The furor continues
Marty's story made it into Agape Press, a widely read Evangelical news service.
Three letters to the editor appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.
WORD's cowardice
Fightin' WORDs
Fightin' WORDs II
"Shaun Pierce, a producer at Christian radio station WORD-FM, writes a personal Web log, dealing with issues of religion and politics and rarely mentioning his work. But when Marty Minto, onetime host of the station's afternoon talk show, was fired a month ago, Pierce had a dilemma on his hands."
"Should he address the issue on his Web site and discuss why Minto was fired?"
"Or was it best to let this sleeping dog lie?"
….
"Dare he?"
"He did. One of several Web log entries to address the firing said Minto was a friend, but went on to write that he was not fired for his views on the pope — something Minto had said in several subsequent interviews. (The station, in an official memo, said Minto 'tended to unnecessarily alienate listeners.') Minto, on another Web site, said that Pierce gets away with his blog chatter partly because he's Roman Catholic, while Minto, an Evangelical, got canned."
"In short, the whole thing turned ugly, first in cyberspace. But that sort of thing can end up ugly in the workspace, too."
"'All of the sudden, there was some national attention on what I was doing,' said Pierce, 33. 'If you think you're blogging in private, you're fooling yourself.'"
"Somebody, somewhere, is reading. That's why Pierce, who is still employed at the radio station, now has placed a large disclaimer at the top of his page that says, 'opinions expressed herein are exclusive to Powerblog! and do not represent the views of any employer, organization or outside entity.'"
Ironically, this article drew almost as much heat as the blog posts themselves. Consequently, Powerball has deleted all posts related to Marty Minto. He feels it's better to be safe than sorry.
Funky Dung
Comments 8
It's too bad. I would rather have a big Christian personality (okay, big with regard to Pittsburgh!) who would rally Catholics and Orthodox, rather than have a link on his personal website to "Good News for Catholics", to teach us Catholics what the Bible really says. But we do need challenging folk as well, and I pray that this is not a symptom that WORD is becoming another easy-listening station, so to speak.
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Posted 15 Apr 2005 at 4:07 am ¶So was he fired because:
a) he called The Purpose-Driven [Insert Purpose-Deprived Thing] the moral, therapeutic, deistic schlock that it is?
b) because he was an ill-informed anti-Catholic bigot?
If (a) that really is too bad, and confirms my thesis that "safe" Christian Radio is anything but… If (b) then… well… that still seems like no reason to fire him. Seems we still all benefit from folks stirring up the stew a bit…
We have a "Christian" Radio station here in N. Jersey that goes on-and-on now about how "safe for your whole family" they are. But I really have to wonder just how "safe" their milk-toast programming and profoundly insipid music really is… I have to wonder how many people will try to enter by the wide gate and broad way exactly because it seemed "safe." "Safe" is exactly what mainstream CCM and X-ian broadcast radio is trying to be… and I can't help but wonder just how dangerous being "safe" really is… Give me bare boobs @ the Superbowl anyday over this…
Cheers!
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Posted 15 Apr 2005 at 2:58 pm ¶Eric,
At least I'm self-employed. I can't be fired for blogging what I think. How people react at church might be a different matter, but one I'm prepared to deal with.
How about you?
If Marty speaks with an attorney, that will be disappointing. Somehow, Christians suing Christians just looks real bad.
So tell me, how do we heal the Christian community and the Christians from this hurt?
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Posted 15 Apr 2005 at 3:34 pm ¶We live in a predominantly Christian country. Christians sue Christians every day, and it does no remarkable harm.
Also, I don't know that non-Christian radio stations pose a particular threat to children. We spend an awful lot of time and energy protecting children from some media threat which has never really been demonstrated to exist.
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Posted 15 Apr 2005 at 4:31 pm ¶Christians suing Christians proves that we do not take the gospel seriously. Plenty of non-Christians will have their ideas about Christianity confirmed if such a lawsuit is filed.
Come to think of it, there's a lot of us Christians who will have their ideas about fellow Christians confirmed by that lawsuit.
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Posted 15 Apr 2005 at 10:14 pm ¶Phew! This is a 'Hot' one mate! Thanks for the link, deeply appreciated!
GBYAY
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Posted 16 Apr 2005 at 2:39 am ¶Christianity Today has picked up the story here.
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Posted 16 Apr 2005 at 6:58 am ¶test
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Posted 07 Feb 2006 at 4:50 pm ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 4
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