S Walters wrote:

More and more religious braodcasters are using shotwave than ever before.
In addition to the reasons stated elsewhere in this thread, I believe also
that it allows greater reach in spreading the gospel, particularly without
censorship. There is increasing cultural hostility in the US and the whole
Western world for that matter against anything Christian and efforts are
underway to sweep religion out of the culture. As communications comes
under increasing governemt control, broadcast radio (AM/FM), television and
the internet will be less accommodating to traditional values. Shortwave is
off the radar when it comes to government scrutiny since the majority of the
US population has little idea what it is or how to access it. As globalism
takes over, shortwave will likely be that last place where people can talk
about Christ without fear of reprisal.

As this post makes clear, the form of Christianity that predominates on
SW is, shall we say, *nontraditional*. You have Eternal Word (WEWN)
which is run by nuns and sticks to mainstream Catholicism, but most of
the rest is offbeat. "Preachers" on SW tend to love using the Bible to
"predict" current events-their common refrain is that the Rapture and
Tribulation will be coming any day now, so send all your money to ME
because you can't take it with you, and I'll ensure you get a favored
seat in Heaven. Then there are the conspiracy theorists, most of whom
are far right wing Christians too, who love to talk about how regular
guys are persecuted relentlessly by bankers/CIA/Jews/whatever. Sometimes
I think World Wide Christian Radio (WWCR) should call itself World Wide
Conspiracy Radio, as most of their programming is conspiracy minded. I'm
all for to each his own, but there's a small but real risk that a few of
the listeners might decide to take matters into their own hands. Even
then most of THOSE will be harmless, like the "Phantom Patriot" guy who,
inspired by Alex Jones, broke into the Bohemian Grove a couple years ago
to "expose" the dastardly deeds within, but it doesn't take much
intelligence to build a truck bomb. Then there's the fact that "Hour of
the Time" host Bill Cooper deliberately provoked the cops to kill him in
hopes that it would spark the next American revolution.

An excellent read on apocalyptic Christianity is "The End of Days" by
Gershom Gorenberg. In fact, Gorenberg covers end of the world Jews and
Muslims too, and weaves it all together into a portrait of people who
desperately want the world to end so God can establish a perfect divine
kingdom on earth-and who want God to act NOW and who want to provoke him
into acting.

Send me money, send me green
Heaven you will meet
Make a contribution and you'll get a better seat
Bow to Leper Messiah
-Metallica


Steve W.

dave wrote in message
...
While checking out the shortwave stations in the States I came across
stations that seem to be doing only one thing and that is to ram
religion down their listeners necks 24/7.
Don't any North American stations apart from VOA have anything else
to say apart from trying to persuade everyone to join the Billy Graham
fan club?
I was hoping to find some stations with a bit more regular topics in
their schedule. Do any of these channels exist over their?