35 Years of Breakpoint
Thirty-five years ago today, on September 2, 1991, Chuck Colson broadcast the very first episode of Breakpoint. At the time, Breakpoint was a radio program. Today, it can be found online, by email, and as a podcast, not to mention it is carried by dozens of other organizations and news websites and even a handful of newspapers.
In that first episode of Breakpoint, Chuck described why he believed it would be so important:
Welcome to Break Point. Since this is our first broadcast, I’d like to begin by telling you what I hope to accomplish in the five minutes I’ll be spending with you on the air each day.
I can do that best with a story.
When my work keeps me holed up in my study all day, my wife, Patti, is my eyes and ears to the outside world. She monitors what’s on news and television, and then she fills me in at the end of the day.
One day, she simply couldn’t wait till the end of the day. She saw a program so jarring that she burst through the door of my study.
“Come on,” she said. “You’ve got to see this.”
She had been watching the Phil Donahue show. The guests that day were mothers talking about their children’s sex lives. How did they know about their children’s sex lives, you may ask. It turned out they were allowing their kids to engage in sexual activity right in their home, under the watchful parental eye.
These families had told their kids that sex was not something done in the back seat of cars. It was safer and cleaner in one’s own bedroom. One family even came up with a special code: When the daughter stuck a piece of green tape to the bedroom door, that was the signal for “Keep Out–Intercourse in Progress.”
Okay, you say, what do we expect from Donahue? Donahue, Oprah, Geraldo–they scour the earth for the most bizarre people to put on display. The programs are modern-day freak shows, just like the kinds of things I used to pay a nickel to go see when I was a kid.
But what struck me most about the program was the audience reaction. While the mothers were explaining the modus operandi of parent-supervised sex, the audience was nodding sympathetically! It’s the attitude so common on [all of] these programs: If this is what you feel is right for you, who are we to judge?
No one stands up and challenges it all.
Oh sure, people in the audience will sometimes say, “I don’t feel comfortable about that.” But it’s phrased only in terms of what offends me personally.
They simply aren’t asking the right questions.
What are the right questions? Simple. Things like, What is truth? What is ultimately real? What are we living for?
Unless we realize that there are such questions—that all through history, the great pursuit of humanity has been for answers to these questions—then we [simply] flounder along, drifting with popular trends.
As Christians, we are often offended by the immorality portrayed on television, in films, and in tabloids. And rightly so. But I suggest that we should also be disturbed by something much deeper: that our culture has stopped asking the big questions about the meaning and purpose of life.
Remember the bumper sticker a few years ago that said, “Jesus Is the Answer”? Well, some wise guy shot back, “What’s the Question?” That was intended as a put-down, of course. But it is precisely the point today. People no longer know what the great questions of life are.
So, this is what I hope to accomplish on Break Point: To ask those questions, to take the issues of the day and hold them up to examination in the light of God’s truth. To show that each issue reflects some facet of the big truths, the ultimate truths, that should guide our lives.
Big answers for the big questions.
I hope you’ll join us.
From the very beginning, September of 1991, Chuck Colson launched Breakpoint as a tool to bring clarity and formation for Christians to know why they believe what they believe and encourage them to bring truth to the public square. Today, the mission is the same, and we thank you for bringing Breakpoint into your homes and cars, emails and podcast feeds.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images / Dmytro Varavin
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
