Thanks to the Kingsport Times-News and to Wes Bunch for this article on the front page of today's Times-News,
"Religion For Life": Show Strikes Chord with WETS-FM Listeners. Today's Johnson City Press also
included the article.
Nearly
nine months ago, the Rev. John Shuck hosted the first episode of his
show, “Religion for Life,” on the airwaves of public radio station
WETS-FM.
In the 30 or so episodes he has recorded since then, Shuck has
interviewed a variety of guests on topics ranging from how science and
religion can coexist to one-onone interviews with local leaders of
various faiths.
Shuck, who has served for the past seven years as pastor at First
Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton, said the show — whose subtitle is
the intersection of religion, social justice and public life — is not
designed to act as a sermon, but to educate listeners about religion
itself and all that it entails.
“The idea is to look at the influence of religion, which is a huge
topic, in terms of how it affects the way we think, our culture, our
religious practices, our politics — all kinds of things that fall under
the heading of religion,” Shuck said. “So we look at religion from a
variety of perspectives, both positive and negatively.
“A big part of it is to introduce some of the voices in our community
that we may not know about from different religious perspectives,
whether it’s Muslim or Jewish, Buddhist or Hindu.”
Shuck added: “My show’s goal is not really to promote religion, or
one religion in particular even though I happen to be a Christian
minister. I really want to have voices critical of religion as well.”
Episodes of “Religion for Life” — which air on Thursday evenings and
Sunday afternoons on WETS-FM 89.5 in the Tri-Cities and on WEHC-FM 90.7
in Southwest Virginia — have featured interviews with the Rev.
Jacqueline Luck of the Holston Valley Universalist Unitarian Church and
Dr. Jay Mehta of Kingsport’s Regional Indian-American Community Center.
Shuck said he hopes to one day host Muslim Community of Northeast
Tennessee Director Taneen Aziz.
While exploring different faiths and beliefs is an important part of
the 30-minute show, Shuck said he also uses it as a platform to have
discussion topics, or groups, that are tangentially related to religion.
“There are faith groups that are interested in a lot of different
types of things from a social justice aspect, or environmental or
economic aspect, that are interesting to talk to as well,” Shuck said.
One of those guests was Anthony Flaccavento, the Democratic candidate
for Virginia’s 9th Congressional District, who discussed the role of
religion in creating sustainable economies. Others have included
controversial religious figures like Bishop John Shelby Spong, or
authors like Sarah Sentilles, and even doctors and scientists.
The key to conducting a good interview, Shuck said, is to find a
subject with an interesting take on a topic that many people can relate
to, whether they realize it or not.
One example of a compelling interview, Shuck said, was his discussion with “Breaking Up With God” author Sentilles.
“That
was more of a theological book and about her struggle with religion,”
Shuck said. “She was going to become an Episcopal priest, and through
the course of it she said ‘I don’t really believe in God the way it was
presented to me.’
“The reason she was interesting is she was very engaging as an
interviewee, but she also talks about a topic that I think is really on
people’s minds in terms of what do we mean when we talk about God today
and looking at faith. The most interesting guests are the ones that
touch on a topic that many people feel who might not have voiced them
yet.”
No matter what the topic of discussion is, Shuck said his goal is to
provide his guest with a forum to share what religion means to them.
“It isn’t an adversarial show, and I don’t come at it that way,”
Shuck said. “The model that I look to is someone like Bill Moyers who
talks about religion and public life in a lot of positive ways. I really
admire him. Also on NPR, Terry Gross and ‘Fresh Air,’ I like her style
of things. It isn’t a talk show where they get up there and yell at each
other. It’s more of a conversation, and I really want to hear what
these folks are saying — what their view is.”
Shuck said the fact that the show is recorded and produced by WETS is
one of the main reasons he is able to touch in depth on such a wide
array of topics.
“They’re really great at WETS. They don’t tell me anything about
content,” Shuck said. “I just go with who is of interest to me and go
with it from that. The goal overall was to make it educational instead
of a sermon. But it gives you some real freedom to talk about different
things. It’s only a half hour, but even at that level it’s more than the
three- or fiveminute clips you get from the news.”
WETS Program Director Wayne Winkler said locally produced content
like “Religion for Life” and “Your Weekly Constitutional,” which is
hosted by Appalachian School of Law professor Stewart Harris, are not
only a natural outgrowth of a two-year-old format change to news
programming, but also help carry out the station’s goal of providing
quality radio to its listeners.
“I believe that local content is essential, especially in a public
radio station,” Winkler said. “I believe it would be a misuse of our
license if we didn’t try to do something that reflected our local
community , some of the ideas, or a local take on national issues. We do
have a great number of people here who do have expertise and knowledge
in a wide variety of topics, so we want to capitalize on that whenever
we can.”
Winkler, who produces the shows, said they both have been
well-received in their relatively short histories, with listeners
providing lots of positive feedback and the longer-running
“Constitutional” even finding its way to new markets.
“(‘Religion for Life’ is) a great program and is one that brings us
lots of attention, and it’s something that people talk about,” Winkler
said. “So we’re really pleased with both of our locally produced
programs because they are of a quality that people would expect from a
radio station in a much larger market.”
“Those two programs probably get more comments than even the NPR
programs too in terms of listener feedback,” Winkler continued. “It
tells you that people are listening, and we are getting a surprising
level of feedback on those two programs.”
While the sometimes controversial nature of religious topics has
drawn some detractors, Shuck said he too has received largely positive
feedback from his listeners and congregations.
“I get emails and calls to the church, several a week, from people
who listen to it,” Shuck said. “Some people don’t like it. I’ve had a
couple of negative ones.... But that’s okay, as long as they’re
listening. But then one day we had a gentleman come into the radio
station and say ‘Here’s $100. I really like that show “Religion for
Life.”’ And he wouldn’t give his name or anything.
“So I think what the show does is it gives a voice to people who have
these ideas but haven’t really heard it said in a local setting.”
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