Is there trouble brewing within the Christian broadcasting community, as suggested in a Jan. 21 article from Agape Press? The report stated that recent remarks from Wayne Pederson, the executive director of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), have "set off alarm bells."
Pederson is slated to be installed as NRB president at the group's national convention next month in Nashville.
Agape Press quoted Dr. Don Wildmon, head of the American Family Radio network, as saying his concern with Pederson's new direction "is so great that it remains to be seen whether he will be in his new post very long."
At the eye of the storm is an interview Pederson did with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, in which Pederson said he wants NRB to downplay its political image and increase its spiritual, theological image. "What's disturbing to me is that evangelicals are identified politically more than theologically," he told the reporter.
Wildmon reacted: "He says we ought to be concerned with theology. Well, that's what we are concerned with - theology drives our social action. Everyone that I know in Christian broadcasting are members of what the secular media would call 'the religious right,' and these are the people that Wayne Pederson is criticizing. These are the people he's saying we don't need anymore."
When contacted by Religion Today, Wildmon said he had no additional comments, but verified the accuracy of his remarks to Agape Press.
Theodore Baehr, chairman of Good News Communications and the Christian Film and Television Commission, as well as an NRB board member, told World NetDaily: "What [Pederson] says is right and wrong at the same time. He's wrong when he says we mustn't get involved in politics. We must be involved in every issue. The concern about politics should be that we are acting under the Lordship of Jesus Christ."
Baehr thinks Pederson's comments may have been misunderstood.
Meanwhile, Pederson told Religion Today, "I have not seen the statement from American Family Radio or from Don Wildmon, so I really can't respond directly to that. But I have gotten some rather strong reaction from others."
Strong indeed. Some news reports hint that NRB board members are "reassessing" whether they want Pederson's to run the organization.
Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy with Focus on the Family, told WorldNetDaily he has been discussing Pederson's remarks with NRB board members in anticipation of the Feb. 16 national convention.
In his interview with Religion Today, Pederson did not backtrack on his desire to steer NRB out of the political arena. But he did mention that the rationale behind his comments has not been fully explained or understood.
Pederson said that people are looking at "just a small part" of the larger interview in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The reporter was asking Pederson about the Christian subculture when he began to discuss typecasting and said, "We get associated with the far Christian right and marginalized."
"NRB is made up largely of evangelicals, and evangelicals are largely conservative in their politics," Pederson told Religion Today. "So there's a strong tie there. But it is the stated mission in our constitution and bylaws that NRB exists to protect the rights of Christian communicators to preach the gospel on the airwaves. That continues to be our main emphasis and our main focus."
Pederson described himself as a theological and political conservative.
"But, a number of our members are not political and have been uncomfortable with a strong political stand from NRB," he explained. "So we are trying to serve all our members. The ones who are more politically oriented and the ones more focused on teaching and preaching."
According to Pederson, NRB as an association "exists to protect the rights of Christian media - to preach the gospel and to speak to the moral issues of our day. We're not abandoning that."
Pederson spent a few moments outlining some of NRB's goals. "The number one priority for us, as NRB and as Christians, is to use the media to impact the church and our culture. Secondly, it's to prepare Christian media to reach the next generation with the new technologies and the formats. Finally, it is to connect strongly with downtown DC - to work with the White House, and the FCC, and Congress, and the NAB to further the cause of Christian broadcasting."
Pederson reiterated: "We support the efforts of our members to speak to the moral issues of our day, and we work to protect those rights. So we're not seeking so much to distance ourselves, but to focus on what our primary mission is."
