On my way to and from work, I listen to K-Love, a Christian radio station. However, twice a year, they have the "annual pledge drive", which is a festering sore upon the face of anotherwise nice outreach. The reason I say it is such, is due to the weedling, guilt tripping, and otherwise plain old un-truths that it refers to. These are the reasons I will never donate to K-Love, not because the Devil has hardened my heart to them, but because I refuse to donate to something using Word of Faith Prosperity Gospel tactics, I refuse to donate to something that is trying to cash in on the suffering of children, and I refuse to donate to people who fly off the handle and make pronouncements like some of the ones below.
K-LOVE Christian Radio is the King of Guilt (along with sister station Air1 they both fall under Electronic Media Foundation). My mother donates to them and still turns it off during the few weeks a year they do Pledge Drive, because if she didn't, she would stop donating to them. . Some of the gems from the last few pledge drives (paraphrasing and then in parentheses I'll put how I interpret it):
1. "IF YOU HAVE A JOB, ANY JOB AT ALL, YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE! NO EXCUSE AT ALL NOT TO DONATE TO OUR MINISTRY! NO EXCUSE!" (Caps intentional because the DJ screamed that...one of his cohosts told him to go get a freaking coffee or something. Anyhow, my take on that is, "We want your money and you need to give us money. Prosperity Gospel for real; God wants you to give money to us and you'll be rewarded for it.")
2. Do you know how many suicides K-LOVE prevented last year when people called us? Well we do [insert number]; that many people are alive today because you donated to your K-LOVE station. (I take that as, "If you don't give us money, people will kill themselves! Their blood is on your hands if you don't donate now!")
3. If you don't donate to us right now, more women will have abortions. Just listen to [person]'s story, one of many, about how your donations provide counseling for pregnant women who call us for help. (My take, "If you don't donate to us now, women will have abortions, and if you're a real Christian, you're participating in the genocide of the unborn. How's that on your conscience huh? How's that?")
4. Last year [number here] people gave their lives to Jesus Christ through the ministry of K-LOVE and that's possible through your continued support of your local K-LOVE station. (My take, "If you don't support K-LOVE, you're sending people straight to Hell.)
5. Endless quick radio bites by people who say K-LOVE saved their life. (Each is individual and a "true story" from a listener.)
6. "I have a hard time believing that there aren’t more listeners who can’t afford $20 a month, not even the full $40." (My take: Give us money, give us money, you have the money.)
7. “One of our listeners just called to become part of our family. She did not think that she actually had enough money to do so, but, for a long time, she has felt that God has been telling her to call in and give to K-Love anyways. So she did.” (Direct quote from A Social Spirituality's blog post on KLOVE's fundraising. My take, "We don't care that you don't have the money, just give it to us anyhow and trust God won't let you down because you gave money to a ministry.")
8. "You can even sign up to donate on the Easy Gift Plan. Right out of your checking account, it saves us money and you money by eliminating paper and postage!" (My take: Give us even more money. Now. We'll take it directly from your checking account.)
9. If you don't meet 100% funding for your local K-Love station, it will probably go off the air. If we don't meet 100% funding for pledge drive, we're going to have to make cuts and it won't be pretty... (I saved this for last, because every point before now that involves money leads up to this...umm yeah, about that...how about your $34,678,623 profit according to Charity Navigator, the almost half a million you pay your President, etc.? Did I mention they sponsor a NASCAR team?)
10. We're working with Angel Tree this year. Did you know children who have parents in prison are more likely to go to prison? What if you could help stop that cycle, by donating $40 a month to K-Love this pledge drive, Angel Tree will send those children a gift, something from their dad, and the Saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. (My take: Angel Tree is a wonderful ministry, and yes, they are correct about the correlation between parental incarceration and later delinquency. However, using children's suffering to sell your radio station is wrong. You're not making me feel guilty, you're making me see an angry red.)
11. Direct quote from this morning (around 7:15am on 10/4/2013 EST), "Don't let the Devil stop you from donating to a ministry that saves lives". (My take: You're implying that the Prince of Hell wants me to not give money to you. It doesn't get more Christian guilt trip than that, "DO THIS OR THE DEVIL WINS" is no way to raise money.)
No comments:
Post a Comment