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Talking religion, warts and all
By EILEEN SCHULTE CLEARWATER -- Tune into WTAN-AM 1340 and you might hear the promo the preacher recorded. "Atheists and agnostics. Fundamentalists and evangelicals. Mainstreamers and religious wackos. The faithful, the curious and the confused, do I have a place for you. This is Dr. Mack Sigmon inviting you, no, daring you to join me for Religion Talks each Sunday evening." Then the music: Pat Benatar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Producer Jim Hacker, who was watching Sigmon from the control room, was impressed. "He's actually good at this," he said. "Most people are more nervous." Starting Sunday, Sigmon, pastor of Peace Memorial Presbyterian Church in Clearwater for eight years, will broadcast his "reverently irreverent" live call-in radio program from Hernando County to the north and Sarasota to the south. It will also be simulcast on the Internet. Finally, Sigmon said, he has a forum where he can voice all the controversial things he cannot say while preaching from the pulpit during a 20-minute sermon on Sunday mornings. "I want it to sound like any national talk show. This is my opportunity to look at religion from a broader point of view, a humorous point of view," said Sigmon, 47. "So much right now going on in religion is sad, somewhat dismaying. We need to laugh at ourselves. A sense of humor is a gift from God." But he acknowledges "some risk" in doing the program. "There's a little bit of fear," he said. "For me, this is stepping away from my comfortable role as a preacher. I'm an opinionated person. I don't want to alienate people. I feel there is a little bit of risk to it." Although he and his sidekick, his wife, Amy, 42, will "keep it clean" (anyone using foul language will be zapped by a lightning bolt "thrown" from producer Zeus), no subject is off limits. Topics will range from abortion rights to the Catholic priest sex scandal. When he goes on the air for the first time, Sigmon will tell listeners he "believes the Pope should resign because it takes a lot of energy to face a crisis like this." Then he will sit back and wait for the calls to roll in. To avoid dead air, he'll do the Bad Religion Joke of the Week or Hypocrisy of the Week. "Religion hasn't been this much fun since Jim and Tammy," Sigmon said. Sigmon, a North Carolina native who attended Princeton University and earned his theological seminarian doctorate from Columbia University, used to do TV commercials when he was a child, and always wanted to get back into broadcasting. He said the church is not paying for his show on WTAN. Rather, a congregation member who wishes to remain anonymous is funding it. WTAN station general manger/owner Lola Wagenvoord would not reveal how much the show costs, but she did say she thinks it is "a wonderful idea" because "We're down to religious wars in this world." Sigmon agrees. "If you look at what's going on in the world, most of the conflicts have some grounding in religion," he said. And he stresses again "I'm not evangelizing and this is not a church show. I'm going to invite atheists and agnostics to call in. I want to lead and provoke."
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From the Times North Pinellas desks |
