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In the news: Calvary Satellite Network torn apart by accusations

C

CrankyYankee

(From the L.A. Times)

WHEN Chuck Smith, founder of the worldwide Calvary Chapel movement, decided to invest big in radio, the Orange County(CA) evangelist joined forces with a pastor he trusted.

Mike Kestler was one of his proteges, a folksy preacher with a ponytail who had ridden the Calvary phenomenon to a pulpit in Twin Falls, Idaho...
Now, the pastors would be business partners. Kestler knew how to run a radio station. Smith had money and a famous name. They shared a vision of FM radio as a megaphone for God's word.

Bolstered by $13 million from Smith's Costa Mesa church, Calvary Satellite Network grew into a spectacular recruiting tool for the evangelical movement. In listening areas across the nation, Calvary Chapels proliferated.

[EDIT]

Read this article at the following link which may require free registration...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-calvary28feb28,0,4379407.story?coll=la-home-headlines


[EDIT-post truncated because originating material is copyprotected. Unauthorized use of copyrighted content is in violation of Radio-Info's TOS.]
 
As if I don't already have enough dirt to deal with in my own life...

Thanks. I'll make sure not to read it.
 
Sure ... we can bury our heads in the sand and ignore sin. Sounds like a good plan, eh?

I'm not saying we shoud condemn (or clear) the network on the basis of the article, but what is wrong with being aware of the claims?
 
Pardon my seemingly harsh approach to this. Personal conviction in the area of gossip is something I'm dealing with in my own life right now. So I may come off brash in my response. Please bear that in mind as you read. This is one man's take on this matter.

Let me pull the plank out of my eye and focus on this for a moment.

Are ANY of us in a position of spiritual authority and accountability over these men? Are any of us currently working for this company? If the answer to either of these questions is "no" then we have little business focussing our energies and attentions on it. This is a harder line than most like to draw. But I believe it's true. I think we, as the body of Christ, can afford to err on the side of keeping out lips zipped about the sin of others a bit more.

The news is full of stories like this without me digging them up and posting them on a board.

The most likely motivation for this posting is gossip in my opinion. To be fair, I can't pretend to judge the heart motivation of the poster. But I know if I posted a story like this on a board, it would be hard for me to spiritually justify it.

I just think that personally, there are better things one can spend one's time on than spreading the knowledge of someone elese's shortcomings.

News of the fallen will get out and get plenty of 'exposure' without you or I drawing attention to it.

What do WE on this board really plan to do to hold them accuntable? If we aren't the one's in spiritual authority over them or connected to them in some way...it's not our concern.

Gossip comes in many forms. And so many times it masquerades as 'holding sin accountable.

Again, remember that the background for my response is one of personal introspect. So if I'm preaching to anyone here, it's myself.

Thanks for listening.
 
Well I'm glad that you could so easily accuse the original poster in this thread of sin and at the same time wish to bury the possible sin of those in positions of respect. :(

Oh well. If it were not for articles such as this (in the regular press and not gossip blogs) I may have made the mistake of endorsing those involved as being great ministers of the gospel. Reading that saved me from bearing false witness. :)
 
Re-read my post.

Never once did I accuse the poster of sin. If you'll read closely, you'll see that I said that I couldn't pretend to judge their heart. I only said that I personally would have had trouble justifying it had I posted it. I have no idea what their motivation was.

Good to know that you recieve benefit from the regular press.
 
You accused them of being a gossip and of slander and quite frankly it doesn't matter if YOU would have posted it or not. You are not the example that posters have to live up to, are you?

So is the suggestion "let the regular (secular) press run the stories and we must ignore them" not even knowing what the accusations are against Christian media? Not even caring that what a listener may read in the L A Times or a paper that picks up their content could be used to paint ALL religious radio as a bunch of crooks with just as many moral problems as 'secular' management? We can offer no defense of CSN or even the Gospel that was quoted in the article because we must ignore the story?

