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Global Radio Broadcasting and the Dynamics of American Evangelicalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2017

TIMOTHY STONEMAN
TIMOTHY STONEMAN*
Affiliation:
School of History and Sociology, Georgia Tech Lorraine. Email: tim.stoneman@hsoc.gatech.edu.
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Abstract

During the middle decades of the twentieth century, American evangelicals broadened their global outlook and operations, becoming the largest private radio broadcasters in the world. As they expanded overseas after World War II, American evangelicals encountered a world in crisis due to the Cold War, population growth, and processes of decolonization, affecting Western missions. Evangelical broadcasting advocates promoted mass media as a means to address the shifting demographic, political, and religious balance between the global North and South. Global radio broadcasting demonstrated a dynamic tension within American evangelicalism between innovative and conservative impulses, which was particularly evident in the area of reception.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 51 , Special Issue 4: Exploring the Global History of American Evangelicalism , November 2017 , pp. 1139 - 1170
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and British Association for American Studies 2017 

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References

1 Carpenter, Joel, Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 177 Google Scholar, cited in Miller-Davenport, Sarah, “‘Their Blood Shall Not Be Shed in Vain’: American Evangelical Missionaries and the Search for God and Country in Post-World War II Asia,” Journal of American History, 99 (March 2013), 1109–32, 1109CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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8 David King, “World Vision: Religious Identity in the Discourse and Practice of Global Relief and Development,” Review of Faith and International Affairs, Fall 2011, 21–28, 23. World Vision had an annual budget of $2.6 billion c.2011, operated in almost 100 countries, and employed 40,000 people worldwide. See King, “The New Internationalists.”

9 King provides impressive data on the growth of evangelical r & d and humanitarian organizations during the closing decades of the twentieth century. By 2012, six of seven of the largest evangelical mission agencies were r & d organizations and four evangelical agencies ranked among the top ten largest INGOS. Other specialized evangelical agencies include the Christian Children's Fund, the Medical Assistance Program, and the Institute for International Development, as well as the humanitarian International Justice Mission. Measured in purely monetary terms, evangelical commitments abroad outweighed their more publicized involvement with domestic politics: “For every dollar evangelicals spent on political organizations, they invested twelve dollars toward foreign missions and international aid.” King, “The New Internationalists,” 924.

10 According to Robert Wuthnow, American churches spent over $3.7 billion in the first decade of the twenty-first century on overseas ministries – an increase of 45% over the previous decade. Wuthnow, Robert, Boundless Faith: The Global Outreach of American Churches (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011)Google Scholar.

11 According to Robert Wuthnow (ibid., pp. 1, 23), American churches supported 42,787 missionaries in 2001, a 16% increase over the previous decade. In addition, American agencies support 65,000 non-USA citizens and foreign nationals. The number of short-term missionary volunteers rose over the final decades of the twentieth century and reached an all-time high in the early 2000s: 350,000 workers (for two weeks to a year) and a million workers (for under two weeks). Joshua Yates reports even higher figures for the number of American missionaries c.2000: between 67,000 and 118,000. See Joshua Yates, “American Evangelicals: The Overlooked Globalizers and Their Unintended Gospel of Modernity,” Hedgehog Review, Summer 2002, 74, 66–90.

12 In addition to r & d and humanitarian organizations, examples of major contemporary evangelical parachurch and mission organizations with significant global operations include Campus Crusade for Christ (progenitors of the Jesus Film project), Christian Broadcasting Network and Trinity Broadcasting Network (cable satellite networks), Focus on the Family, Fuller School of World Mission (the largest missions school in the world, founder of the church growth movement), and Youth with A Mission (short-term missions). See Yates.

13 FEBC, Far East Broadcaster, December 1948, “Call of the Orient,” Binder 1-A, FEBC Archives (hereafter “FEBC”), 15700 Imperial Highway, La Mirada, CA. All Far East Broadcaster references are authored by FEBC and are from the same binder.

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25 Schultze, 48–49.

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27 Joel Carpenter, Revive Us Again, 30–31.

28 Hutchison, William R., Errand to the World: American Protestant Thought and Foreign Missions (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1987), 177 Google Scholar. Joel Carpenter disputes this data, arguing that by the mid-1930s missionaries affiliated with conservative agencies already made up 40% of the overall missionary force. Joel A. Carpenter, “Appendix: The Evangelical Missionary Force in the 1930s,” in Carpenter and Shenk, Earthen Vessels, 335–42.

