The Christian Broadcasting Network goes out on a limb to reach America’s living-room mission field.
Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) takes a giant leap of faith into the mission field of the American living room this month with a luminescent prime-time television special, “Don’t Ask Me, Ask God.”
Complete with catchy theme song, celebrity cameos, and Scripture quotations marching up the screen à la Star Wars, the hour-long program is being broadcast across the country by cable television outlets and major network affiliates. The program will be aired during the first two weeks of January by stations that reach more than 90 percent of American television viewers (check local listings for time and date).
“Don’t Ask Me, Ask God” features five topics identified in a 1981 Gallup poll as chief concerns of the day: the future, suffering, evil, war, and life after death. Posing these as questions people would like to ask God, the show presents a kaleidescope of observations on each theme.
Hollywood stars—Vincent Price, Ben Vereen, Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, Doug McClure, and Ned Beatty—introduce each subject. A dramatization filmed at CBN’s Virginia Beach studio follows, alternating between comic and sober portrayals.
On the subject of suffering, a basset-hound-faced Norman Fell portrays a twentieth-century Job whose car falls apart, house burns down, and wife runs away, while his friends conjecture it all happened because he cheated on his income tax.
Robertson, the show’s host, brings the audience back to reality after the skit, and introduces film clips of Mother Teresa reflecting on suffering and Joni Eareckson discussing how her life changed after her diving accident. Robertson admonishes the viewers that they should “ask God,” not anyone else, about why people suffer, and he quotes John 10:10 and Job 13:15 to give God’s perspective.
At the end of the program, Robertson turns the tables on his audience and asks what they believe. “We offer the audience an opportunity to pray to receive Jesus; that’s the bottom line,” says Warren Marcus, the show’s executive producer and CBN’s director of special projects. If it is well received by critics as well as by viewers, Marcus said CBN will produce two or three prime-time specials each year.
“It is very important that the secular press accept the vision of this thing. That would be a victory, because it would open up the marketplace,” Marcus said. Broadening its market has been a long-standing goal at CBN, reflected in the changing emphasis of the network’s flagship show, “The 700 Club.” In recent years, it has moved toward the mass appeal of a “PM Magazine” and away from strictly religious talk and music.
This commitment does not come cheap: “Don’t Ask Me” production costs totalled $700,000, and publicity and station time added another $1.1 million.
The program spends most of its energies on disarming and entertaining viewers who would most likely tune out “The 700 Club” or any other religious programming. Character actors portray ordinary people who recite comments actually recorded by Gallup. The comments do not tilt toward an evangelical belief in God, but reflect a genuine cross section of opinion.
As Robertson summarizes the answers offered by the Bible, he sticks to safe theological ground and does not stray from major common-denominator tenets of belief that all Christians share. In addressing “What does the future hold for me and my family?” Robertson uses three Bible verses. He summarizes Matthew 24:7–8 by saying trouble is a normal part of human existence.
From Luke 17:26–28, he assures viewers that life will go on until Christ’s second coming, and he rules out the possibility of human extinction through nuclear holocaust. Finally, he says the “new heaven and new earth” of Revelation 21:1–5 offers an “absolutely glorious” vision of what lies ahead, even though the particulars are beyond human discernment.
The celebrities in the show were recruited by Hollywood talent agent Jackie Brown. No test of faith was applied to the actors, and many of them are not professing Christians. Marcus said this was a matter of prayer at CBN, and “the Lord gave us the wisdom to use the stars only to ask questions, not give answers. You can use anyone to prove the point of who God is, just as the Bible does.”
Many of the celebrities were leery of CBN to begin with, Marcus said, “but they left as friends. And when we asked them to do publicity spots, they all were willing to help.”
One actor watched in amazement as the CBN film crew joined hands and prayed at the beginning of the day. Another, Marcus said, was troubled by career setbacks. CBN staffers prayed for him and advised him to turn the problem over to the Lord. He experienced a change in fortunes and told Marcus, “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. Keep praying for me.”
CBN hopes to generate similar enthusiasm among the show’s viewers so they will consider Christ’s claims when they contemplate the “big questions.”
