Interfaith International British DJ

May 13, 2009
By

paul-32

OK Paul technically isn’t exactly an international DJ, not unless you consider that you can listen to his interviews on line.

He’s a returned missionary and member of the Grays Ward in the Romford Stake Essex England.  Paul got the show after being a presenter at Hospital Radio Chelmsford for a year and chased a local station for airtime:

“When I was asked to join Phoenix FM the station manager warned me that radio presenting wasn’t all easy but in fact involved a lot of voluntary service too.  I responded that I was a missionary in France for 2 years for the church and was used to giving service to others, as well as being actively involved in the church weekly.  The station manager was intrigued by this and I was invited to the station to explain more about my religious beliefs and the voluntary service I had done in France.  I was then offered the chance to begin a brand new religious show once a week that they had been wanting to start but couldn’t find anyone with the religious background to do it.  I put together the idea for a chat show where he would bring in local religious leaders and ask them about their beliefs on air and their views on current issues.”

Mark Pinchin and Ian Clarkson from the Church of Scientology – Listen   here

Highlights:

10 million members around the world. Their anti-drug program “Say no to drugs say yes to life”.  Human rights educational programme and other great work they do in the community.  We discussed the 8 dynamics, the founder of the church L. Ronald Hubbard and where the word “Scientology” comes from.

The core beliefs of the church of Scientology are:

Man is a spirit, he has lived before and that man is good. Through wisdom and knowledge man can improve any area of his life he wants. Scientology is all denominational and non-conversionary and members bring with them their own beliefs.

Great Interviews ( All the ads and music have been stripped out)

Habibur Rahman & Forad Edu – Islam / Alfurqaan Foundation
Father Matthew Bemand – St Thomas Church of England
Councillor Dudley Payne – Mayor of Brentwood
Mark Pinchin and Ian Clarkson – Scientology / Jive Aces
Ed Wellman – PhoenixFM Monday Classics
Richard Burch – Brentwood Buddhist Society
Chris Day – Crown Street Christian Fellowship
Reverand Peter Thomas (Baptist)
Reverand Trevor Jamison (United Reformed Church)
Julian May – ELIM
Father Paul Keane – Brentwood Catholic Cathedral
Bishop David Barter

The show can be seen at www.phoenixfm.com/proverbs98.php

Let us know your views

  • Jared B

    Wow James nice find

    I strongly believe we need to build better relationships with the other churches around us, even if it’s just to show we really aren’t that unusual and actually pretty normal

    Thanks for the links, very handy

  • Holymoly88

    Interesting post j, we have a couple of religious chat shows in the area but its nice to have a member running the show! I know with these things the DJ has to be neutral as not to give the game away but its encouraging to see that the church would definitely get a fair representation. Too many chat shows are quick to bring up the classic issues like polygamy etc which although needs to be addressed just takes away from the real messages. Let us know if Mormonism is on there again.

    Holymoly x

  • Sam Rogers4U

    Amen HolyMoly! ALLLLL religious/faith shows in the UK enjoy the same questions about Mormons (Im sure its the same everywhere though)

    I think we need some new ones, give a bit of variety! Cool story though James

  • Stan

    Just listened to the Mormon one, bishop does a good job!

  • http://mormonstories.org John Dehlin

    Way cool, James.

  • John Above

    A good and welcome idea. However I lament the superficiality of this exercise, probably due to the time scale that Paul is allocated. It doesn’t match John Humphrey’s interviews on BBC Radio 4 where the questions examined in depth the religious position of the interviewees on such matters as death and beyond, sexuality issues, the place of religion in today’s world…The most positive point is that his colleagues know of Paul’s faith and must be somewhere pleased with his kind openess, which is found among many members. I still meet some members who are so racist, anti-semitic, narrow minded, homophobic, etc. that one wonders if they ever stop and think: hold on! I’m being stupid here! I must change because God loves us all.
    With my Dad, we used to skip general conference (to read it later in the Ensign) and take this ‘no Church’ opportunity to visit other churches, mosques, etc. We were always met with welcoming people, eager to explain the tenets of their faith and to even seek to understand ours. Each time, it has been a memorable experience which I can only recommend. Keep it up Paul!

  • wayfarer

    Paul,that’s amazing work you are doing,and a great example to my 12 year old who wants to be a DJ.Would love to hear more about how you got your original break in order to encourage him,without him getting too involved with the club scene.Tough one,don’t want to harsh his vibe.He’s been sick now for two years so he needs plenty encouragement in order to have faith in his ability to manage his future.We’ll be looking at your stuff together.

  • Paul

    Hey guys it’s Paul, interesting to read your posts and glad you like the idea. John just to respond to your point, it is a shame that the interviews don’t go into enough depth, ideally I’d like to be able to explore each religion on air so that the listener really gets and in depth look into the actual beliefs like the points you raised. Unfortunately PhoenixFM is a hugely mainstream station so I try to keep the show quite “light” so the majority of the listeners will stay tuned in and at least get some religious content in their schedule. I’ll definately have to listen in to Radio 4 and get some ideas though thanks for the direction on that John.

    Wayfarer it’s great to hear about you son and your concerns for him. I made a personal decision not to go down the route of a clubbing style DJ as I don’t enjoy that social setting. For me I think that weekly airtime is so much more fun than spinning records. In terms of your son, getting into radio is luckily quite easy, sign up to a hospital radio nearby and they will give you airtime and train you up to present on air, from that point you approach local commmunity stations and even if you have to co-present at first there will always be slots freeing up and then you’ve got your own show!

    Thanks for your comments guys, thanks for reading this

  • James

    Paul thanks for taking part on Mormon Matters

    Joseph Smith taught that

    “We should gather all the good and true principles in the world and treasure them up, or we shall not come out true Mormons.”

    As you have interviewed these other faiths are their principles, values, morals or anything that you have seen have you thought wow this would be great to bring into our religion????

    Do you feel that we some what (unintentionally) knock the wind out of the sails of some new converts by so to speak homogenizing them to our way of thinking ( no clapping after a musical number or when someone say good morning from the pulpit the congregation replies Good Morning back).

    What could we be more flexible with that wouldn’t undermine our faith?

    Has it changed your outlook on your faith, has something resonated to your spirit you’ve learned but it’s not part of the lds culture?

    Have you adopted anything from what you have heard like meditating?

    The Church of Scientology teach “Man is a spirit, he has lived before and that man is good.” Isn’t that the pre-existnce? Isn’t that an exclusive teaching to the Mormons?

  • James

    “We should gather all the good and true principles in the world and treasure them up, or we shall not come out true Mormons.”

    Sorry forgot to ask this one!! I don’t think many members know of this quote from Joseph Smith. If we did adopt a principle from another religion like (being present) or meditating 1/2 way through sacrament do you think that would make members question the validity of their fait because of our stand on the apostasy? Would a true principle be accepted more easily if it came from something secular vs another religion?