Bill Martin “What They Needed That Morning”

THIS IS A SPECIAL GUEST ARTICLE WRITTEN BY THE JOY FM MORNING CO-HOST BILL MARTIN REGARDING HOW THEIR SHOW HANDLED THE TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON THE AIR.

July, 13, 6:10 P.M Eastern Daylight Time. Former President Donald Trump survives a brazen assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.  6:11 P.M., The JOY FM is playing for KING & COUNTRY, “What are We Waiting For?”  Moments later, I have the breaking news in the palm of my hand, sitting on a beach with my family at sunset. Though shocked and concerned, I feel no compulsion to run to the station, interrupt programming, and attempt to “scoop” the story for my audience. Is this a miss? A fail? A shirking of my responsibility as a broadcaster?

The following Monday, having seen, read, experienced, processed and prayed individually and with my church family, I was ready to speak. Not just react, but also reflect and engage in conversations with my morning show partners that were designed to equip listeners and model a Christian response to a rare but significant national tragedy.

The three of us interacted all weekend as we experienced the unfolding events: a father of two killed. Two wounded, along with the former President. Families grieving. Updates on Trump’s condition. Melania’s post. President Biden’s remarks. Polarizing political rhetoric. Everything from heroism and appreciation to vitriol and conspiracy theories vomited on social media. We had to consider all of it as we prepped for Monday’s show.

At 6:34 A.M. Carmen led out with reaction, simply speaking her emotions as she walked through the weekend. At 6:46 I turned the corner to Scripture’s vision of peace and unity from Isaiah 11. We changed subjects after 7:00 and kept a similar pattern all morning: emotion, repentance, hope that the Church and Christians will lead the way in helping divided America find common ground.  We finished the show on a spontaneous prayer. We dumped the plan we had put together the previous Friday.  Our listeners needed two things: gospel-centered perspective and prayer.

As we tried to give them what they needed, here are a couple of the myriad texts we got in response: Your prayer is JUST what my heart has needed since Saturday evening!  Another: Turned you guys on this morning to hear what I just heard. Thank you! It’s so important to speak of this division and what it’s done to this nation. One more: We as a body of believers, regardless of our differences of opinions, can stand unified for the peace and safety of our nation and its leaders. Thoughts and emotions like these from our listeners bind us together as a listening community. They also model the kind of repentant posture Christians can take into public discussions, a posture that can lead out with a different voice than the criticism, conspiracy, and cynicism you find everywhere else.

I believe we did our job well in this instance. People don’t “hire us” for breaking news. They don’t tune in to learn something they can’t already find on their phones. They need the perspective our product produces, songs with memorable lines like, “I want my life to be / Only Christ in me” (played at 6:23 P.M. Saturday), and “Honestly, I think we just need Jesus” (6:43). That’s what they need in a time of crisis. And they need prayer, prayer that models the kind of honesty and unity beyond Red and Blue, qualities that Christians are called to demonstrate as a witness to a hurting world (Matthew 5:16).

Ultimately, our strategy in responding to a crisis like this is modeled after James 1:19: listen, process, pray, and THEN speak. Our speaking has the goal of equipping listeners to interact with their families, offices, schools, and communities. Other objectives are, of course, to comfort and remind that God is sovereign, we are called to love, and Christ’s Church will prevail (see James 4:16 and Ephesians 4:4-6). This, as I see it, is our job.

Some programmers and personalities on music-driven formats will disagree. Some may prefer the information-based response, leaning on news sources and information. Others believe it’s their job to maintain delivery of proven content, encouraging people and being uplifting in a more general way, even in a time of crisis. I’m not here to criticize those decisions. But I would like to challenge us as Christian broadcasters to remember the overwhelming need of our listeners for perspective and prayer and our capacity to speak into that need at times like this past Saturday.

After all, Christian radio has the gospel. And the gospel is the one true hope for peace and unity in our violent, divided world.