I think i finally figured out my problem with Xn radio (well, at least one of my problems).
Because I am a sucker for all things Xmas-ie (Xn, secular, Hanukkah, heck I’d even say Kwanzaa except I know nothing about it at all) I have been listening to the local Xn radio station non stop this last week to get my fill of Xmas music. And knowing that many people (like me) who don’t usually listen to their station (wouldn’t be caught dead comes to mind) are listening to it during the holidays they are trying everything they can think of to convince us to keep listening after the first of the year.
Their primary tack is to say that i should listen to them because it will improve my life by adjusting my attitude because their station is always “positive” and “uplifting”.
And my question is (to myself really since I know there are only 2 people who will read this, “hi, Mikes”) where is the connection between Xnty and being “positive” and “uplifting”? Its a serious question. Is this based on anything in Xnty at all? We are a religion centered around a cross for cryin out loud! Even the birth of Jesus is set in a time of infanticide! I mean seriously.
Now there is certainly hope in the Xn message, more than in any other story, I beleive. But that hope means nothing if it is not serious about the reality of the darkness in the world. There is no resurrection without the cross, there is no Xmas without advent.
So I actually think that by being universally “positive” and “uplifting” (if they even are, and if they’re not, then they’re lying, and that’s another problem) contemporary Xn radio is being false to the Gospel. (I’m sure their nice people; I mean no disrespect, just a theological disagreement, that’s all.)