29 Kane, J. Herbert, A Concise History of Christian World Mission: A Panoramic View from Pentecost to the Present (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1982), 102 Google Scholar; and Shenk, Wilbert, “Missions,” in Goff, Philip, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Religion in America (Malden, MA and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 228–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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32 Ruth Oldenziel, “Islands,” 14.

33 Ibid., 13, 34. On the VOA's global network see Stoneman, Timothy, “A ‘Bold New Vision’: The VOA Ring Plan and Global Broadcasting in the Early Cold War,” Technology and Culture, 50, 1 (April 2009), 316–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Sweeney, The American Evangelical Story, 174.

35 Berg, Jerome S., Broadcasting on the Short Waves: 1945 to Today (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008)Google Scholar.

36 Clarence Jones cited in The Alliance Witness, 11 April 1956, C&MA National Archives, Colorado Springs, CO.

37 Darroch, M. A., Missions’ Race against Time (Chicago: Moody Monthly, c. 1954)Google Scholar.

38 Glasser, Arthur F., “The Mission Field Today,” in Changing World – Unchanging Christ: A Missionary Compendium (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1955), 32–42 Google Scholar.

39 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), “Hour of Decision” report, 2 Dec. 1960, Billy Graham Center Archives (BGCA), Wheaton, IL.

40 Ibid.

41 Paul E. Haines, “Radio to Speed the Light,” Far East Broadcaster, June 1946, FEBC.

42 FEGC field report (1948?) in Miller-Davenport, “Their Blood Shall Not Be Shed in Vain,” 1118.

43 Quoted in BGEA, 31.

44 International Christian Broadcasters, ICB bulletin, editorial, June 1963, 3.

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46 Carpenter, Joel and Sanneh, Lamin, eds., The Changing Face of Christianity: Africa, the West, and the World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 5 Google Scholar; Robert, Dana, “Shifting Southward: Global Christianity since 1945,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 24, 2 (April 2000), 50–58 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Isichei, Elizabeth, The Religious Traditions of Africa: A History (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), 171–72Google Scholar.

47 Schultze, Christianity and the Mass Media in America, 145.

48 Reuben Larson, “Barriers Bridged by Radio,” Christian Life, May 1953.

49 Jones, Clarence, Radio: The New Missionary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1946), 114 Google Scholar.

50 Oral interview with Robert Bowman, Dec. 2003, FEBC, La Mirada, CA.

51 Quoted in Schultze, 67–69.

52 Ibid., 141, 146–47.

53 HCJB set the tone from the start in 1931. In its station contract, HCJB's organizers agreed to allow the government airtime for agricultural, weather, and political information, as well as free access to one-fifth of the stations's airtime upon demand. In addition, HCJB regularly played Ecuadorian cultural programming and music and closed each day's broadcast with the Ecuadorian national anthem.

54 As a typical example of public-relations programming by evangelical broadcasters, FEBC in the early 1960s provided regular airtime on its shortwave service to various offices and agencies in the Philippine government: the Presidential Press, Radio & TV Office, Education Department, Social Security System, Philippine Constabulary, and State University College of Agriculture. FEBC prepared ten newscasts per day in the Philippines, along with its own magazine-format news program and special events coverage. It aired short medical programs from English-speaking doctors, as well as informational material from the USIS, WHO, and SEATO. See “Public Service Programs on FEBC Stations” and “Public Service Programs,” RHB Files, Manila Important Material, FEBC.

55 The asymmetry of power with broadcasters in the mission field did not negate the agency of local listeners. Recent scholarship highlights the embodied character of listening and stresses how the context and conditions of audiences frame the listening experience. With respect to evangelical broadcasting, foreign listeners retained control in numerous areas of reception, from set volume to antenna operation and battery replacement. Audiences also determined the ultimate effectiveness of evangelical broadcasts, which required a degree of consent to produce conversion. As David Morley notes, however, active-audience theory was not initially designed to negate the media power of foreign broadcasters, such as American evangelicals, but rather to allow for a more complex conceptualization of how such media power operates. See Morley, David, “Globalisation and Cultural Imperialism Re-considered: Old Questions in New Guises,” in Curran, James P. and Morley, David G., eds., Media and Cultural Theory (Milton Park and New York: Routledge, 2006), 30–43 Google Scholar; and Morley, , “Unanswered Questions in Audience Research,” Communication Review, 9, 2 (2006), 101–121 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lacey, Kate, Listening Publics: The Politics and Experience of Listening in the Media Age (Malden, MA and Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)Google Scholar; and Goody, Alex, “Radio at Home: BBC Drama and Domestic Listeners, 1935–1942,” Modernist Cultures, 10, 1 (2015), 62–82 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 Schultze.

