Ads on Christian radio
One ad in particular on Christian
radio bothers me a great deal - an ad for divorce attorneys
I really enjoy the Frank Pastore show. I had him
as a teacher in some extension courses on apologetics that Biola did a long time
ago and thought his class was one of the best I had taken. So I was excited to
learn that he would be on radio full time. I think his show started off a bit
slow and it almost fell off my radar, but I have to agree with Dr. Reynolds that
it has really jumped up to the next level. If you haven't listened to Pastore
lately, give him another listen.
There is one thing that really disturbs me, however. Every time I listen to him (which is often not more than half an hour because its on my drive) I hear an ad for a divorce attorney. This means this ad must play on KKLA quite a bit, as I only listen for brief periods. This is bothersome to me on many different levels.
First off, if Christian radio is listened to primarily (and I would think almost exclusively) by Christians, and yet this company still makes a good return on their advertising investment then the Church clearly has a problem with divorce. I know this is obvious to anyone who has observed culture for the last decade, but its still worth mentioning. If the Church has made divorce so readily available and is so complacent about it, how much worse will the rest of culture be? The homosexual marriage issue would probably not have nearly as much traction in the public mind if heterosexual marriages had not been so awful over the last decade or two. I've even heard that on some dating sites, its more desirable to be divorced than single - because you've already gotten your "starter marriage" out of the way, and its clear you are able to commit (though unsuccessfully).
Along the same lines, is there such a thing as a Christian divorce attorney? Christ Himself said "Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate." Furthermore, Paul handed down the command that we are not to take another Christian to secular courts. He instructed us that we should settle legal disputes within the Church instead. Therefore, how can a Christian attorney represent one Christian against another in court? For that matter, how can a Christian take another Christian to court in good conscience (and not just in divorce proceedings)?
Some people may counter this with the idea that even though it should never happen, what about the case where someone is outright leaving you and they are filing divorce papers against you? Certainly then one would need an attorney (seeing as you have to be in court anyway)? While that is true, this goes to my first point - how often does this happen in the Church that it is worthwhile for them to advertise on Christian radio? What we are talking about in this case is outright abandonment and it is inexcusable. The biblical model would be for the person to be excommunicated and for other churches to respect this - disallowing this person from ever attending church again until they had repented and been reconciled. The only acceptable biblical reasons for divorce are adultery, or abandonment by an unbelieving spouse - but divorce inside the Church is definitely not currently limited to these two reasons.
Which brings me to one of my biggest problems with the ads themselves - the content. It starts with a woman talking about her looming divorce - "Bob just served me divorce papers. I knew we had problems, but I didn't know it was this bad." This does seem to fit the case mentioned above, where a spouse is being abandoned by their spouse and has to represent themselves. But then the ad goes on to say "I've got to make sure me and the children are protected. There's the house, and Bob's retirement account..." This seems to me to be a clear cut endorsement of greed in divorce. She mentions the children, but only briefly as if to justify the real issue of splitting the finances. I guess it only makes sense - by the time attorneys are involved, everyone has lost concern for the children and they only thing left is to see who gets the lion's share of the lucre.
My main point in all of this is simply to say that we in the Church have a real, pervasive problem with divorce. We are extremely lenient on not only divorce but remarriage, which the Bible does not seem to endorse in any case (see Jesus' words on remarriage as adultery). Perhaps the best way of summing this up would be this - if I ran an ad for a church that marries same-sex couples, what do you think the response would be? Would it even make it on the air, or would the station refuse it? If it did make the air, wouldn't an endless stream of calls come in asking for it to be removed? And yet, this ad plays on KKLA every weekday during Pastore's show - the station clearly has no problems with it airing, and it doesn't seem that they get much complaint from their audience. We in the Church had better remove the log from our eye, or culture will be left with the splinters in theirs.
There is one thing that really disturbs me, however. Every time I listen to him (which is often not more than half an hour because its on my drive) I hear an ad for a divorce attorney. This means this ad must play on KKLA quite a bit, as I only listen for brief periods. This is bothersome to me on many different levels.
First off, if Christian radio is listened to primarily (and I would think almost exclusively) by Christians, and yet this company still makes a good return on their advertising investment then the Church clearly has a problem with divorce. I know this is obvious to anyone who has observed culture for the last decade, but its still worth mentioning. If the Church has made divorce so readily available and is so complacent about it, how much worse will the rest of culture be? The homosexual marriage issue would probably not have nearly as much traction in the public mind if heterosexual marriages had not been so awful over the last decade or two. I've even heard that on some dating sites, its more desirable to be divorced than single - because you've already gotten your "starter marriage" out of the way, and its clear you are able to commit (though unsuccessfully).
Along the same lines, is there such a thing as a Christian divorce attorney? Christ Himself said "Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate." Furthermore, Paul handed down the command that we are not to take another Christian to secular courts. He instructed us that we should settle legal disputes within the Church instead. Therefore, how can a Christian attorney represent one Christian against another in court? For that matter, how can a Christian take another Christian to court in good conscience (and not just in divorce proceedings)?
Some people may counter this with the idea that even though it should never happen, what about the case where someone is outright leaving you and they are filing divorce papers against you? Certainly then one would need an attorney (seeing as you have to be in court anyway)? While that is true, this goes to my first point - how often does this happen in the Church that it is worthwhile for them to advertise on Christian radio? What we are talking about in this case is outright abandonment and it is inexcusable. The biblical model would be for the person to be excommunicated and for other churches to respect this - disallowing this person from ever attending church again until they had repented and been reconciled. The only acceptable biblical reasons for divorce are adultery, or abandonment by an unbelieving spouse - but divorce inside the Church is definitely not currently limited to these two reasons.
Which brings me to one of my biggest problems with the ads themselves - the content. It starts with a woman talking about her looming divorce - "Bob just served me divorce papers. I knew we had problems, but I didn't know it was this bad." This does seem to fit the case mentioned above, where a spouse is being abandoned by their spouse and has to represent themselves. But then the ad goes on to say "I've got to make sure me and the children are protected. There's the house, and Bob's retirement account..." This seems to me to be a clear cut endorsement of greed in divorce. She mentions the children, but only briefly as if to justify the real issue of splitting the finances. I guess it only makes sense - by the time attorneys are involved, everyone has lost concern for the children and they only thing left is to see who gets the lion's share of the lucre.
My main point in all of this is simply to say that we in the Church have a real, pervasive problem with divorce. We are extremely lenient on not only divorce but remarriage, which the Bible does not seem to endorse in any case (see Jesus' words on remarriage as adultery). Perhaps the best way of summing this up would be this - if I ran an ad for a church that marries same-sex couples, what do you think the response would be? Would it even make it on the air, or would the station refuse it? If it did make the air, wouldn't an endless stream of calls come in asking for it to be removed? And yet, this ad plays on KKLA every weekday during Pastore's show - the station clearly has no problems with it airing, and it doesn't seem that they get much complaint from their audience. We in the Church had better remove the log from our eye, or culture will be left with the splinters in theirs.
Posted: Thu - March 17, 2005 at 11:17 AM | | | | | | |
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