Before I get into this post I’d like to make one thing perfectly clear: my intention in this post is to discuss how things are advertised and the appropriateness of what’s played on the radio of a van that’s taking people to the airport. None of what you’re about to read should be interpreted as disparaging anyone’s religious faith in any way.
Shortly after I was picked up at my hotel in DC by a SuperShuttle van for my ride to BWI, the driver turned on the radio. What came on was WGTS which marketed itself as “family friendly radio” which played only “positive & encouraging” music. After listening to the station for a few minutes I cam,e to realize that this was a Christian station that only played music with a Christian message; mostly music containing some fort of praise for God and/or Jesus.
My first thought was that music of this type should not be played in a SuperShuttle van. This might be what the driver is interested in listening to but that does not mean that the rest of the riders should be subjected to it. I would have the same sort of reaction if the driver was playing gangsta rap. I understand that you can’t please everyone all of the time when it comes to music but picking something with a specific message and/or at a far end of the musical spectrum is not appropriate.
Listening to the stations promotional material further along in the ride, I started to question the “family friendly” nature of the content. Granted, I would describe it as perfectly friendly to Christian families, but what about Jewish or Muslim families. Praising Jesus song after song would not be considered friendly someone with a radically different faith. I understand their point when it comes to the fact that they kept pointing out that the lyrics to the songs they were playing were not (traditionally) offensive and lacking in sexual content, but that doesn’t instantly make it “family friendly” when you look outside of a narrow definition of family.
As usual, all comments welcome.
You bring up two differnt topics here. One is the appropriateness of playing Christian radio in a public van, the other is the topic of Family Friendly.
I would guess that the person playing the music liked it, and assumed that it’s mellow enough not to grate on people’s nerves that way.
Regarding family friendly, if I, as a committed Christian, heard someone playing mellow music that was Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, whatever, I wouldn’t mind. It would not offend me so long as it wasn’t offensive (full of hate, agression, etc).
I enjoy’d surfing across your blog just now. Didn’t necessarily have to like everything about it in order to enjoy it. Nor do I plan to go home and blog badly about it. It’s your blog; you’re entitled to it.
If we had to dumb-down all public blogs & public buses to the lowest common denominator, how interesting would that be?
What say we keep the constitution the way it is, including the “and the free exercise thereof” clause?