Pastor Chuck Swindoll and his radio program, Insight for Living has been dropped from the VCY Radio Network (never heard of them) for crude language.
According to the press release from VCY Radio Network, Swindoll has used a number of bad words since 2000 (yes, apparently they’ve been keeping a tally for 7 years now): buns, heck, crap and balls. They also said he mentioned and encouraged the viewing of — get ready for it….. “The Lion King.” (gasps, screams, a woman just passed out in the back!)
From the VCY press release:
The decision to bring termination to the IFL program arrived on March 5, 2007. VCY and listeners were highly offended by Chuck Swindoll’s use of crude and uncalled for language. His message was entitled, “Male Leadership 101″ which was a presentation given to men at his church. Although a disclaimer was given at the beginning of the program, Swindoll had a sustained laugh as he stated had he known this would be on radio at the time of speaking he probably would have changed things around because he tends to be “a little loose and a little free.” But he says he found “people appreciate that”. The specific area of offense came when Chuck stated:
“The sons of Issachar understood their times, they were men who had discernment and the sons of Issachar were men who had direction. They could make decisions. They saw through all the fluff of that culture. They stood strong when others were fading in the shadows. Patton would say they had guts. You’d say at work, they had balls. Or maybe that’s a Greek rendering of another verse.” (Laughter)…
Knowing this was Part 1 of a message, VCY pre-listened to the March 6, 2007 broadcast. In this message Chuck Swindoll addressed accountability, sensitivity, purity and integrity. These virtues were compromised when he spoke the following:
“The battle still goes on. It will never end. In fact I had my physical the other day and Cooper who has a finger that long (pause and lots of laughter), that long (continued laughter). And while he was up in there said, ‘Now that’s your prostate.’ I said (Swindoll yells) — ‘I know that’. Was this anatomy class? (Laughter). He’s a very sick man. (Laughter). Got through prostate, checked out great. I bragged about that to Cynthia about three hours. ‘I’ve got a great prostate.’ She said, ‘get a life, honey.'” (Laughter)
VCY finds it unacceptable to broadcast Chuck Swindoll’s re-counting of the length of the finger of his doctor and describing it in his body while checking his prostate. This is both crude and offensive.
It is VCY’s position that this language is gutter talk, is crude, and vulgar. VCY stated to IFL that such language is uncalled for, is unbecoming a pastor, and is inappropriate for our listeners.
Read the full press release.
And of course you know out in the blogosphere there are great responses to the announcement from VCY. From Verum Serum:
It is such a relief to know that Ingrid and the rest of the gang over at Slice (along with the others in the watchdoggie litter) are there defending the faith from the dark machinations of the Evil One who has perverted one of the longest running Christian teaching programs in America. To be sure that we get the salient points and to be sure that we are all on the right
judgmentalspiritual page, here’s what we have learned:1) Commonly used social colloquialisms and slang are to be avoided at all costs, and to fail to do so draws into question the amount of Godliness within one’s soul.
2) Discussing the physical realities of life (such as medical examinations) is off limits, especially if it is done in a light and humorous manner.
3) Never, never, EVER expose yourself or your children to any sort of stories or fairytale involving magic, magical lands, magical/talking animals, etc. Magic is always evil, no matter what, so anything that tries to portray it in any other light is anathema and must be shunned and/or stoned and/or burned at the stake of heresy.
4) Words like “heck,” “darn,” “shoot,” “crap,” “dang it,” “darn it,” “dang nabbit,” and the like are all suger-coated cuss words to be avoided at all costs.
5) A literal belief in six 24 hour days of creation is ESSENTIAL for a proper understanding of the Christian faith and thus for salvation. Any other belief/interpretation is heresy and should be treated as such.
6) The consumption of any food or drink that the world seems to approve of is to be avoided. In the case of alcohol, anyone who drinks it has allied themselves with the world and the prince of this world (the Devil). The consumption of alcohol is grounds for immediate condemnation to the bowels of hell. In fact, doing anything for fun and/or pleasure that is also done by the world must be avoided. Besides drinking alcohol, the list would include: eating chocolate (or any sort of food with a pleasant flavor), listening to music (even hymns), dressing in anything but sack cloth (longs skirts for women and suites and ties for men stimulate feelings of pleasure at one’s appearance, which is sinful, besides the fact that such articles of clothing have been conceived by and created by nonbelievers in the world), reading (even the Bible, since reading anything but Leviticus can lend itself to an enjoyable passing of time while one reads about the movement of God in the history of the world), watching movies (even G rated movies, since again they have been developed by nonbelievers and are thus tainted by the impurity of their thoughts and actions), etc.
7) Any reference to any male or female anatomy located below the shoulders and above the knees is to be avoided, lest it stimulate carnal and/or otherwise inappropriate thoughts. Besides the obvious ones, the following words should also be avoided: chest, bosom, breast, crotch, groin, thigh, derriere, bottom, rump, butt, buns, bum, and arse.
Be sure and read the full version.
About VCY Network:
The VCY America radio network is a satellite distributed full-service program schedule consisting of Bible teaching programs, live call-in programs on issues of concern to the Christian community, news and commentary, programs reaching children with the Gospel, and conservative, uplifting Christian music. Programs are selected for their ministry value and their biblical content, rather than financial considerations. There are currently twelve VCY-owned stations across the midwest on this network, plus others that take our programming for a number of hours each day, some of them full-time.