Follow the Money

Associations can be very important.  In our quest to live godly, we have to make sure that we are free from entanglements, that we are not engaged in questionable activities that could hurt our witness and steer clear of people or entities that will reflect poorly on us.  We must always maintain integrity in our decision-making, and seek to reflect godliness in all things. The Bible tells us in 1st Timothy chapter 6 (ESV):
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.
12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession,
14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ...

As a responsible believer in Christ, we have to make sure that we are devoted to knowing and applying the Scriptures.  Faith Radio invites you to avail yourself of the strong Bible teaching that you can hear day after day here on our network of stations, through our website, and our app.  The Meeting House features guests who will help to strengthen you in your Christian walk, and content is available through a variety of avenues.  Of course, preaching in the local church and involvement in Bible studies are very important.  But, first and foremost, we have to make sure we are spending time in the Word ourselves.

So-called "Christian" websites and publications can sometimes be problematic, and I encourage you to develop a network we call "trusted sources" through which you can get Biblically-consistent information, even news.  Faith Radio desires to be a trusted source, a source supported by the financial gifts of our listeners.  

Recently, concerning financial news has emerged from the magazine founded by the late Billy Graham, Christianity Today. According to the Daily Wire: "...financial records unearthed after Christian publisher Canon Press offered to buy the magazine call that commitment into question, showing that it is being heavily funded by a massive left-wing organization that spends millions to support the nation’s leading abortion advocate, Planned Parenthood."

The article goes on to say that since 2022, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has donated "well over $1,000,000 to Christianity Today," stating: "This makes Hewlett one of the magazine’s top disclosed donors, even though the NGO’s extensive abortion backing makes it a strange bedfellow for a Christian publication."

It goes on to say: "As dark money watchdog groups like Influence Watch have noted, since its founding in 1967, Hewlett has continuously supported Planned Parenthood, eventually becoming its second largest private funder in the United States."

Since the Hewlett Foundation began to back the publication, "Christianity Today has published several articles challenging the traditional definition of pro-life as a commitment to protect the lives of babies in the womb."

Seth Gruber of the White Rose Resistance calls out this distortion of what it means to be pro-life, stating in the Daily Wire article, "All the other extensions of justice that progressives insist are pro-life issues already have dedicated organizations and funding that outstrips that of the pro-life movement considerably,” adding, “And yet, they insist that we divert our scarce resources from stopping the legal murder of babies toward helping people that it’s not legal to murder before we’re ‘really pro-life.’ The Left have taken huge advantage of this redefinition in order to smuggle in radical socialist priorities, all under the label of ‘pro-life.’ Leftists know that the best way to get naive Christians to jump on their bandwagon is to label their agenda as either a gospel issue or a pro-life issue. But he who fights everywhere fights nowhere.”

Well, there is an offer on the table to buy Christianity Today and stop the leftward drift that has become apparent.  The Daily Wire notes:

Canon Press, which is known for its growing conservative publishing arm, made a $10 million bid to buy Christianity Today on September 29, highlighting its desire to restore the publication to Graham’s original intention. In their offer, they cited the evangelistic model of Charlie Kirk.

“[He] carried the torch of Christianity Today’s founder, Billy Graham, as a global evangelist, and it is his legacy that we see the future of Christianity Today,” the publisher said.

Canon Press founding partner, Aaron Rench, told The Daily Wire that under Canon’s ownership, the outlet’s reliance on the secular grant money that could be playing a role in reshaping its editorial outlook would stop.

Canon Press, though, is part of the assortment of ministry initiatives under the direction of Douglas Wilson, the Idaho evangelical leader who has been portrayed as controversial, but has quite a bit of influence in the Christian community.  There are those, I would say, that would not welcome this new ownership.

Our challenge, as believers, is to make sure that we are accessing sources that are consistent with Biblical truth, or if we are reading or listening to secular news sources, to be able to recognize the worldview that certain publications are portraying.  Realizing that much of what passes as journalism today is heavily influenced by progressive thought and adhere to the talking points and language of the left, we have to point out and call out when facts are being shaded.  It's been said that we should read a newspaper in one hand and the Bible in another.  Karl Barth is credited with a quote to that effect.  That is strong imagery as we consider how we can be more discerning Christians.

Caution: social media can be a really lousy source of news - when you consider the combination of user-generated content and AI or bot-generated news, it can become very confusing.  Then your credibility wanes when you share it or talk about it.  Save yourself from embarassment: verify your sources.  And, find out who's behind the outlets you frequent.  The money trail can give a clear picture.