Has Broadcasting Harmed the Church?

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 28, 24 January 1930, Page 4

Has Broadcasting Harmed the Church?

Religion of To-day

RELIGION, : like art and science, is taking a new form through the influence of radio broadcasting, and in the following article by the Rev. B. G. Bourchier, M.A. (from "Popular Wireless’) the writer challenges the critics who say that broadcasting has killed religion and that the Church is dead: _ Any estate agent, when extolling the virtues of the house he hopes to sell you, will not forget to add that there is h. and c. laid on. He serves a usefui purpose if only in reminding us that to have gas and light and water laid on, to the humblest. dwelling, is one: of the sunny sides of civilisation, And now,.at trifilng cost, a man can have his -religion laid on, too. With a home-made wireless set he can tune

— J in on Sunday’ to any of the stations from which a service and a sermon are being broadcast. What easier way of ‘taking the devotional pill than that it should be swallowed by the fireside in slippered ease-particularly oon a cheerless ‘winter night! An Unforeseen Factor. HAT ‘is a development which could never haye occurred to the religious leaders of ,an earlier day. It is also a development which by no means has the full, approval of all religious leaders of the present day. A number of worthy folk are asking themselves in desperate apprehension whether this broadeasting business is not a wolf disguised. Frankly; they fear that it is doing the Church irreparable harm at a time when that body needs all the support it can get. I can quite see the force of their arguments. It is all very well for the aged and infirm to stay at home and listen to a service through the earphones, but it is a habit which is like-. ly to spread to the hale and hearty. Of the hale and hearty God expects, at any rate, the , weekly pilgrimage which is the journey to the nearest church. Moreover, he expects corporate attendance.at His house. Knowing what we do of the weakness of human nature, it is not outrageous to assume that the average man will compromise between his inborn laziness--or call it love of comfort-and the promptings of his conscience with timely microphonic aid. Armehair Worship. YES, I-see quite well that danger, I admit that it exists, and, to go farther, I believe that when once a man stoops to bargain with his conscience the day is not far distant when he crosses it off his visiting list for good. In other words, directly the erstwhile ardent churchgoer contents himself with armchair worship he is in danger of dispensing with worship altogether. so But there are points about ‘this broadcasting which far outweigh. those possibilities. -There are points which give radio the chance of bringing about the nearest approach to a revival which modern times could witness. ff materialism has grown to the proportions of a monster dragon, radio looks remarkably like.a steed to bear St. George. One of the greatest difficulties which confront the spiritually ‘ambitious clergyman is that he must, perforce, preach to the converted, or, at any rate, to those who, by their presence in his church, advertise their outward allegiance to the faith. Believe me, many an_ earnest preacher aches to reach the multitude outside; He. can’t because they will not come. He is tired of expounding the Gospel to those whose academic acquaintance with the Word is -probably equal to his own. He wants to talk to the people who never go inside a church except to marry or bury their dead. He wants to explain away many of the fallacies

about religion; to yvelieve it of the stultifying. " Victorian tradition "zsoody-goodyism." Ohrist; you remember, was not satisfied with ninety-nine sheep within the fold; he spent His whole energies in a quest: for the hundredth which remained outside. Why? Because those . outside matter, in a sense, far more than those within. Radio can reach the Great Outside, There must be many a man who listens-in to a sermon for the simpie reason that there is nothing else for him to do. He may come to laugh and stop to listen. Once he listens, the day will dawn when he heeds as well, That: point can hardly be denied, Your preacher measures the amount of good he hopes to do by the ngmber of upturned faces which confron®kim when he mounts the pulpit. A church ‘is like a theatre in that the larger the congregation the greater the inspiration.to the one whose business it is to spéak. The. All-Penetrating Message. BEFORE the microphone one’s chances are unlimited. Brick walls crumble and distance disappears. Wireless waves are . all-penétrating, and it is a magnificent thought that the message with which they are charged possesses that quality, too. He would be a poor man, indeed, who, in those circumstances, did not give: of his best. I do not pretend that a cloak of © piety will settle on the nation because a service is broadcast every week, or even ‘every day. Not every man can reach the. hearts of other men, how'y ever hard. he hammers. But there are\ men in this country-and I have’ listened to some of them-whose Divine talent for doing so languishes almost to the point of death within four narrow walls. Transport them to the microphone and I am as certain that their words will bear fruit. An Open Door. PEOPLE have been erying out for the last fifty years or more that the Church must be brought upto date. The fact that it lags behind the times has been responsible, they say, for dwindling congregations and the decaying state of national spirituality. Very well! The Church must be brought up to date, and wireless on its present scale is about the most recent development which: science can show. By means of it thousands will have an opportunity they never had before. ; Broadcasting has not harmed the Church. : It has widened its scope beyond the ardent reformer’s most fantastic dreams. It has thrown open a door that has been sealed to Calvary; the door to the ears, if not the hearts, of those who never see the Cross.