When is “life changing” safe?

Christian radio is like a bruise to me.  It’s there and it causes me pain to touch it, but somehow I can’t help myself.  Today was a day when I pressed on that bruise and man was it painful.

Since a trip down to Atlanta several years ago when I read a billboard that exclaimed that this particular Christian radio station was safe for the whole family, I have noticed that this seems to be the advertising slogan of choice for the worship airwaves.  Well, Christian radio stations must either be hurting for share or finding that their marketing campaigns are working because over noxious bubble gum music that sounded like it was being pumped out of a merry-go-round, the DJ proclaimed with increased vehemence this safety slogan.  Perhaps the concern is that all other children who are exposed to non-Christian radio will have their brains melt and ooze out of their ears.  But the pitch also had a new twist.  No longer was it just safe, it was also uplifting and life changing.  Now, I don’t know about you, but for me, those three terms are usually mutually exclusive of one another.  For me, life changing moments like deciding to get married, going to Gaza for a summer or packing up the van to move to Madison were not safe at all.  They weren’t even uplifting which my wife can attest to when she sees how I shirk kleenex for a finger.  At times they were fun and exciting, but even these don’t seem a prerequisite for “life changing.”

Maybe my mind will change when I have kids and the relative variety of Christian radio really will be safe, uplifting, and life changing as a respite from the mind numbing of Barney.  But in the meantime, I will stay on my high horse and wonder if this is something that is wrong with Christians – that we think safety is the way to change lives.

(Disclaimer – this is NOT an endorsement of Wild At Heart, another piece of crap Christian idea)