Do I dare talk about Christian television? I think I'd better. Let us take a look at what has happened to our Christian television networks. We have Jim Bakker, on PTL; you have 700 Club with Pat Robertson, and the biggie here on the West Coast is Paul and Jan Crouch with their TBN. They all have something in common. They all have nuns and priests on their programs.

      I have watched Paul and Jan on Channel 40, and sometimes, I feel so heavy hearted. I watch all these nuns and priests coming on. Once I heard Paul and Jan saying, "Oh, I don't understand the mass, but it's very interesting." God has warned us as Christians to have nothing to do with the works of darkness.

      They have a priest that they're sponsoring on their network program. His name is Manning. He wistfully looks at the Protestants and begs for funds to sponsor Catholic missionaries. Christians are depriving their own pastors and their own churches by sending their money in to TBN for this priest. Those dear little old grandmothers send him love offerings and it is only making the Vatican wealthier. There's going to be a lot to give an account for, beloved.

      We've ended up with Christian show business. We have a bunch of new stars singing snappy little songs and swinging hymns, beating drums, wearing sequins, and telling us how good Jesus is. We can watch a variety of speakers and singers for hours on end. So who reads the Bible when they can watch Christian television? It looks like it has replaced the Word of God for many. They're looking at people instead of going to the Bible for answers, and getting their noses into history to find out what's going on.

      Some people have Channel 40 and PTL on like a rabbit's foot. They figure God's going to bless them because they have this holy program on. I have a friend whose Dad is an unsaved Roman Catholic. This man goes to mass, beats his wife, swears like a sailor, drinks his booze, but he watches Christian television every night. The house is filled with statues of saints and the Virgin Mary, the crucifix. He gets blind drunk. He sits there with his cigar and his booze, with his feet up on the chair, and he watches Paul and Jan. He is convinced, after watching the Catholics on that network, that he is on his way to heaven. When his son-in-law tries to witness to him, he points to the smiling priests and nuns on those Christian stations and says, "See? We're all Christians." I believe this man's blood is going to be on their hands.

      The Vatican now has a satellite and soon the pope will be able to speak to every Roman Catholic on the face of this earth at the same time. Beloved, if you play footsies with the Vatican, you lose. I believe in the future you will see that our Christian television heroes with giant ministries will soon be picked off one by one. All of the biggies will fall for one reason or another. And the last hero alive will be his holiness in the Vatican, and the world will love him.

Our Sunday Visitor, April 26, 1981 A national Catholic television network is no longer a dream. A vast telecommunications network is already rapidly taking shape within the Church and the U.S. planners say that between fall and next January, some 75 dioceses will be utilizing the Westar communications satellite through a series of earth stations.    Technical plans have been no problem and, in fact, are well advanced. The estimated 75 diocesan earth stations, called downlinks, will get most of their broadcast material, via satellite, from one or two program distribution points, called uplinks. One of those uplinks will certainly be in New York. If a second is built, it will be on the West Coast, possibly San Francisco or Los Angeles. The uplinks will be operated by the newly incorporated National Catholic Telecommunications Network. And the satellite owned by Western Union will be leased, at first, for five hours a day, five days a week.    Next year, however, additional time will be sought on the new RCA satellite, and within two to three years, planners hope to be using a satellite round-the-clock.    The technical consultant, Satellite System Engineering, in Washington, DC, has been working since last September on design specifications for the earth stations, both the uplinks and downlinks. They have also been evaluating bidders for constructing the system. At this point Microwave and quality program material, for which the system has a voracious appetite, Success depends on the quality of the programming. The cost will take care of itself, if the quality of the programming is good. For the first time, the Church provides a good alternative home video environment, there will be no problem.    The magnititude of the plan, according to Father Michael J. Dempsey, a Brooklyn priest who is the satellite project director, can easily be compared to the bishops' decision last century when they agreed to build a Catholic school system. They opted for the system in order to educate the large Catholic immigration after the 1840s, but "without knowing the problems it would represent. But they built it as a way of being Church to this new world of people which had suddenly swelled to 10 million in 10 years." The satellite system, by comparison, is the most adventuresome and certainly the most costly undertaking the bishops have ever embarked upon. Unlike the school system, however, the enormous cost of the system is intended to get income from both Protestant and Catholic viewers, and is "eminently successful economically." Its annual income is roughly between $300 and $500 million. For Father Dempsey, such examples offer reassurance that the communication satellite project will not be taking money from CCD or schools or the parish. In fact, if there were any sign that it would threaten the... satellite. These can be redistributed locally to cover all the cable systems and institutions in the area. Then, later, it can gradually move to electronics as it gets the capital and receives income to do that.    Above all, says Father Dempsey, individual dioceses should get "actively involved in the franchising process of the local cable systems." The Cable systems...

      The Bible says, in II Corinthians 6:14, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" and then in verse 17 it goes on to say, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."