Disappearing like a rainforest full of ebony is the medium where anyone with God in his heart and a message to proclaim can scrape up a few bucks for airtime and be heard around the world.  The reason for this is simple and sobering: Christian radio isn't so much about ministry anymore:  It's much more about money.  Slick programs that entertain and use professional pitchmen to hawk products aimed at the paranoia they themselves induce are more profitable to broadcast than crudely done programs that honestly proclaim the gospel of Christ. What the broadcasters have discovered is a population of Christians in America with money to spend and a longing to be entertained.  And the networks that have formed to provide this entertainment have discovered that Biblical prophecy, conspiracy theories, economic fears, and war, with all the morbid features of good horror, provide just the right combination of fear and fascination needed to not only entertain, but to sell products like water filters, MRE's and all the other stuff they're convinced you'll need to survive the coming apocalypse.  Needless to say, this is shameless.

    Where did these guys come from?  For the most part, they are professional radio personalities who are essentially refugees from the standard broadcast band, cast out of the mainstream for espousing right wing political and religious views unacceptable in the tightly controlled world of commercial broadcasting. The port of refuge they found was the fledgling "Christian Patriot" movement of the early 1990's, which was essentially a loose amalgamation of disgruntled former US military personnel, existing right wing political groups, and militant, far right Christian organizations.  Coalescing around a common theology that God wants America restored to a dominantly Christian nation even at the cost of violent, armed revolution against the government, Christian short wave radio provided the obvious media outlet for spreading this message to the American people.  Broadcasters welcomed the business, and with the influx of professional radio people, Christian Patriot Radio quickly evolved into its own genre, with slick productions, its own stars and celebrities, and a dangerous agenda.

   During the Clinton years, the national pastime of these emerging "Christian Patriot" personalities was exposing the sins and transgressions of the Clinton Administration and the Clintons personally.  Waco, Ruby Ridge, Mena and Oklahoma City became stops on a mystical radio railroad through the 90's that always connected with the White House.  Between stops, the sexual escapades and other scandals of the president and first lady were hashed and rehashed in the club car, as we rattled on down the tracks of history.

    It was the moist and fertile breeding ground provided by the Clinton Administration that spawned the phenomenon of Christian Patriot Radio.  It drew upon and fed a small but ardent following that the Clintons watched grow from an irritation to a perceivable threat: the burgeoning militia movement.

    Cheap airtime on Christian short wave transmitters provided a vital communications medium for a revolutionary subculture.  It also provided access to a much larger audience which, though not spurred to join the patriot revolution, enjoyed listening to dirt being continually dished on the Clintons, tales of masonic conspiracies, and the other "stock and trade" topics inherent in Patriot programming.  This greater audience was, however, spurred to buy the products offered on the few programs that had actual sponsorship.  Sponsors soon proliferated and programs began to gear themselves to attract the audience that was buying the goods.

    As the year 2000 approached, Christian Patriot programmers reached the zenith of their influence as they took maximum advantage of the Y2K scare propaganda coming from the Clinton administration and used the opportunity to sell listeners warehouses full of generators, inverters, gas masks, and every other doomsday gadget imaginable.

    When January 1, 2000 dawned and the world still stood functioning, the credibility of the patriot prophets of doom lie in ruins. Whether this was a set up by the Clinton Administration as some have claimed or not, the fact remains that Y2K changed patriot radio programming forever. Listeners felt betrayed and the purchases and outright donations that fueled the radio machine began to dry up.  This resulted in a process of attrition and contrition that drove the more radical programs from the airwaves, and caused those that remained to repackage themselves in a less revolutionary and, therefore, more acceptable and commercial format.  A kinder, gentler and more profit oriented patriot program became the norm.

    Today, with the "War Against Terrorism" rekindling the demand for doomsday equipment and supplies, we have entered the age of neopatriot radio, the age of the Christian patriot network, of which there are now several.  The evolution that is currently taking place down plays the traditional and more radical aspects of the old patriot movement. The war has successfully created a theological schizophrenia in which the old theme of masonic conspiracies running shadow governments coexists with a flag waving (and selling) patriotic fervor for the president's war.  By substituting radical Moslems for the BATF and FBI, a degree of political correctness is achieved, and with it greater acceptabilty with an ever growing audience.

    The result is a valuable commodity: canned radio programming that can be packaged and sold to Christian short wave broadcasters (and the independents as well) in either pieces or in bulk. Neopatriot radio, supporting truth, justice, Jesus, and the American way, (as well as our troops in Afghanistan), strives for entertaining and controversial programming; sanitized so as not to be overly offensive, and formatted for commercials, just like AM.

    And so, with money to be made, what we are witnessing is the rapid commercialisation of Christian short wave radio, as professional radio people rebuild and retool the skeletal remains of the old Christian Patriot Radio movement into syndicated programming services for Christian short wave broadcasters, who yield with surprising ease to the temptation of easy money, filled program schedules, bigger audiences, and becoming of the world.  What began as a divinely inspired mission to take the good news of Jesus to the world has become the official media outlet for the propaganda and consumer products of a "new and improved" politically corrected lunatic fringe.

    To be fair, much of this programming is interesting and intelligent.  There are likable hosts, useful information, intriguing interviews, unique perspectives and a little truth.  However, there is also disinformation, misinformation, dangerous political perspectives, and an underlying militant theology that is absurd.  To gain value, listeners must be as discerning as the birds that follow horses and learn to pick the oats from the manure.

    At the bottom line, Christian Patriot Radio is not about proclaiming the gospel of Jesus to the world and never has been.  Broadcasters should consider this before they allow it to dominate the medium, for this is clearly the intent.