Brief history of the radio problem
Esther Regehr
In the 1930s,
church fathers
slapped a verboten sign
on radios.
Disembodied voices
were not to be trusted,
only God's,
and you couldn't afford
to get mixed up.
As shepherds of a separated flock
they were responsible
for deflection from
the narrow path.
Mother and Father
lived in the boonies;
radio was their link
with the larger world,
their grip on reality.
Church fathers
seldom ventured there.
Grandfather had a radio
big as a TV set.
He listened to fringe
radio preachers
from the south
and heard the voice of God.
Sometime in the 1940s,
the verboten sign fell
splintered in the dust.
What once was suspect,
now was sanctioned
for the spread
of the gospel.
Wheat and tares together,
God be judge at harvest time.
Esther Regehr lives in Waterloo, Ont.
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