The way you phrased that, I am wondering if you are more agnostic than atheist. I have wandered all over the spectrum of spiritual beliefs and now consider myself to be largely non-denominational Christian with a bit of agnosticism and a few personal beliefs borrowed from Judaism and Buddhism.
I bring this up because it seems to me that EMF/K-Love are creating a broadcast denomination of their own.
I agree, and the fact that they don't use their radio signals to teach or preach keeps them out of the inter-denominational battles that often plague Christianity. That's not to say they don't take sides. But they don't push it the way VCY does. What most people don't understand is that Christianity is not one thing. Take a look at the history of Northern Ireland if you wonder what I mean. The history of the first amendment in this country was an attempt to keep the government out of taking sides in those inter-denominational battles.
Having just gone through a 26 hour fast, and spending 3 hours of Wednesday evening, and most of yesterday, in Yom Kippur services, I have a slightly different take on the matter that's fresh in my mind.
Tell me anywhere in this country where a Jewish radio station of any kind has existed in the last 22 years. Previous to 2003, the one station I'm aware of that could be claimed as "Jewish" was New York City's WEVD, which was owned by the Forward Association (publisher of the Yiddish language Daily Forward newspaper). And even then, the Jewish programming was limited to a small handful of cultural programs that were brokered time, with the program hosts going out and doing their own selling to merchant sponsors that wanted to reach WEVD's immigrant and first generation listeners. The only overtly religious programming was the occasional broadcast of a religious service from a synagogue somewhere for Sabbath or a holiday. There was no proselytizing or fundraising "begathons". (I know this because my own father was one of those listeners, and I can recall hearing "Art Raymond" or "Danny Stiles" on our radio more times than I can count.
Keep in mind I'm describing one station -- actually it was an AM and an FM -- in the one city with the world's largest Jewish population. I'm not aware of a similar station in Los Angeles, or Chicago, or Detroit, or Miami/Fort Lauderdale/Palm Beach County, Florida, other markets with significant populations of Jews. In a country with thousands of AM and FM stations, just one pair of stations that aimed some of their programming to Jewish listeners.
Now I ask you, why was there not a Jewish K-Love? Were there Jewish equivalents of Mega-Churches? Have you ever heard of rabbis pulling down 7 or 8 figure incomes, or flying around the country in their private jets, or living the high life in mansions? I think the answer is obvious. Because while nobody's ever accused Jews of wanting to live in poverty, getting rich on their religion by trying to convert non-believers by using the public airwaves to proselytize was and is anathema to us.
IMO, the reason these organizations get away with what they get away with is because the game has been rigged, by congressmen (and women) and senators and FCC commissioners and wealthy churches and wealthier denominations that are invariably some variation of Christian, and who want to rig the rules to favor, explicitly or implicitly, the denominations they favor. Those people give large contributions to those other people, who then do the favors that are the quid pro quo for the "campaign contributions" (or alternately,
bribes), which allows this corruption to fester.
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