Ahhh, NPR

I'm quickly becoming an NPR junkie. You know those annoying pledge drives they have every now and then? Well, we listen to NPR so much that this time around, I felt guilty for not giving them money! It's not like we even have money set aside for that kind of thing, but we certainly do listen to our fair share.
I know that for some of you, just the thought of listening to NPR gives you mild seizures. However, I'm convinced that your attitude is the result of malevolent fables passed on to you by some ill-tempered Disney-boycotter. Speaking as a former NPR-shunner, I tell you there is actually a great deal about NPR to love.

1. Humor. Yes, humor. Funny stuff. Many of you know that NPR is the only place you're going to hear such classics as Car Talk and Says You (a couple of the funniest shows ever invented). Some people, although not myself, also enjoy programs like Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, A Prairie Home Companion, and Michael Feldman's Whad'ya Know?.
But aside from these programs, there's funny stuff all the time on NPR. Like radio essays, for instance, an NPR specialty. Here's a recent essay on blog-reading accountability. I thought it was great. This kind of essay turns up so often on NPR that every so often they sell "Driveway Moments" CDs, named after the fact that these stories are interesting enough to keep people sitting in their cars until they're finished.

2. Cultural refinement. You know, nice stuff. NPR is really the only place to hear classical music anymore, and you've got plenty of choices with musical programs like Pipe Dreams, St Paul Sunday, World of Opera, Performance Today (my personal favorite), and Marion McPartland's Piano Jazz. There's also Radio Reader, which can range from boring to excellent (this is where we first heard Peace Like a River) and The Writer's Almanac, one of the lovely things that Garrison Keillor does well.

3. Intelligent news delivery. NPR has almost invented a new way of delivering the news. The reporter will come on and introduce the story. Then, subtly, she will describe the setting of the story by introducing an unfamiliar word and defining it for us. Shortly thereafter, we'll get into a clever back-and-forth editing of the reporter's commentary and audio from the story's source. Inevitably, the term that was just defined will pop up once or twice. Not only have we been exposed to real comments from someone other than the reporter; we have also been educated, gently.

4. World education. Speaking of education, one of my favorite programs on NPR is called The World. The program covers world news, which is fascinating. But it also does something most news programs can't afford to do: it gives you news that is not desperate. You know what I mean, right? Most news is of the murder-robbery-coup-election-courtroom type. Well, on The World you're just as likely to hear about efforts to switch Chileans to bicycles as you are to hear an update on funding for Hamas. Each show also features a Global Hit (i.e., current music that's all the rage in some other country) and a Geo Quiz, an introduction to the history, culture and current state of some place in the world. It's good stuff.

5. Great stories I mentioned radio essays above. Well, some of these are funny, and some are just really good. Here are a couple good ones from recent days: a fascinating one on American accents today, report on an Afghan convert to Christianity who now faces the death penalty, and a news essay about a reservist teaching Shakespeare to soldiers in Africa.

6. Respect for the Christian worldview. Yes, I actually said that. Many of the above essays and stories are from a program called All Things Considered, a show that was singled out for me as a child as an example of the general God-hating liberality of modern radio. Well, either things have changed since then or these comments weren't accurate. Could be both. Sure, every now and then there's a story that smells of open-armed, smelly compromise. But you're just as likely (more likely?) to hear a story considering the thoughts of believers or including surprising Christian elements that are not at all insulted or toned down. For instance, here are a few of the recent examples I can immediately call to memory: an Atlanta pie-maker was virtually put out of business recently by someone wishing to do her ill. But in the recent interview with her, she said she's praying that God would bless them, since one of the realities of life is that God takes what people meant for evil and turns it around for good. Needless to say, the near-trite phrase had a little more meaning coming from a believer who was truly demonstrating the forgiveness in that truth. On the same day—in fact, just before the Willie Watts story—the program shared an update story on the recent church arsons in Alabama. This story brought in an interview with a pastor (Jim Parker) from one of the burned churches. He had asked to visit the young men in jail, not in anger, but to offer the forgiveness they can find in Christ. "I'm going to talk to them about how they can find redemption...and then go forward and rebuild their lives." It's not exactly what you had banked on hearing. Finally, Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, was interviewed about the rebuilding of Louisiana. I don't know enough yet to make a good judgment about her as a person, but her comments about the necessity of dependence on God, the reality that God allowed Katrina, and the implications of that reality for rebuilding a city with a mixed past like New Orleans were quite provocative.
There have also been stories about the reason some Christians continue to support Bush though they disagree with some of what he does, and a spot on one woman's mixed memoirs of her fundamentalist education.

These are just a few reasons why I like NPR. To say "it expands my world" would be to put too much focus on me. I believe that it is inadvertently serving God's cause by continually reminding us that we are very small in the vast scheme of things, and that the kind of focus like a news report brings to an issue is gracious. Similarly, God's focus on someone as seemingly insignificant as us is gracious, too. And it should do a believer great good to hear about his fellow image-bearers all over the world.

Comments

[Jeff]

Never fear about not sending them money during the pledge drives. You pay taxes, don't you? ;)

Of course, if you're like me and you have no access to radio most of the time, you could always grab the NPR podcasts off iTunes.

[Will]

Orange Revolution, right? I'm right with ya, buddy.
I've got the t-shirt and everything! :-)
Being communist is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

[Jonathan]

Will, you've finally provided the world with conclusive proof that you are indeed a communist. =) That said, I largely agree with your assessment & I have also been pleasantly surprised at the quality of NPR's programs. Of course, I suppose then that given the above statements I must also be condemned as a communist...but we already knew that.