By Fred Jackson
January 21, 2002

(AgapePress) - A major rift could be developing among the nation's Christian broadcasters. Some are upset with remarks made by the new head of the National Religious Broadcasters organization.

Wayne Pederson will formally take over as president of NRB next month. In a recent interview with the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis, he expressed concern with the image of Christian broadcasters, saying when people think of that group they equate them with the "political right" to the point where they are "marginalized." He says he wants to change that image by increasing what he calls its "spiritual and theological image."

Those remarks have set off alarm bells among some in the Christian broadcasting community, among them Dr. Don Wildmon, head of the American Family Radio network.

"He says we ought to be concerned with theology. Well, that's what we are concerned [with] -- theology drives our social action," Wildmon says. "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."

Wildmon says the 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.

© 2002 AgapePress all rights reserved.

E-mail this page to a friend

Printer-Friendly Version

Read all of our current headlines