The first religious broadcast was in 1921 when a radio microphone was set up in the Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That broadcast opened the door to evangelists and preachers all over including the likes of Father Charles Coughlin, S. Parkes Cadman, Charles Fuller, and Aimee Semple McPherson.

 

Religious programs were also a staple of radio including The Lutheran Hour, The Jewish Hour (formerly The Yiddish Hour), and the Catholic Hour. 

Each minister had his (or her) own delivery style and type of message. For example, Father Coughlin, also known as The Radio Priest, delivered hour-long sermons on the radio. When he first started his broadcast career, his sermons were theological. His later sermons, however, turned to political themes and, still later, to anti-Semitism after which the Catholic Church pulled him from broadcasting and made him a parish priest. Father Coughlin delivered sermons in support of labor unions, against the New Deal, even rationalizing some of Hitler and Mussolini’s polices.

 

Aimee kept her sermons to living the faithful Christian life with stories to provide examples and jokes to move the sermon along. Some of her ser mons were political but they were more related to issues that other denominations were concerned about too, like prohibition or helping your fellow man.

 

 

 

 

 

See also:

• Aimee Semple McPherson
• Father Coughlin
• Catholic Hour
• Eternal Light
• Father Flanagan's Boys Town
• Greatest Story Ever Told
• Old Fashioned Revival Hour
• Radio Revival Heart to Heart Hour
• Religious Collection
• Upper Room