Insights on Philanthropy
by Fred Smith

A couple of years ago Carol’s friends gave her a satellite radio receiver for her car.  It’s a source of amusement to me because, like cable television, there are hundreds of choices – especially if you like sports, heavy metal music, talk shows, country western, country/country, western/western, and more sports.  The only time I use it is when we travel and I can find something closer to my taste – CSPAN book reviews, PBS and Joni Mitchell.  As you probably know, you just set your regular radio dial on 88.3 and the satellite does the rest.  Instant (and increasingly strange) variety. 

Here’s what bothers me.  In Houston and a couple of other major cities local Christian radio stations have such a strong signal on 88.3 that the satellite signal cannot break through. So, you either resign yourself to Christian fare for about 75 miles or you dial in regular radio – with virtually no variety. That irritates me.  Why do they need a signal so strong that nothing else can compete?  The last time this happened it started me thinking about our Christian friends who would like to do the same with our American culture.  They would like to have a signal that is so strong and overwhelming that all the variety of the culture (increasingly strange) would be drowned out and all we would have is Christian choices and values. While I may not like all the choices I have in a world driven by Satellite XM, I much prefer that to a single option.  I hope we never “take back” the culture.