The Harvest is Ripe and we are Called to Evangelize: Catholic Radio on the Air in Tennessee

Proclaiming the fullness of the Christian faith as found in the heart of the Catholic Church

We know this infant Catholic radio station is reaching non-Catholics in the parking lots of their own churches with faithful Catholic teaching that contradicts everything Southern non-Catholics think and believe about Catholics. WRSN serves 100,000. That's 3,000 Catholics among 96,000 non-Catholics. Not everybody is called to preach, but everybody is called to evangelize. This is a missionary apostolate in an American missionary land. You can help.

P class=MsoNormal>NASHVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - When I talk to Catholics in other parts of the nation, they are often amazed at the religious climate in the South. I write from Tennessee, a predominately evangelical "red" state, in the shadow of the Southern Baptist publishing machine. I am also a convert from a fundamentalist evangelical denomination.

I know how misinformed and anti-Catholic some non-Catholics in our area are. Indeed, I was one of those misinformed, fearful non-Catholics who once preached and taught against the Catholic "Whore of Babylon," and her "Antichrist Pope," knowing absolutely nothing about what the Church actually taught.

So when I spoke to a priest, recently, about support for a new Catholic radio station in our area, the first and only in Tennessee, I was disheartened that he seemed oblivious to the reality in which Southern Catholics attempt to live their faith.

In Our Own Back Door

Although he willingly offered his parish's bulletin to publicize the new station, he seemed unaware, and therefore unconcerned, that his own parishioners are regularly bombarded and confused by well-meaning, but ignorant Protestants and their radio stations. Such fervent Protestants hail from the spiritual lineage of Martin Luther - evangelicals who confront faithful Catholics with "Bible Only, Faith Only" Christianity, while disparaging the Church that gave them the Bible from which they preach.

While I was exhilarated with the evangelistic possibilities for anti-Catholics in our area provided by the new Catholic station, this priest was sure there were no anti-Catholics. I realized he, like a great many Catholics here, live in a cozy bubble of ambivalence, and frankly disregard the mandate to "go and make disciples." How very tragic. A harvest unseen, and therefore ungathered. Rotted. Woe unto us.

Unconcerned Catholics

To put it bluntly, this type of ostrich-ism bothers me, because I have the burning heart of an evangelist. Overt passion is unattractive to some, I understand, but the Southern harvest is ripe, and honestly, I really can't help it! I work in it every day, every week, as an RCIA teacher, a Bible study author/teacher, an itinerant preacher. I live here. I know. They don't call it the "Bible belt" for nothing.

Although 63% of Tennesseans are Christian, only 3% of those are Catholic. It's the same story all over the South. Mostly rural, many, many Southerners do not know or love the Catholic Church of which they have been taught. But they might if they were ever exposed to the truth about it!

There are over 16,000 radio stations in the entire US. Only 45-50 are Catholic. In Tennessee, there are 442 stations. Although the Nashville area has numerous evangelical denominations regularly taking their message to the airwaves, not one of them is Catholic. In media terms, Catholics have remained silent in Tennessee, until now.

Go and Make Disciples of all Nations [and States?]

The people in the broadcast area of Tennessee's missionary Catholic station are largely anti-Catholic. Most in the coverage area will never darken the doors of a Catholic church, they know few if any Catholics, and many have even been taught to fear the Church. This makes it very difficult to fund an infant Catholic radio station. Catholics are comparatively few, and Protestants won't donate to what seems antagonistic to what they've been taught. This station needs fellow Catholics', fellow evangelists', help.

"Radio offers perhaps the closest equivalent today to what Jesus was able to do with large groups through his preaching" (Pope John Paul II, Address to the Catholic Media Association). As Catholics, wherever we live, these are our rural neighbors (local or national) whom we have been called to evangelize. Short of door-to-door, how will they ever hear the truth?

What's even more exciting is that Catholic programming not only evangelizes non-Catholics; one of the surprising advantages is what it does for Catholics.

"...entire groups of the baptized have lost a living sense of the faith, or even no longer consider themselves members of the Church, and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel...In this case what is needed is a "new evangelization" or a "re-evangelization."(Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 33).

A recent study by the Catholic Radio Association shows that Catholic radio significantly increases tithing (+67%), service (+52%), attendance (+47%), and membership (+31%) in the parishes within its coverage area. Successful Catholic radio ministries give witness to inspiring stories of lives that have been dramatically changed through hearing their programming, proving that,

"Using the media correctly and competently can lead to a genuine inculturation of the Gospel. At the same time, the media also help to shape the culture and mentality of people today, which is why there must be special pastoral activity aimed at those working in the media"(Ecclesia in America 72).

Specifically, a group of death row inmates formed a study group using a program of religious study taken from a Catholic radio station; stations report multiple conversion stories and glowing reports from priests, excited for their parishioners to have access Catholic radio programming; a man dropped by one station to find out how he could return to the Church; while driving across a barren stretch of road, a fallen-away former Catholic priest tuned into a Catholic Radio station, because what he heard on local Catholic radio inspired him to eventual reconciliation with the Church.

This fledgling Tennessee radio station needs your help to show Southern Protestants and Catholics the fullness of Christ in His Church. Tennessee Catholic radio's talk format is the fastest growing and most popular format in the country. While right now it is broadcasting pre-recorded Catholic radio shows, the Phase 2 goal is to install production and satellite equipment that will enable permanent broadcasting of EWTN programming. But it won't happen without funding.

Counting the Cost

The occasional pessimist asks, "Didn't the primary donors count the cost of such an endeavor?" Of course! But their view of success is not worldly and carnal; it's evangelistic and saintly. Dollar for dollar, radio costs less than any other medium; it reaches more people in less time for less money with less staff, with greater effect.

It allows for anonymous listening to faithful Catholic teaching in areas saturated by misinformed non-Catholics who are hostile to or fearful of the Church, and is proven to successfully evangelize Catholics. Why wouldn't one give toward such an apostolate?

We already know that this infant station is reaching non-Catholics in the parking lots of their own churches with faithful Catholic teaching that contradicts everything Southern non-Catholics think and believe about us. WRSN currently serves over 100,000. That's 3000 Catholics, among 96,000 non-Catholics.

Not everybody is called to preach, but everybody is called to evangelize. This is a missionary apostolate in an American missionary land. You can help. Won't you?

Contributions are the life-blood of this apostolate. Please:
    -  make a donation and consider supporting Risen Radio monthly,
    -  pray a Rosary for Risen Radio,
    -  offer a Mass and/or a novena for the station,
    -  "Like" their Facebook page,
    -  spread the word, and
    -  suggest other contacts so that this infant station can become self-supporting as soon as            possible.

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