[Ed Dantes]

Here's an interesting ethical & theological question for you, something I was posed with at work.

I am a producer for "The 700 Club", which, to those who don't know, is a Christian television program that's been around for decades. Its host is Pat Robertson, one of the first televangelists. Pat doesn't really do much other than show up to tape the program, though. Once the show is over, Pat bolts. The content for the "Club" and how it is formatted is determined by an editorial board.

As you can imagine, we're making an effort to reach out to a younger audience. Our current audience is, frankly, old and dwindling. We want to see the "Club" reach a new generation of viewers. To this end, we've been more open to putting guests and stories on that would reach that demographic.

In any event, a year or two ago we featured the testimony of a guy named Brian Welch, who was the lead guitarist for the heavy metal band Korn. Welch found Jesus, repented, and left Korn, and became a Christian musician.

As it turns out, that became one of our most popular stories. The guy looks like a, for lack of a better word, freak. Still, we aired his story because we wanted to reach a younger, different audience -- the audience that listens to Korn and who desperately needs Jesus. And it worked. You can find the story on YouTube, and it's one of our most popular ones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKqajubpF0Y

Well, we had the chance to get Brian Welch in for a studio interview. We agreed... and then one person showed us the music video to his song "Flush". Now, Welch's music is pretty much the same from his Korn days -- hard and heavy. His conversion didn't change that. The music video for "flush", a song that talks about the need to 'flush' the drugs away, is horribly graphic. You see people vomiting blood, two girls going at it, and such. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y66rzBgaogo

The worry we have is, at the end of the interview, Pat holding up Welch's CD and inviting people to go to Welch's website... and people will think Pat endorses this type of product. That puts us in a huge hole with our older (and considerably more numerous) audience. We don't want any 'i'll never watch you guys again' letters. And we can't NOT plug the CD, or else the guy wouldn't come on -- and we lose out on the 'reaching a younger audience' thing we're going for. And it's not just a loss of viewership, it's a loss of an opportunity to reach an entire group of people who really, really need Jesus.

Some Christian media groups have balked and said 'no way'. I think some retailers are pulling the CD's from shelves. Welch himself has responded to the controversy, saying he's trying to be real as possible. The music video is what he says, a depiction of what you go through when you're a meth addict. Welch says he's called to speak to people who understand his language, and that's what he's going to do -- all while railing against the "cheese" in Christian media.

In any event, we're going forward with the live, studio interview. Pat's going to talk to him on Tuesday, October 7th. We will promo the CD with the disclaimer that the videos might be too extreme for your average youth group, but it needs to be extreme because that's what it takes sometimes to get the message across.

So... I'm writing this post for a few reasons.

Number one: Do you think we're making the right move?
Number two: If yes, where do you draw the line? Do you draw a line? Do you ever say "we're trying to reach people -- but this is too much! We can't call ourselves Christian if we do this!"
Number three: We are going to irritate, just because we're letting Brian Welch on, a lot of our viewers. Please pray they understand why we are doing this.

[phoenix]

Number one: Do you think we're making the right move?
Number two: If yes, where do you draw the line? Do you draw a line? Do you ever say "we're trying to reach people -- but this is too much! We can't call ourselves Christian if we do this!"
Number three: We are going to irritate, just because we're letting Brian Welch on, a lot of our viewers. Please pray they understand why we are doing this.

Answer #1 -- Absolutely.
Answer #2 -- The line is drawn when something is done simply for shock value. Welch is trying to be real, and show an aspect of drug abuse that seldom is shown in the music industry. I think it will be good for kids to see this side of that lifestyle -- and it might do some good for your older viewers to see what's going on in the real world.

[PAmedic]

keep in mind, kids (at least around here) are very savvy, and know exactly what goes on w/ meth-heads and other users.

Sometimes we forget how much teens are actually aware of ; they'll probably be the LEAST likely to be shocked over this stuff.

My opinion is that supporting Brian is a very good thing.

[Hold My Own]

I 100% agree that the 700 Club needs to reach a younger crowd but this may be a stretch...I mean that's very graphic.



I would suggest Josh Hamilton, Tim Tebow, Mase, Rev Run and others who have all seemed to stay the course after their redemption, even though Mase still raps every now and then he's stayed the course....but this video really disturbs me on many levels...and the girls thing was a little out of place

[belcherboy]

IMO I don't think you will have much success until you change the name. When I think of the "700 club", I always think of my grandparents. I need to give it another chance, but it just seems so "Lawrence Welk" to me. As for promoting that video....IMO you can't promote that thing. I understand what he is trying to convey, but c'mon now. It has a girl licking a powder off girl that only wearing a bra? All the bloody parts don't help, but those two girls are enough for me to think it wouldn't be a good idea to promote it on your show.

I would suggest Josh Hamilton, Tim Tebow, Mase, Rev Run and others who have all seemed to stay the course after their redemption, even though Mase still raps every now and then he's stayed the course....but this video really disturbs me on many levels...and the girls thing was a little out of place

I don't know about Rev Run. He seems like a "Puff Daddy" type christian. I don't know enough about him, but I've seen his tv show and some of the weddings he has done and he seems like he just kinda plays the christian game. Just my uneducated observation of him.

[Ed Dantes]

For the record, we are *not* going to show the music video. And, if I wasn't clear, we are not going to do a blanket promotion ("Brian's CD is entitled 'save me from myself', and its available nationwide...") We will use a disclaimer.

Also, we have done a story or two on Josh Hamilton, and he'll be here for an interview on Oct. 27th. I think we're working on Tim Tebow. We just had Alonzo Mourning and we'll have WWE wrestler Shawn Michaels on later this week (so we are doing something). I'll float the names Mase & Rev Run and see what happens. We just got a new girl as a guest booker, and she's trying to get some young blood in.

Still -- the larger issue remains. At my church, there was a halloween party a few years back (called 'harvest fest', like at every other christian church in the country). Some people complained because at 'harvest fest' they were playing... country music. I think that's a little much, but if it was profanity-laced music or anything with less-than-christian themes, that's crossing the line. But where is said line? How do you know when you cross it?

[Sly Fox]

Good call at not even showing the video on the air. Most of your older viewers (who pay the bills at CBN) will probably just tune out the interview to a certain extent unless something catches their eye. His appearance will do that to a certain extent but you don't want to give them a reason to get too angered.

Frankly it is good to see the efforts to skew younger. It is something that TBN recoginzed about a decade ago that their audience was dying off. You have to remain relevant to survive in this genre.

[Hold My Own]

If you're not airing the video then you should be fine...b/c 90% of those paying the bills like Sly said wont go to youtube to even see what he's all about anyways.

[Ed Dantes]

The interview aired, just fine. You can find it on our website at cbn.com. It would have been better if our host prepared, IMHO.