dennis.ca

How fitting is it that I got my first taste of Christian radio after leaving Easter dinner with my parents?

I was scanning radio stations when I happened upon what seemed to be a talk radio show. The announcers were slogging through the typical "how was your weekend?" drudgery when one of them beamed, "This has been a wonderful weekend. And let's not forget the resurrection!" This, of course, piqued my interest.

Listening on, they began to play music that wouldn't have sounded out of place in a downtown club -- were it not for the lyrics: "'G' to the 'O' to the 'D', because that's the way I live my life". The show I was listening to was called 'The Edge' which apparently plays contemporary Christian hits. The station itself was UBC Canada (a part of UBC International); "a corporate body that links affiliated Christian broadcasting organisations and ministries together throughout the world."

One of the more interesting moments arrived between commercials in the form of a short advertisment (what were they selling?) from Creation Moments. One of the core beliefs of this organization is "a literal interpretation of creation as presented in the Bible". Paraphrased, this was the content of the piece (many more 'shorts' are available here):

"The originally perfect world that God gave to us had no death. Death was introduced when man sinned. This leaves us with the question: What did the first carnivores eat before there was death? ... After man's fall into sin, genetic mutations became a reality. Mutations in the original piranha kind, coupled with a shortage of vegetation to eat may have led some of the original created kind to begin scavenging carcasses. Eventually, some of the kind became the piranha we know today. Not because of upward evolution, but because of degeneration of the original kind."

Anyone who reads this site with regularity can probably make an educated deduction about where my opinion falls on the creationism vs. evolution debate. Far be it from me to suggest that an opinion shouldn't be voiced because I don't agree with it. The overall impression that listening to Christian radio left me with was surprise. I'll admit that I was mildly shocked by how sophisticated and polished it all seemed. Americans may take this sort of thing for granted, but it was certainly the first time I've ever heard the likes of it. Carefully massaged science and pop culture as the basis for religious argument just wasn't something I anticipated.

Thinking about it now, I suppose it isn't that surprising to see evangelicals getting things rolling in Canada -- especially in rural Ontario. We're not so different, after all: I've always had trouble figuring out the beaver, too.