Jesus Banned from the Radio? Not as Long as He Makes a Buck!

Have you seen the big news in the e-mail or on Facebook about how a certain song about God and country was banned from the radio because its lyrics "were too politically incorrect"? Yeah, I've seen it about six times too many. The right-wing parrots are parroting whatever they are told to again, but that's not the point here. Stop and think about it.

If you think there's a big conspiracy to ban God and Country from country music radio, all you have to do is turn it on and listen, any given minute of any given day. Country music radio knows its audience, and they know what their audience wants. God and Country makes money for country music radio. Rap makes money for "urban" radio. Hate makes money for right-wing talk radio. What makes money is what is broadcast. Political correctness has nothing to do with it (Howard Stern is on the radio, after all). If Jihad sold in America, it would undoubtedly be on the radio, too.

It's not just radio, folks. I hate to break the news to you, but television programming is only what is historically proven to make you sit there while the commercials are on. Nobody really cares about "American Idol" except that it glues more eyeballs to the commercials than anything else does. Everybody: clothing companies, automobile companies, telecommunications companies, even oil companies, are not operating for any reason except to make the product that will make you give them the most money at the least expense to them.

Will you give more money to somebody who really cares about you and what you think? Then they do. Will you give more money to somebody who truly wants you to be healthier and live a happier, longer, more meaningful life? Then they do. If it costs them more to make it a little bit better becuse they love you, will they do it? Not a chance.

Jesus is on the country radio station to make you hold still and listen to the commercials that come between songs. That's what he's doing there. No more and no less.

Rush Limbaugh is saying outrageous things about the President - guess why? He has commercials on his radio show, too, and he makes a whole lot of money from the people who put them there.

Everybody isn't necessarily asking you to open your wallet and spend money for a product you can touch and feel. But just about every time somebody tells you what you want to hear, they are asking you to buy something. Stop and think about what it might be and what their motives are. The world today is way too complex and too full of buyers and sellers for anybody to completely avoid being bought and sold like subprime mortgages to a megabank, but with a little thought about where the money goes and who might be behind the messages, we might be able to escape the most blatant attempts to be used for someone else's gain.