Attention Christians: Please Get Off My TV

In flipping through channels on my limited access cable yesterday, the line-up was your typical lazy Sunday afternoon schedule: golf tournaments, NASCAR racing, infomercials, a Spanish variety show, and the stalwart of semi-worthless TV: TBN

Sadly, if Christians are known for anything around the world, it is our religious programming. Trinity Broadcasting Network, based out of California, is viewable in more than 190 countries. For an international ambassador, Christians have a pink-haired woman sitting in gold chairs, listening to how Jesus can make us rich.

Never ground-breaking and always theologically off, TBN only makes headway when it coaxes what few dollars its viewers have, in hopes that they, the donors, will reap a bountiful earthly blessing of financial success. TBN rakes in $170 million in annual revenues, which meant yesterday may have brought in a half million dollars. Not bad for a day’s work.

In contrast, Christians of a less viewable sort are making great strides in the name of Jesus, even if it only garners a small byline. Buried in Saturday’s headlines, and all but forgotten in Sunday’s editions, was the cancellation of the unbearable debt of 18 nations, totaling almost $40 billion. Not bad for a day’s work.

The cancellation and the movement that led to its fruition was not born in some diplomatic boardroom, but rather began as a grassroots movement known as Jubilee, named after the concept in the Hebrew Bible that every 49 years, debts were erased, slaves were freed and land was returned, ensuring that no one was buried under a mountain of economics or inside a coffin of repayment. The great leveling out insured justice for all and inequality for no one.

The Christians and other supporters who joined to form Jubilee and campaign for debt relief probably won’t pop up while you’re flipping channels, clad in designer suits and dresses, with neatly manicured nails and every hair in place. They won’t tell you that you’re more of a Christian if you donate more money, and won’t send you a communion set for a ‘love gift’ of $49.95. But they will be praying and living out the call Jesus announced, that we must ‘preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, and to release the oppressed.” While Africans may be grateful for TBN’s satellites overhead, they can now enjoy assistance from their own government which no longer has to divert money towards crippling interest rates. And while indigenous South Americans may be able to hear Benny Hinn’s miracle healings via radio, state-funded food and aid is the miracle that is now a reality.

A post-colonial Christianity will have to confront the spokespersons who continue to embody a colonial gospel. The forgiveness of debts is a great step forward, making an inroad much greater than demanding that the hungry and blind repent from half a world away.