If someone were to ask you about the problems at CSN and you gleefully answer "I don't know anything about it" you could be leaving that person with only the negative side of the story. Perhaps instead of burying potential sin we should address it when it comes up. If you don't have the ability to do so without gossiping fine ... leave it to those who can without adding your insults.
 
Never did I expect the response to my posting of the article regarding Calvary Satellite Network.
My sole reason for posting was it concerned broadcasting and may not have a story noticed by those "in the biz" outside of the readers of the L.A. Times.

IMHO, it seems far, far more damage has been done to the Catholic Church with the story still unravelling about priest/child sex abuse than will occur with the troubles to the aforementioned radio network.
 
This is indeed a shame. The quality of Calvary Chapels varies widely from church to church. The overwhelming vast majority of them are some of the most balanced doctrinally that you will find. I would re-join (well attend because they don't really have memberships) the one I attended in Melbourne, FL, without hesitation. I will also say that even if there is a big problem in a local Calvary Chapel - some of the friends I have made at that church are the very highest quality, and I cherish them.

With all the praise I have just given - trying to be balanced - I can say that the article pointed to one problem. CC is more of a franchise than a denomination. Quality control from the top insures that each one is pretty much like the others. But the one thing that cannot be controlled is the "holier than thou" tendancy on the part of some leaders and members. I have been a victim of this at a CC - I won't mention which one. Suffice it to say that people I knew for 5 years, and knew me to be of outstanding moral character - turned on me like a pack of wolves. It was a hurtful, personally devastating time. Fortunately for me, a man I have known for 25 years opened a church down the street and - shaking the dust off my feet as I walked out the last time - I am now a faithful member of a much better church with doctrine almost identical to CC. They do NOT have a monopoly on truth.

I must emphasize - if the local CC became hostile for me - it was symptematic of a pattern of problems in a once great church. If it had been just me, I would have had cause for self examination. Instead - it was me, my wife, my daughter - accusations such as "our daughter runs the house and made us give up the master bedroom" - which was not true because it was our choice not to use a bedroom that faces a busy street. Piddling little stuff like that. And not just our family. Every single person we know that has left that church gives us similar stories. In fact - someone in leadership is making comments that some of the stars of a popular kids show are sl_ts and wh_res - when I know these kids and their parents personally and that is NOT true. It would seem the local CC has become a house of gossip instead of a house of God.

Perhaps - this was partially due to the fact that in the LP FM filing window - I proposed that the church apply for a license and carry the WAY-FM network, not the CC network.
I was overruled. I also landed a deal for practically free advertising for their school on the local CCM station which is extremely popular. I was overruled because the station was not owned by CC. The school whithered and died - without advertising nobody sent their kids. They did advertise - on a deep fringe CC station nobody but DX'ers could hear in my community. I am sure parents were going to send their kids to a school 65 miles away.
 
Sorry you had troubles with the local church ... this being a radio forum my interest is in how the satellite network is being run.

The 2003 window had several mass filings ... computer filing where one files for everything and sees what sticks without making specific decisions to enter a community or not. At first glance it seems that Calvary Chapel was hot and heavy into this practice ... (Calvary Chapel Twin Falls had 102 CPs declared singletons - many are duplicates, for example the six in Seaside Oregon. This does not count any applications that ended up mutually exclusive. There are 45 other Calvary Chapel 2003 apps that made Singleton, including 24 in Florida and 15 in New York.)

Knowing this I wonder who this "Calvary Church" network (not the church, but the radio network) is and what should I, as a fellow broadcaster, know about their ministry. Which was my interest in the LA Times article ... not to judge but to know the charges.
 
CrankyYankee said:
Never did I expect the response to my posting of the article regarding Calvary Satellite Network.
My sole reason for posting was it concerned broadcasting and may not have a story noticed by those "in the biz" outside of the readers of the L.A. Times.

IMHO, it seems far, far more damage has been done to the Catholic Church with the story still unravelling about priest/child sex abuse than will occur with the troubles to the aforementioned radio network.
Click to expand...


calvery chapel is not catholic.
 
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