The Announcerboy Speaks

A Voice Of Wisdom

2009-09-10T20:56:00.001-04:00

This man is one of the writers I respect the most. And he pulls no punches here. More inconvenient truth for this morally bankrupt administration and Congressional leadership.

Thomas Sowell : Listening to a Liar: Part II - Townhall.com

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I Can't Be Any Worse

2008-07-14T13:17:00.008-04:00

Well, after much consternation over the "choice" of candidates this Election season, I've decided to take matters into my own hands.

If the Chicago Cubs can lead their division at the All-Star Break, then there's absolutely no reason I can't be President. Click here to see how the national media is taking notice, how the trends are shifting my way, and how "Big Mo" is on my side.

And remember, a vote for me is a vote against Al Franken.

In The World, Of The World

2008-04-30T17:15:00.004-04:00

I've long been disdainful of Evangelical Christianity's obsession with trying to change this country through political activism. We as disciples of Christ should be good citizens and involved in the political process of our country (ref: Matthew 22:21; Romans 13:1-7), but nowhere in the Bible are we told to go forth and change the world through politics.

Though I have great respect for all the fine work accomplished by Dr. James Dobson and Focus On The Family, I've found their constant and continually growing political involvement very discouraging. I've also wondered about the implications of announcements from their "Political Action Committee" that air on non-commercial Christian radio stations. Section 399 of the Communications Act, prohibits noncommercial stations from engaging in editorializing or supporting any candidate for political office. Some of the announcements I've heard from Focus would seem to cause these stations to violate Sec. 399B of the Act, the prohibition against supporting or opposing a political candidate, as well as the prohibition against advertising. At any rate, the Gospel does not endorse political action to further the Kingdom Of God. All it has done is introduce further worldliness and compromise into the church.

Phil Johnson of Pyromaniacs has posted a tremendously helpful and insightful article on this movement and its costs. Read it here. As usual Phil is dead on in his assessment.

Rev. Wright Is All Wrong

2008-04-28T16:08:00.009-04:00

As we continue to be bombarded with coverage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, we continue to see the results of taking Scripture out of context and molding it to fit whatever message you wish to convey. Wright's comments today at the National Press Club include more of his twisted interpretation of God's word.

At one point we got this exchange:

MODERATOR: Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the father but through me.” Do you believe this? And do you think Islam is a way to salvation?

WRIGHT: Jesus also said, “Other sheep have I who are not of this fold.”

This is taken from John 10 when Jesus is talking to a gathering of Jews, specifically the Pharisees:

11 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
12 "He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 "He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.
14 "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,
15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
16 "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. (emphasis mine)

Christ Jesus was not speaking over network TV when he said this. He was talking to a specific group of people. Jewish people!

Jesus said that his ministry was first to the "lost sheep of Israel" (ref. Matthew 15:24) and his entire earthly ministry was focused on the Jewish people. Although He did not turn away the Gentiles who sought Him, His focus was on those "lost sheep of Israel".

Jesus clearly refers to the Jewish people as "this fold". The "other sheep" refer to non-Jews who would come to saving faith in Christ. Christ also said that He was the ONLY way to the Father (ref. John 14:6). To say that Islam, which doesn't recognize Jesus as the "Son of God", but only as a "good teacher", is a way to salvation is at best totally ignorant and at worst heretical. And especially heinous for one who represents himself as a Christian minister.

Ironically, Rev. Wright continues to maintain that the sound bites being played from his "sermons" are taken out of context. If you investigate the Bible passages this man uses to justify his hateful, ungodly rhetoric, you will find that the majority of what he uses is taken totally out of context. Remember, the original manuscripts of the Bible do not have chapter and verse divisions. They were added by man to facilitate reference, and they are in no way inspired as is the text itself.

It is most important not to take anything at face value, but to investigate the context of any passage used to justify ideas from the mouth of any alleged "man of God". In the case of the kind of outrageous claims and rhetoric that ooze out of the mouth of a man like Rev. Jeremiah Wright, you'll find that you're not listening to a spokesman for God, but instead a wolf in sheep's clothing (ref. Matthew 7:15) carrying out the calling of a false prophet (ref. Matthew 24:11, 24:24; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 4:1).

So Long Paul Davis

2008-04-23T18:49:00.002-04:00

Very sad to hear about the death of singer and songwriter Paul Davis. Best known for his radio hits like "I Go Crazy", "Cool Night", "'65 Love Affair", "Do Right", and others, he was the quintessential Southern singer and songwriter. Aside from his own hits, he wrote several hits for other artists in the pop and country genres.

Paul died in a hospital in his hometown of Meridian, MS after being taken there following an apparent heart attack early Tuesday morning. He had just celebrated his 60th birthday on Monday. Paul had retired from the music business a few years ago and moved back to his hometown. He was known by his family to be a very low-key, private sort of person. As I recall he was the son of a Presbyterian minister.

