Smokescreens - by Jack T. Chick (c)1983.pdf - Friends of the ...

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