk show hosts?" author Kelly Boggs commented "When you tune into a conservative radio show, what you hear is what you get. There is no pretense of balance. The hosts are loud and proud of their conservatism. They offer no apology for the right-of-center views they express. You may not agree with the message but at least you know what to expect -- a conservative bias."
True, Kelly. But ultimately, is dirty, ignorant, foul-mouthed conservatism any better than mealy-mouthed liberalism? Some years ago I was interviewed on a Christian talk station whose motto was "talk radio hell hates." THAT'S the sort of radio I want to find and start listening to. Currently, I think that the devil loves much of conservative talk radio and that the Lord's not very pleased with it.
If your local talk station is pushing talk filth, tune out and let station officials know what you think. Today's handful of media conglomerates which own the majority of radio stations in the United States will do whatever works, i.e. brings in the ratings and makes money. Tell them that filth doesn't work for you!