Janet Parshall is drawing seekers and equipping believers within the far-reaching arms of radio.

Interview by Deborah Milton

Also read: • Growing Pains • Weathering Change In Marriage

Do you bite your nails? Do you wet your bed? If your parents divorced, which would you want to live with? Janet Parshall, happily married mother of four, and committed Christian, was following the soft, sweet voice of her Lord to look well to the ways of her household when presented with those three questions that would catapult her on a journey beyond her wildest imagination.

Never did she imagine one day hosting two radio programs, reaching a listening audience of over 3.5 million people. Nor did she expect to hear that her daughter and her fifth grade classmates had sat in a “magic circle” to answer the three probing questions above, an “experimental in-class counseling program” engaged in without parental notification. Her daughter’s true tale and the events that followed rocked Janet’s world. She requested a copy of her daughter’s classroom curriculum only to discover that significant class time was set aside for group guidance counseling sessions to identify possible at-risk children. Those same sessions would trample on the privacy of healthy, whole children. Her past experience as a public school teacher had taught her the value of seizing every opportunity for education. Experimental counseling sessions meant lost time for math facts, state capitals, spelling bees or other academic subjects. Janet’s husband, Craig, shared her concerns, but as a lawyer wished to also address the violation of the students’ first amendment rights.

The director of Pupil Services agreed to meet with them. But when they arrived at the school fifteen fellow administrators waited for them, shoulder to shoulder, behind one long table. At the center of the room two empty chairs sat ready for Janet and Craig. The non-combative, nonthreatening, quiet conversation Janet anticipated between involved parents and a district administrator had become a tribunal.

In Janet’s past, quiet conversations had often marked turning points in her life. At age six, talks with a Sunday school teacher about God’s truth marked the beginning of her Christian life, a decision to dedicate her life to Christ for His service came at age fourteen, and during high school, a series of front porch conversations with a bright young man paved the way for Janet to share the gospel.

And it was this same man – now a Christian, and her husband of 31 years – who sat beside her during their meeting with the administrators. But this next turning point conversation was also Janet’s wake-up call. For in the administrators’ eyes, Janet immediately ceased to be a concerned mother and the president of the PTA. She became their reactionary, right-wing opponent in what amounted to a cultural war. Two mutually exclusive world views fought for predominance at the meeting: the absolute truth of God’s Word, and situational ethics – just deciding right and wrong arbitrarily based on each situation.

Above all, Janet’s thoughts were with her daughter. For ten years she had instructed her child on the transcendent truth of God’s Word, and never thought the fifth grade classroom could become a battleground for her daughter’s heart.

In the end, the school district did not back down; the new curriculum continued. But Janet and Craig considered the experience invaluable. They realized the need to raise little apologists, to prepare their children for the marketplace of ideas outside their front door, to teach their young ones how to measure every idea presented to them by the standard of God’s Word.

Janet and Craig also started speaking out in their community, at midweek services, library gatherings, Tupperware parties. A local 500- watt Christian radio station invited Janet to share her message on the air. Then the station’s general manager offered Janet her own radio show.

For the next two years, God introduced Janet to radio, specifically how to listen with the ears of her heart to the personal struggles of her listeners. God then led her to work with Beverly LaHaye and Concerned Women for America in Washington, D.C., and to appear on radio and television often on the ministry’s behalf. From there, Janet was offered her own daily radio program also based in Washington, D.C.

While Janet prayed diligently about the offer, her son was diagnosed with spinal meningitis. For ten days, in the quiet of an intensive care unit, she watched her son slowly heal, and received a clear directive from God to host the radio program full time. So, in 1995, Janet Parshall’s America was born. Along the way, she also became the chief spokesperson for the Family Research Council and a speaker for Focus on the Family’s Renewing the Heart women’s conferences which led to a Saturday morning Renewing the Heart radio program, providing women with practical, biblical answers for the issues they face day-to-day.

By May of 2000, Janet was hosting two nationally syndicated radio programs. What began as a concerned mother’s challenge to a local school district has grown into a national broadcast ministry. “There isn’t a Harvard Grad School for radio,” Janet said. “In His sovereignty, God just systematically moved the pieces to bring me to this place of ministry.”

JBU recently had the privilege of talking with Janet about the unique voice the Lord has given to her.

JBU: On the surface, Janet Parshall’s America and Renewing the Heart are very different programs. Is there a point where they converge?
Janet: The convergence is Jesus Himself. Janet Parshall’s America pulls a different audience, with half of my listeners having made no profession of faith. They are seekers and skeptics tuning in to discover what Christians believe and why. As host of this program, I purposefully take a pre-evangelism approach. I start outside the culture and work inward by addressing a wide variety of subjects—public policy, lifestyle issues, entertainment, ministry, marriage, family— subjects discussed around the kitchen table. In this way I am fishing for men, attracting them with interesting topics addressed from a Christian’s perspective. I ask myself, is there underlying biblical truth in the subject at hand? Or a moral aspect to the latest story breaking on the news?

