Tag Archives: radio

Jerry Bowyer and the Catholic Church

Jerry Bowyer‘s attitude toward the Catholic Church is definitely a lot better than his predecessor‘s. Here are some podcasts from his show.

Jerry interviews Ronald Rychlak, author of ‘Righteous Gentiles: How Pius XII And the Catholic Church Saved Half a Million Jews from the Nazis‘, about the tremendous sacrifice European Catholics made to resist Hitler and save Jews, and dispels the myths that Hitler was Christian and that Christians turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. “

Jerry interviews George Weigel, author of ‘God’s Choice : Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church,’ about Benedict and his path from priest to pontiff.”

Jerry interviews Father Richard John Neuhaus, editor-in-chief of First Things, about the long-standing relationship between the Catholic Church and the Democratic Party, and where they will go from here.”

Jerry interviews Raymond Arroyo, the host of ‘The World Over Live’ on the Enternal Word Television Network, about Christian journalism.”

Amusing the Church to Death

"When church music directors lead the congregation in singing some praise music, I often listen stoically with teeth clenched. But one Sunday morning, I cracked. We had been led through endless repetitions of a meaningless ditty called, ‘Draw Me Close to You.’ The song has zero theological content and could be sung in a nightclub, for that matter. When I thought it was finally and mercifully over, the music leader beamed at us and said in a cheerful voice, ‘Let’s sing that again, shall we?’ ‘No!’ I shouted loudly. Heads all around me spun while my wife cringed."

"I admit I prefer more traditional hymns. But even given that, I am convinced that much of the music being written for the Church today reflects an unfortunate trend—slipping across the line from worship to entertainment. [We] are in danger of amusing ourselves to death, to borrow the title of the classic Neil Postman book."

That quote might have been written by any number of disgruntled (neo-, ultra-, or otherwise) traditionalist Catholics I know, but it wasn’t. Chuck Colson, a prominent Evangelical wrote it. Read the rest and leave a comment here so we can discuss this problem Evangelicals and Catholics must face together.

On a side note, Amused to Death is also the title of a very good Roger Waters solo album.

The Perils of 24-hour News

"The scare tactics, poor reporting and lack of reputable sources came to a sad and tragic climax this week as we news junkies watched. The horror of a West Virginia mining disaster was brought into homes coast to coast and there was no shortage of misinformation. Thirteen miners had been trapped by an explosion and cave in deep within a coal mine near Buchannon. As the first dead body was recovered, Fox News Channel reported that no one knew the cause of death, as yet, but assured we viewers that they would have that information, first. Hosts Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes then badgered a Red Cross volunteer live, worldwide, demanding the woman give them an opinion about whether it would be ‘better’ if the dead man was found to have ‘suffocated from carbon monoxide inhalation? or had been ?crushed to death by the cave in’. Luckily, the volunteer kept her head, and rather than give an uninformed guess (the basis for most television news), she informed Hannity three times that she could not possibly give him an answer. She’d never been to a mining accident site, she explained, and the Red Cross’ job was to comfort the families of the victims, not to perform autopsies."

"It was hard for Sean to mask his disappointment."

"Meanwhile, over on CNN, Anderson Cooper was getting to the core of the story by interviewing an anonymous teenaged girl who had talked to somebody who had stood next to a meeting between the trapped men’s families and the coal company. The meeting, held in a nearby church, was off-limits to the press (smart move, families). That didn’t stop CNN. They found this little girl who had talked to somebody who overheard what was going on in that meeting. And with this one twice-removed completely unreliable source, they hit the air live, worldwide, to inform the awaiting viewing public about the latest developments. "

Read more of what Scott Paulsen has to say.