Fairness, Lost to the Highest Bidder: The Church's Frequency Response

Testing… Testing… Is this thing on?

Okay, some of our wireless microphones no longer work in the Sanctuary. It seems the Federal Communications Commission sold the frequencies of those mics to T-Mobile several months back, and now T-Mobile is jamming that bandwidth in preparation for an expansion of both their 4G and upcoming 5G networks. For those of you who use digital broadcast television, a few weeks ago you were required to re-scan your channels, as the sale also bumped several broadcast television stations to higher bands.

Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile all expanded their frequency portfolios in a series of FCC auctions that grossed about $19 billion. $11B was used to buy back television station licenses inconvenienced by the sale. According to the 1993 Budget Reconciliation Act, and expanded powers in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, the remaining $8B will be used to reduce the deficit. In the past the FCC granted frequency licenses through an application process that awarded contracts based on community service standards; as I mentioned in my October 15, 2018 Musing, that FCC responsibility ended in 1987 when the President vetoed an attempted renewal of the Fairness Doctrine. Since then the FCC has ceased to be the custodian of content and has now become an auction house, selling off the electromagnetic spectrum to the highest bidders.

As this musing is from your pastor, it would be simple to conclude that I am merely explaining how your money is being spent and pandering for additional generosity. Last month we had to replace a failing amplifier and now a failing mixer board. The amplifier’s demise was noted by the sound being low and echoey, the mixer is the source of the dog-whistle pitched squeal; it was in the diagnosis of the mixer’s demise that we learned of our wireless microphone obsolescence. It could appear that in the church, like the FCC, all roads eventually lead to conversations about money.

Except this musing is from your pastor, and I have a much deeper concern regarding the hard work of being Church in an age when the accumulation of capital has usurped the stewardship of content. We need to broadcast our doctrine of fairness like never before. Proverbs 22.1-2 states, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. The rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord is the maker of them all.” Nothing in the broadcast-bandwidth of our being Church is for sale. [Mic Drop]

Monitoring the frequency of our communication, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor

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