Who Is Watching Joel?

The Riddleblog ^ | February 26, 2015 | Kim Riddlebarger

[Gamecock]

Who is watching Joel Osteen? Not I! But he does amaze me. How can he preach on the exact same topic every Sunday--"God wants me to be better"--and, yet make it seem different?

When it comes to Christian media, and who accesses it, the numbers are revealing. Who Is Watching TV or Listening to Christian Radio?

Only 8% of Americans admit to watching Christian television regularly--I'll bet the demographics here are interesting. Probably older women with blue hair, who live below the Mason-Dixon line, and east of Mississippi.

24% watch Christian TV "sometimes," 27% "rarely," and 40% "never."

Christian radio fares a tad worse. 10% listen "regularly," 17% "sometimes," 19% "rarely," 52% "never."

Podcast numbers are low (the media is new). 4% "regularly," 10% "sometimes," 11% "rarely," 72% "never."

The numbers also show that

67 percent of Americans never or rarely watch Christian-based programming on television. Those who do watch at least sometimes are overwhelmingly self-identified evangelicals (69 percent) and weekly churchgoers (62 percent).

71 percent never or rarely listen to Christian radio. Those who do are similar to the Christian TV crowd — 67 percent are evangelicals and 57 percent are weekly churchgoers.

84 percent of Americans never or rarely listen to Christian-themed podcasts. Books and movies fared slightly better: 33 percent said they at least sometimes read Christian-based books. And 40 percent report seeing a Christian movie in the last year.

[.45 Long Colt]

Dr. Riddlebarger is an idiot? LOL

[Zuriel]

LOL!

[Steve_Seattle]

I sometimes watch Charles Stanley, Sid Roth, Jack van Impe, and Hal Lindsey, all of whom are getting on in years. I watch them for different reasons:

Stanley - Pretty much mainstream Protestant theology with a VERY SMALL dose of prosperity teaching. Anecdotal and informal, I find him a pretty good preacher.

Lindsey - Kind of a reassuring demeanor, an Evangelical Walter Cronkite. I prefer his commentary on current events to be preferable to his "prophecy" stuff, although they are often intertwined.

Roth - I think some of his guests are a bit dubious, but every few weeks he has a guest who I find interesting. Roth's emphasis on supernatural events can cut both ways - can be fascinating, dubious, or embarrassing.

Van Impe - I confess this is just kind of goofy entertainment for me, with Van Impe rattling off Bible verses while "explaining" the week's headlines and tying them (in his view) to Bible prophecy. But Rexella seems very sweet, and announcer Chuck Ohman can play a mean trumpet on occasion.

[thesligoduffyflynns]

for starters one would think one would cut their tv watching to minimum either thru going cableless or use selective programming.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Concentrating on people and things that irritate you is bad for body, soul and spirit. I think Paul said that much better then I could.

[fungoking]

My dad is a preacher as is my brother and my father in law. No need for a TV preacher.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Would you buy a used car for this man?

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

I listen to BOT Radio Network at times; especially when Jay Secula with the ACLJ is on.

[KoRn]

LOL My cousin and I used to watch that guy late at night on TV. It was more fun than any comedy movie!

At the time we didn’t know whether the guy was for real, or a joke parody of a ‘TV Preacher’. This was back during the late 80s, I think. I wonder if he’s still alive. lol

[Lee N. Field]

On another note, are the Nephilim coming or not?

Jesus tells us what he means by "as in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man." Of course, the nephelim obsessed will twist that, but it's (IMHO) a very strained interpretation.

There is a lot of silly stuff and wild speculation out there on this topic, but it’s interesting to consider.

Here's an alternative: The Sons of God and Daughters of Man in Genesis 6

Throughout history, Genesis 6 has puzzled Bible interpreters. Who are the sons of God? Are they human royalty? Angelic beings? Demons? And who are the daughters of men? Did the union of these two produce demigod offspring who would plague the land? Rita F. Cefalu joins us to bring clarity to this discussion. Ms. Cefalu has written an excellent article, “Royal Priestly Heirs to the Restoration Promise of Genesis 3:15: A Biblical Theological Perspective on the Sons of God in Genesis 6″ published in the Westminster Theological Journal. Building upon Meredith Kline, but offering her own interpretation on the matter, Ms. Cefalu provides a thorough and compelling treatment of this difficult passage.

I'll need to review this myself. I was driving when I listened, and couldn't give it the sustained attention it needed.

The nutty stuff we see these days makes the Genesis flood about corrupted genetics and not human sin.

[SubMareener]

Mrs Submareener and I listen to Joel every week for encouragement. Charley Garrett, Alan Horvath, Damian Kyle, and JD are great for Bible Study and prophecy updates, but Joel provides the encouragement that we need in these troubled times.

[GeronL]

Osteen would be very very low on my list of stuff to watch at 2:30AM after some infomercials

[captmar-vell]

I haven’t watched “christian television” whatever that is, since the 1980s,

I have to wonder if its even possible to make it on TV without being a corrupt deceitful shyster like an Ernest Angely or Osteen or Tilton or whoever the latest faddish purpose driven drivel teacher being touted in the MSM as ‘Americas’ preacher is, merely because they tacitly normalize every evil this world has to offer and Oprah has blessed their message to the unwashed masses,

[.45 Long Colt]

You would probably learn just as much from Kevin Trudeau or the ShamWow guy.

[.45 Long Colt]

“The nutty stuff we see these days makes the Genesis flood about corrupted genetics and not human sin.”

I was shocked when I realized people believe that. There seem to be a number of people teaching it and talking about it. Many of them probably couldn’t explain substitutionary atonement or imputation, but they’ve got the Sons of God and the rapture down.

[Gamecock]

***The nutty stuff we see these days makes the Genesis flood about corrupted genetics and not human sin.***

Really? That’s kooky talk!

[make no mistake]

I listen to Pastor JD every week too. I learned of him through a Freeper here. My son and his wife now listens to him and they have friends now that do the same. I also listen to many different Pastors on TV plus the internet. I may not always agree with them but I do reserve the right to change the channel if I don’t. I thank God we, as Americans have so many different churches to choose from or not.

[Lee N. Field]

There was a thread a while back on Freerepublic, where one of the participants was a parole officer out west somewhere. He said these beliefs were similar to beliefs he found among some of the neo-nazi types he'd had to deal with.

(I can't point you to that because things went south and the whole thread got deleted. I just thought that was a very interesting observation.)

[RginTN]

when I hang out with my mom we watch the Catholic and Protestent tv channels. We both listen to Christian radio, I listen to klove when I’m not listening to talk radio.

Watching Christian tv helped make my transition into being a Conservative quite natural when I was 13 yr old.

[yldstrk]

Charles Stanley is serious, by his writings.