Dredging Up the Past
Last Toke: 34 days
Last Smoke: 27 days

Yesterday's radio subject during my ride home was "Do we as Christians participate too much in the media where tragedy -- like Hurricane Katrina -- becomes entertainment?"
I don't have a whole lot to say on this, other than, "Yes, of course we do!" I think that if most of us were really honest about it, we would recognize a morbid fascination with death, destruction and disaster -- as long as it isn't happening to us or someone we care about.

I have to confess that I found the whole destruction of the Towers on 9/11 fascinating. I wanted to see those towers come down. Big time. Now, of course, when I saw those pictures of people jumping to their deaths, it got a bit uncomfortable. I didn't want to think about how it would feel to have to make the choice between plunging 70 or more stories or being roasted alive.
I think that is what makes all the difference -- empathy. A concern for the suffering and struggles of others, as opposed to the enjoyment of sheer spectacle. When you realize that people are suffering and dying horribly, then maybe it's not so much fun to watch anymore.

Yet there is another side to this phenomenon -- that of a scary, evil glee in watching the death of another. Once upon a time, public execution of criminals was commonplace, even in this country. Hanging, stoning, burning at the stake, drowning, even crucifixions, were done with an audience -- women and children included. It's tempting to look at the accompanying fervor on the part of the public as a natural consequence of the serving of justice, but that's being naive.

When Christ was executed, multitudes came to mock, spit, revile, laugh and joke at his suffering. Scripture indicates that the majority of the mob that called for -- and rejoiced at -- His execution probably had no interest in the issues of the case. They were simply incited by the Pharisees and priests of Jerusalem to produce mayhem.

You see the same phenomenon in our society, from riots over the Rodney King verdict to idiots at WVU burning Morgantown over the football team's Homecoming victory. There is something in us that is all too willing to become savage and indulge in destrcution and violence with little provocation.

Of course, this is sin in us. What I often struggle to see clearly is just how bad it really is within me. Then I lose it over something so minor, and experience a murderous rage where I'd like nothing more than to end a life with my bare hands. It's scary, really. And I often wonder why it hasn't just been wiped out by the Holy Spirit.

I think there is a connection between the amount of time spent trying to pretend it doesn't exist within me (or to at least minimize it) and how bad it can get. I am becoming increasingly convinced that without a clear-eyed view of just how bad my sin is, the vigilence necessary to seek Christ's grace will be lacking, consequently affecting my ability to really care about other people.

On a different note, WORD-FM will be bringing one Jerry Bowyer in as the new afternoon talk show host, beginning Wed., Sept. 1. Mr. Bowyer is a staunch conservative politically and will most likely generate a bit of interesting discussion.

He's been around the local media scene for many years now, and is fairly well known as a free market conservative in the area. His biography states that he lives in Boston, PA (right outside of McKeesport) with his wife Susan and 7 children -- all of whom are home-schooled. Mr. Bowyer is an intelligent, energetic, assertive and committed individual, from all evidence. His show should be very interesting topically, doctrinally and intellectually.

I've crossed paths with Jerry Bowyer in a previous life. From 1989 through 1993, we attended the same RPCNA church. The RPCNA (Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America) is the only church that I've ever been part of that practiced what I consider to be biblical excommunication. In the four years that I attended, I saw one person excommunicated for unrepentant homosexuality, another restored from excommunication by virtue of a public repentance over his decision to divorce his wife and marry another (not sure how that worked, since the new wife came back with him), and a third who most likely escaped excommunication for the same adulterous choice by resigning his church membership rather than standing before the elders on this matter.

That third person was Jerry Bowyer. The current promos laud his role as 'a home schooling father of seven', which I don't doubt for a second. However, and I want to be careful here, I don't know if all seven of those children were born to Jerry and his current wife in the years since 1993.

What I do know is that his first wife was tossed to the curb in one of the most egregiously sinful family scenarios that I've ever witnessed in an evangelical setting. After working low paying jobs, giving birth to four children (are these included in the 'official' count?), and sacrificing much to be a 'supportive' wife, Jerry repaid her by beginning an adulterous relationship with a young, fresh-faced, very attractive woman (as I recall) who ended up living IN THEIR HOME.

My ex-wife was somewhat of a friend to the woman who would soon be the former Mrs. Jerry Bowyer. I recall her as an intelligent, funny and committed woman who wasn't the most attractive person on the planet. What emerged in the days following the disclosure of his affair and leaving was the picture of a man who embodied the worst sort of patriarchialism that is so often justified by men using passages like I Timothy 2:11-15, which I quoted in my last post, and was willing to just use this woman until he no longer needed her. Then he took up with someone younger, prettier, and less capable of calling bullshit by its proper name.

In the years that immediately followed, Jerry made the reputation on which he now stands as the new afternoon talk show host for WORD-FM.

Ironically, Jerry was on-air at WORD-FM in those days also. I can remember going to various people wondering how it was that he could be in that position within the Christian community without having to answer for his sin. I was incensed that this guy could just get on with his life, while my family and friends dealt with the wreckage left in his wake.

When I realized (sometime in the middle of last week) that he was probably going to be the new talk show host, that old indignation arose within me again.

Let me be clear that I do not, and have never, known Jerry Bowyer personally. I may have had a few isolated conversations with him during the brief time that we were both members in good standing with the RPCNA. I knew his ex-wife somewhat.

I don't know if Mr. Bowyer has ever publicly acknowledged his sin. I do know that while he was in the middle of it, WORD-FM did nothing to deal with it in any kind of biblical accountability.

So I guess this is more about WORD-FM/Salem Communications than it is about Jerry Bowyer. Jerry's deal is between him and God at this point. He, his wife (current and co-adulterer), his kids, and his ex-wife must bear the natural consequences of what went down over 12 years ago.

Maybe it's even wrong of me to bring this up after all of these years. I just feel that the listeners have a right to know. If this is something that he's already publicly addressed in a repentant way, then I am very willing to move on. Make no mistake, however. What happened in the early '90's was great wickedness on his part.

I don't stand as judge, either. I was a witness to it. That's all.

I certainly have my share of past sins of the same ilk. I've been divorced twice, guilty of adultery, verbal abuse, marital neglect and gross sexual depravity. I am no model of Christian conduct or virtue, and I have no interest in conducting a witchhunt here.

What I would like to do, however, is to make yet another appeal to those who seek to have influence in preserving the integrity of the airwaves to consider prayerfully what it means to support a media outlet like WORD-FM, which has no problem dismissing an unpolished personality for being consistent with his commitment to Biblical authority and replacing him with someone who has managed to play the media game very well in this town, but may just not be all that he appears, from a spiritual standpoint.

Will I listen to Jerry? Most definitely. However, I would like to see this issue addressed. If I'm going to call Pat Robertson to account, I'm definitely going to extend the same courtesy to Jerry Bowyer.
- posted by The Drake @ 9:31 PM