I had the opportunity to meet him years ago when I was working in Atlanta and got to introduce him at a concert my station was sponsoring. So many successful artists have an attitude, but I never saw one in him. He was a very nice and easy going person to talk to, and it was quite a pleasure to get to meet him. He had recorded most of his albums in Atlanta at Web IV studios. There was a popular local band at time called the "Teddy Baker Band" that played a lot of local venues. Paul told me that when he recorded and went on tour, he just "borrowed" the band from Teddy Baker. All the guys really seemed to enjoy playing with him. He said they were all addicted to golf at that time. I saw stories in later years that said if you wanted to meet with him just mention golf and he'd be there.

May this humble man rest in peace with his Lord as his music lives on.

A Voice For The Ages

2008-02-25T18:02:00.010-05:00

Still one of the best voices I've ever heard. Ken Nordine, now in his 80's and still going strong. When I grow up I want to sound like this...

Ken Nordine...The Essence Of S

Pipes for days!

It's time for the Church to be the Church again!

2008-02-20T16:02:00.002-05:00

As anyone who knows me can attest, I've become sick over the years of what the Church has become...in most cases a self-serving, self-interested, cloister of externally holy, internally proud servants of self rather than the Lord.

My old friend John Young posted a thought-provoking piece some time ago which I only recently discovered. I found it right on the mark. I hope you will find it thought-provoking as well. Find it and read it here.

Mistaken-Identity Christians

2006-05-15T14:59:00.000-04:00

After spending 26 years as a Christian in "general market" radio, I took a job managing programming and operations for a local Contemporary Christian radio station in my home market. One that was constantly touting themselves on the air as a "ministry" and talking about all the wonderful things God was doing through them.

Much to my dismay, the station turned out the be the most crooked, dishonest, and despicable operation I had ever been associated with. It was amazing to me that any entity that claimed to be "Christian" could operate in such an un-Godly manner. But the Lord exposed to me many facets of the "Christian" media industry that are anything but Christian in their motives and operation. It seems that a lot of "Christian" organizations are not so much into ministry as marketing, and the Body of Christ is nothing more to them than a highly-concentrated, highly-specialized target demographic group.

Why are so many organizations that claim to be Christian operating so un-Biblically? I think you find the answer in the soft and sorry state of evangelical Christianity in America today. It's become so infested with the world's marketing and media techniques that the end always seems to justify the means...regardless of what the Bible says about the methods.

I had a believer friend who had a landscaping business who had the fish symbol on his trucks. He told me the worst customers he had were the ones who claimed to be Christians. At one time a pastor and his wife who lived on a large estate owed him over $10,000 and were making no efforts whatsover to pay or even communicate with him. He said he was taking the fish symbols off his logo and vehicles because "Christians" seemed to think that it was o.k. to steal from other Christians.

Sadly, most professing Christians look at Christ simply as another tool at their disposal to help further their personal agenda. I was driving to work in a 45 mph zone (near a group of schools) one day recently when I was passed by a female in a car doing about 70 mph with a radar detector in the window. As she flew by me I just happened to catch the fish on the back of her car. Last time I checked the speed limit was set by the government. Didn't Christ tell us to obey the government?

There is a professing Christian where I work (son of a pastor) who has special off-market software that enables him to make an illegal copy of every DVD movie he rents from Netflix. He thinks nothing of violating copyright laws. I see computer service people who claim to be Christians who think nothing of installing free anti-virus software intended for non-commercial use only on the workstations of business customers. They see nothing wrong at all. When I arrived at the aforementioned "Christian" radio station, they were using "reverse-engineered" software, which is basically pirated versions of commercial software with copyright protections removed. Also known as theft. And it goes on and on.

The reason Christians are so often villified today in America is the drivel flowing out of the lives of professing "Christians" everywhere. Evangelical Christianity today is producing overflowing numbers of self-deceived, self-centered, self-governed, pleasure-seeking hedonists whom the apostle Paul referred to as, "enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things"(Phil. 3:18b-19). But given the fact that so many churches today are working so hard at drawing a crowd over the Biblical model of ministering to a congregation of believers, is it really any surprise? Jesus said that the world would hate those that are His. But those professing "Christians" that aren't His are doing as much or more damage to His church from the inside as anything from the world. And when so-called believers are living as bad or worse as unbelievers, is it any surprise the unsaved are finding the good news of Christ irrelevant?

But the saddest part of it all is the self-deceived condition of those living this way. In one of the most solemn passages in all of the Bible, Jesus warns in Matt. 7:21-23:

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'. And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'"

The Lord refers here to professing Christians who exhibit a lifestyle, a continual pattern of compromise. And that is what you get when the Evangelical church seeks to focus on entertainment and emotion at the expense of rightly-dividing the Word of Truth. Instead of answering God as the prophet Samuel did as a child, "speak Lord, for your servant is listening", so-called Christians today are much more likely to say, "listen Lord, for your servant is speaking".