57 Ibid, 162.

58 While a genealogically distinct branch of evangelicalism emphasizing the experience of the Holy Spirit, Pentecostalism formed part of the broad evangelical movement that shared roots and general tendencies. FEBC's directors stressed their nondenominational affinities with conservative evangelical preachers and deliberately downplayed theological distinctives in pursuit of the common task of worldwide evangelization. See Robbins, Joel, “The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity,” Annual Review of Anthropology, 33 (2004), 117–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Johnson, Todd W., “The Global Demographics of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal,” Soc, 46 (2009), 479–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Other examples include the Far Eastern Gospel Crusade in the Philippines and Japan, the New Tribes Mission, and the Mission Aviation Fellowship. See Miller-Davenport, “Their Blood Shall Not Be Shed in Vain.” On the role of veterans see Richard V. Pierard, “Pax Americana and the Evangelical Missionary Advance,” in Carpenter and Shenk, Earthen Vessels, 170–75.

60 Enrique, Elizabeth, Appropriation of Colonial Broadcasting: A History of Early Radio in the Philippines, 1922–1946 (Diliman, Quezon City: The University of the Philippines Press, 2009), 36, 177Google Scholar.

61 Brands, H. W., Bound to Empire: The United States and the Philippines (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)Google Scholar.

62 Kumberley, John, “Bamboo Missionary Broadcaster: Gospel vs. Chairman Mao,” Popular Electronics, 32, 2 (Feb. 1970), 61–68, 61Google Scholar.

63 Ibid.

64 George Codding, Broadcasting without Barriers (Paris: UNESCO, 1959).

65 UNESCO, Statistics on Radio and Television, 1950–1960 (Paris: UNESCO, 1963), 53 Google Scholar, Table 2. The exact figure is 1,059 inhabitants according to UNESCO data calculated by Mercier, Claude, La réception radiophonique à bon marché (Paris: UNESCO, 1950), 13 Google Scholar.

66 For brief accounts of FEBC's receiver distribution program see Ledyard, Gleason H., Sky Waves: The Incredible Far East Broadcasting Company Story (Chicago: Moody Press, 1963)Google Scholar; and James Calvin King, “A Survey and Analysis of the Major International Evangelical Short Wave Broadcasters Trans World Radio, HCJB and the Far East Broadcasting Company,” PhD thesis, University of Michigan, 1973.

67 By comparison, the average sale price for a Philips receiver in the same period was 350 florins. On Philips data for 1947–49 see Mercier, 124. Sources: Oral interview with Norman Blake, Dec. 2003, FEBC, La Mirada, CA; W. Woodard, “F. E. Radio Plays Big Part in Spreading the Gospel,” Japan Times (undated), FEBC; Ledyard; Far East Broadcaster, Jan., Feb. 1950.

68 In 1959, evangelical engineers custom-built a portable transistor receiver, the “Villager,” that measured four by six by eleven inches. Here again typically, the speaker (six inches, with a 6.8 oz magnet) largely dictated the size and weight of the radio.

69 On state broadcasters’ attempts to delimit audiences by controlling the process of reception see Lekgoathi, Sekibakiba Peter, “‘You are Listening to Radio Lebowa of the South African Broadcasting Corporation’: Vernacular Radio, Bantusan Identity and Listenership, 1960–1994,” Journal of Southern African Studies, 35, 3 (Sept. 2009), 575–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Christoph Classen, “Jamming the RIAS: Technical Measures against Western Broadcasting in East Germany (GFR) 1945–1989,” in Badenoch, Fickers, and Henrich-Franke, Broadcasting and the Cold War, 321–47, 341–43.

70 Ledyard.

71 John Broger, “FEBC: A Modern Miracle,” Pentecostal Evangel, 12 Aug. 1950, 11–13, 5, Flowers Pentecostal Heritage Center, Springfield, MO.