C.S. Lewis said beautifully, “Christians are the best arguments for and against Christianity.” I never want to send listeners screaming into the night: “Here comes her gospel message, run!” My goal is to engage listeners in such winsome conversation that it ignites in them a desire to pursue Jesus. In contrast, the Renewing the Heart broadcast is geared toward women’s issues and ministering to believing women, although I can’t tell you how many times men have called in. So with Renewing the Heart, I’m striving to equip believers. With Janet Parshall’s America, I’m striving to acquaint non-believers with Jesus.

JBU: How can a radio program make an impact for Christ?
Janet: The ministerial aspect of talk radio for me is pointing people in the direction of good ideas in the world that often have a basis in biblical truth. Our listeners journey beyond the three-minute package on the evening news and hear the whole truth of the whole gospel. For example, I visited with Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer, two Baylor University students who recently received national attention when held prisoner in Afghanistan for 105 days. With the events surrounding September 11, non-believers already had an interest in them. We could take their national news story further by offering Dayna and Heather a vehicle to share how Jesus pieced their broken lives together and gave them a desire to minister to other broken people. They could speak freely about Afghan women who gathered outside their prison cell to listen to the two sing praise songs to Jesus. “Don’t stop singing,” the Afghan women would whisper, “We want to hear more.”

JBU: Day to day, what do you find exciting about your radio work?
Janet: The host is really the least important person on a radio program. The most important person from my vantage point is the caller—testifying from a car, home or workplace to a marriage restored or a prodigal child returned home. Through the guests and listeners I’m privileged to speak with, God pours His truth into my heart everyday. My fun is being able to say, “Oh Lord, I can’t wait to see what you’ll teach me today.” My joy is sitting back to hear what others have learned in their pilgrim’s progress with Jesus. It isn’t about what I can do; it’s about what God is doing through me and in me. I don’t live under a suppressive regime where I have to hide in the shadows to share my faith. I can sit in front of a microphone, and from New York to California, tell the world about Jesus. If that can’t get you out of bed in the morning, you’re simply not awake.

My daily challenge is discernment. I receive boatloads of material from individuals vying for the opportunity to have a national platform to share their message. I must constantly hand the reins over to my Heavenly Father, my executive producer, to fill three hours on weekdays, and one hour on Saturdays. There are times when God leads me in one direction, but I think I should go in another. Each time I’ve insisted on my way, the program has suffered. I must trust completely in God’s leading, for this is God’s program, not mine. I want to join Him where He’s already working.

JBU: Are there moments on the air so engraved in your memory that you’ll never forget them?
Janet: Once I received a letter from a listener that began: “I used to hate you.” The young man had been living a homosexual lifestyle when he heard a guest on my program testifying to the transforming power of the cross that set him free from the bondage of homosexuality and replaced his self-hatred with value and dignity. Well, when my listener, the author of the letter, heard this guest’s story, he pulled to the side of the road and sobbed. Then, right in his car, he asked Jesus to become his personal Savior. The story didn’t end there. Now this same man is leading a ministry for people leaving the homosexual lifestyle here in Washington, D.C. That man’s testimony still takes my breath away. For as long as I live, I will never forget him. His story speaks to the power of radio. After listening to a believer’s testimony, he realized that God could give him hope and a future. And it changed his life.

Another story I will never forget involves a man who as a teenager suffered a tragic surfing accident. His little brother, whom he reluctantly allowed to tag along to the beach that day, saved his life when the teenager dove into the water and snapped his neck. I visited on the air with this man, now a quadriplegic, and all the while, I heard in the background the distinct sound of his respirator breathing for him. From a human perspective, he had cause to raise his fist to God and say I don’t want to live anymore. But instead, this gentle man testified that God granted him use of his mouth so he could still sing his Most High King’s praises. His body was broken, but God had healed his spirit. And while I listened to his powerful story and the repetitive sound of his respirator, my thoughts strayed to those with broken spirits who were listening, and who might discover God’s healing power as well.

I’m honored to interview U.S. cabinet members and prime ministers of foreign countries, and it was an amazing experience to speak with Vice President Cheney on the air recently; but it’s the stories of everyday men and women with lives radically transformed by Christ that touch my heart most. I’m thankful that I can turn my microphone on and off because many is the time when I’ve been so moved by my listeners’ stories that I’ve wept.

JBU: Do you think it significant that yours is one of the only conservative talk shows hosted by a woman?
Janet: A conservative woman espousing conservative ideas is atypical in the media today. I’m a rare commodity. Therefore, inevitably when programs such as Larry King or Crossfire want a conservative woman’s view on the issue of the day, I’m offered the opportunity. When I engage in these debates, I base my comments on what I know to be biblical truth. I pray that God is using the scarcity of a Christian woman in the media for the advancement of the gospel.

Growing up, I had planned to serve in a jungle mission field populated with frightening insects. Instead God placed me in the midst of marble buildings and people with Ph.D.’s in positions of power. But these professionals seen regularly on the evening news need Jesus just as much. So I pray that God makes my tongue the pen of a ready writer; and more importantly, that in my appearance and behavior, those I address come away with some sense of knowing who Christ is.

For more information on Janet Parshall’s America, visit Janet’s website at www.jpamerica.com. For programming information on Renewing the Heart, visit the Focus on the Family sponsored website at www.renewingtheheart.com.

Also read:
• Growing Pains
• Weathering Change In Marriage

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