January 6, 2006
Hal Lindsey Leaving TBN in Dispute Over Radical Islam
Saying that he refuses to compromise to stay on the air, Bible teacher and end-times prophecy student Hal Lindsey announced today that he was resigning from his television program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) because of their policy to not air negative comments about Islam.
The author of The Late Great Planet Earth and many other best-selling books says that he will not return to his twice-weekly Christian commentary program, The International Intelligence Briefing, because of what he considers to be efforts to muzzle his opinions about radical Islam.
Lindsey has anchored the program for the last 12 years on TBN, one of the world's largest Christian television networks.
According to WorldNetDaily, a Web site for which Lindsey writes a weekly column, the announcement follows an abrupt six-week suspension of the popular TBN-sponsored program by Jan Crouch, TBN's vice president for programming.
TBN's general counsel, John Casoria, first told WorldNetDaily the show's suspension was simply a traditional hiatus in lieu of seasonal programming. That statement was later revised to confirm that the network believed Lindsey's program "placed Arabs in a negative light."
Lindsey responded to this allegation: "I don't have to cast radical Muslims in a bad light. If the intimidation and persecution of moderate Muslims makes radical Islam look bad, that is because it is bad – not that I 'cast' them in a bad light. But I have never cast the Arabs as a race in a bad light."
"I also seek to show that radical Islam poses the greatest danger ever faced by the United States," he added. "I believe that God called me as 'a watchman on the wall' to warn America and I must obey – although it is sometimes unpopular."
Casoria told WND he believes the extremists are not Muslims at all but have "hijacked the religion."
Lindsey contends that "the extremists are the ones most literally following the Quran and the Hadith, which are the most holy and authoritative books of the Muslim religion. This is why violence has erupted from Muslims in virtually every century since its birth."
Writing in a resignation letter posted on his Web site, Lindsey said that he bears no ill will toward TBN.
"I am thankful for the opportunities of ministry they gave me. It is just that we have two different beliefs about how to deal with false religion and evangelize those trapped within in it."
Read a copy of Hal Lindsey's letter of resignation to Trinity Broadcasting Network.
E-Mail
Craig von Buseck with your comments
Hal Lindsey's Web site
The Trinity Broadcasting Network
More from WorldNetDaily
ChurchWatch Front
Page
More from Craig
von Buseck on CBN.com