If you think you are a Christian, make absolutely sure you are attracted to the Savior, not to some Evangelical dog and pony show.

This Time It's Personal

2005-11-12T12:20:00.001-05:00

I've watched all the old "cookie cutter" stadiums of the mid-60's/early 70's era come down in recent years with mixed emotions. Most of them had needed replacement because they weren't that great to begin with and had declined so much in recent years (Three-Rivers, Veterans, Riverfront) and didn't have a whole lot of history attached to them anyway. Even the park where a previous radio job sent me for several hundred games, Atlanta-Fulton Co. Stadium, brought only a touch of melancholy when it came rumbling down.

But the latest and last of those stadiums to come down is bringing a bit more sadness than I expected. Having grown up in western Kentucky about 4.5 hours from St. Louis, I also grew up a St. Louis Cardinals fan and saw my first big-league game in-person at Busch Memorial Stadium (the original name which was truncated to Busch Stadium in the ensuing decades) and still have some of most vivid memories ever of any event. Little did I know at the time that I was seeing four future Hall-Of-Famers in action (Lou Brock and Steve Carlton of the Cardinals, Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell of the Pirates). I remember how vivid the colors were in person, how the lighting made the bats look a yellow shade. Since we only had a black-and-white TV at home at the time, the colors were like looking at a souped-up Sports Illustrated or Sport Magazine for me. The date was July 11, 1969 and to this day 36 years later I've always remembered the final score (Redbirds 6, Pirates 1), the attendance (24,910) and the starting lineup for the Cardinals. I still vividly recall the vendors in the stands ("SO-dee here!", "POP-corn, get 'yer POP-corn", "Ice-cold BEER, here") and the smells of hot dogs, cigars, and other foods filtering into the park. It still remains indelibly imprinted in my mind.

We were back the next year for a game with the new Astroturf field. Then later as I got of driving and working age I got back for eight more games with the last one being "Lou Brock Day" in 1979 when the retiring future HOF-er was honored (most people forget that Lou hit .302 that year as a 40-year-old). Then, my career took me off to other cities and I was never able to get back there again. But what a load of memories from that park over those 39 years. I had become a Cardinal fan only about 2 years before it opened and had only become old enough to become a passionate fan when the stadium opened in 1966. I remember things seeming so much less complex back then.

It's been amazing to me that something as impersonal as a big old ballpark can become such a memorable part of your life. But I guess I'm not the first to feel that way and I know I won't be the last.

The Fad-Driven Church

2005-09-19T10:37:00.000-04:00

For several years I've been greatly distressed about the state of the Evangelical movement. Not only has doctrine become more and more watered-down to make it "less-offensive" to the masses, but it seems that every few months there is a new "program" that is the latest hot thing to make your church more "relevant" to the culture. And usually there's a marketing campaign that's just waiting to follow closely behind it. The latest is of course, "The Purpose-Driven Life" which proponents have bragged cites "over 1000 verses of Scripture". Trouble is, a good number of them are used totally out of context or use the translation that best supports the idea at hand. My appraisal of the book was that it begins with the statement, "It's not about you" and then the rest of the book is spent showing how it is totally about you. This of course is just the latest Christian mega-marketing machine success following such gems as "The Prayer Of Jabez", The Willow Creek association, the Church Growth movement, et.al, ad infinitum. The latest potential "next big thing" is the so-called "Emergent Church". It's enough to make one physically sick. As if 5 minutes of watching TBN weren't already enough. Phil Johnson at Pyromaniac has an excellent series of insights into the crisis of the evangelical Church here, here, here, and here. It's time the Church got back to being the Church of Jesus Christ instead of the Church of the man-centered culture. More to come later when I've had more sleep.

This is me and welcome to my blog

2005-07-08T02:59:00.000-04:00

I'm the Announcerboy (also sometimes referred to as the Voicedude). My name is Dale Mitchell and my occupation is Voice Talent. I spent 28 years in the radio industry including time in such excellent locales as Nashville, Indianapolis and Atlanta. I now operate from and enjoy the relatively slower pace of Chattanooga, TN where some locals believe the entire Civil War was fought. I began focusing totally on my voiceover work at the end of '03. I have a great wife and 3 little girls, am a Christian, conservative, and a constitutionalist who has little time for the hard left or Christians trying to save the world through politics. I believe the Bible is true, without error, and is the word of God. I'm also an avid golfer who enjoys the history and traditions of the game. My sports allegiances are to the Kentucky Wildcats (my home state), the St. Louis Cardinals (MLB), and the St. Louis Blues (NHL), if they ever play hockey again. I don't care about the NBA since they don't call traveling anymore and allow players to palm the basketball. I'll be sharing my thoughts about anything that comes to my limited mind. Thanks for checking in.