72 Far East Broadcaster Dec. 1950(?), FEBC.

73 See Far East Broadcaster, Aug. 1952.

74 Far East Broadcaster, March 1949, Oct. 1951, Aug. 1952, FEBC.

75 Far East Broadcaster, July 1952, FEBC.

76 Far East Broadcaster, Feb. 1950.

77 Letter from Cruz, 17 Oct. 1956; interview between Carol Alcott and Robert Bowman, “CBS News report,” undated, “CBS News: Carol Allcott,” Bowman Files, FEBC.

78 Letter from Montejo to the director (FEBC), 5 March 1966, Box 5, Bowman Files, FEBC; and letter from Montejo to the director (FEBC), 6 Feb. 1969, Box 5, Bowman Files, FEBC.

79 Montejo, letter from director, 5 March 1966, FEBC.

80 Arvid Veidmark cites USIS figures in “Radio Survey of the Philippines Islands,” July 27–August 15, 1953, “Arvid Veidmark (Power of Attorney),” FEBC.

81 With 300,000 radios, and an average of 22.5 persons per set, the total radio audience in the Philippines can be estimated at 6.75 million listeners. Veidmark.

82 Ledyard, Sky Waves; Far East Broadcaster, Jan. 1950, FEBC.

83 Far East Broadcaster, Jan. 1950, FEBC.

84 In his oral interview, Blake stated that FEBC did not complete a written contract. Ledyard; Blake, oral interview.

85 FEBC published reports of the following PM audience sizes: 30, 78, 75, 90, and 200. Far East Broadcaster, Aug. 1950, July 1952, Nov. 1952. See also “‘P.M.’ Holders’ Reports,” and “Excerpts fropm ‘Portable Missionary’ Holders’ Reports,” undated, Box 5, Bowman Files, FEBC.

86 Broger, “FEBC: A Modern Miracle”.

87 For a discussion of contemporary radio clubs in an African context see Mhagama, Peter, “Radio Listening Clubs in Malawi as Alternative Public Spheres,” Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, 13, 1–2 (2015), 105–20Google Scholar.

88 Crusade magazine, Nov. 1959.

89 Roughly one-third of PM Clubs filed monthly reports. “Use of Pretuned Radios Boosts Manila Audience,” Southland Daily News, 4 April 1964, 10, “Press Releases: News Clippings,” FEBC.

90 Ledyard.

91 “Extension Department Monthly Report,” June 1962, Jan. 1968, Aug. 1969, FEBC.

92 Douglas, Susan, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004)Google Scholar.

93 Far East Broadcaster, March 1950, FEBC.

94 Broger.

95 Laureana N. Garcia letter in Far East Broadcaster, March 1950, FEBC.

96 Far East Broadcaster, Aug. 1950, FEBC.

97 Ledyard; King, A Survey, 153–54.

98 From 1950 to 1955, FEBC imported 150–200 radios from the United States. The Philippine governments kept import duties low.

99 King, 153–54.

100 FEBC, extension department monthly report, Aug. 1969, FEBC.

101 “KGEI Mail Excerpts, PM Reports,” March–April 1966, FEBC.

102 Cited in André-Jean Tudesq, “Introduction a la Radiodiffusion aux tournants des siecles,” available at Groupe de recherches et d’études sur la radio, at www.gres.fr/uplaod/articles_en_ligne, accessed 8 Oct. 2015.

103 Cover of Far East Broadcaster, undated (July 1955?), FEBC.

104 Broger, “FEBC: A Modern Miracle,” 13.

105 Go, “Waves of Empire”.

106 See www.febc.org, accessed 9 Aug. 2012.

107 Bob Pierce of World Vision “introduced the concept of ‘child sponsorship’” in publicity campaigns for his original work among Korean orphanages in the 1950s. “The image of the innocent child” was effective in fund-raising, in part, because it “bypassed theological debates.” In the late 1970s, “World Vision's appeals offered hard facts and statistics, but they made sure that hunger had a face. Playing to emotion and asking for immediate response, the hungry child became the face of World Vision.” Fellow evangelical r & d organizations Food for the Hungry and Compassion International run similar child sponsorship programs today. King, “The New Internationalists,” 928, 935.