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Hello, welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. This is a daily conversation about scripture, culture and media from a Reformed perspective. Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to engage today's topic.
Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.
Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist, my name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. On yesterday's program, I discussed the life of famous prosperity preacher Fred Price and the dangers his theology leaves behind.
Little did I know when I was making that episode that I would be doing yet another show today about someone who has passed. But this time I am encouraged to say that I'm going to get to speak positively today about the person because this person has made a positive impact on my life and on the lives of many of you as well.
Yesterday I was alerted, along with the rest of the world, that Rush Limbaugh, the voice of conservative talk radio, passed into eternity. As one can imagine, within minutes of the news of the passing of Rush, the left, well known as the Party of Love and Empathy, began to rejoice over the death of their political opponent.
However, I am in no way going to give a platform to such foolishness. Rush was an important voice for American conservatives and I want to take just a few moments to memorialize him and offer a tribute of positive words which I believe his legacy deserves.
I'm also going to, toward the end of the episode, read a few tributes which were sent in to me by those who appreciated Rush for his contribution to their lives. I want to begin by reading from biography .com about Rush and his life and tell a little bit of his story.
Rush Limbaugh was born on January 12, 1951 in Missouri into a highly regarded local family. His paternal grandfather, Rush Hudson Limbaugh, served as a U .S. Ambassador to India under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
An uncle served as a federal judge during Ronald Reagan's presidency and his father, a conservative, Rush Hudson Limbaugh II, worked as an attorney. Limbaugh landed his first radio job when he was in high school using the pseudonym Rusty Sharp.
He worked as a DJ for the local station KGMO, which was co-owned by his father. And following high school, Limbaugh briefly attended Southeast Missouri State University. He left the school in 1971 after one year of enrollment to pursue a career in radio.
However, Limbaugh had trouble keeping a position. He was fired from stations in Missouri and Pennsylvania for being too conservative as a news commentator. He said, quote, my whole family thought I was destined for failure, end quote.
Following a stint as a ticket salesman for Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals in the mid -1980s, Limbaugh landed a job as an on-air host at KFBK in Sacramento, California, with the help of a radio executive friend.
There Limbaugh took over Morton Downey Jr.'s slot and met with success when his ratings surpassed his predecessors. Less than a year later, Limbaugh became known as Sacramento's top radio host. In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission repealed a long-standing rule known as the Fairness Doctrine, which required both television and radio stations to air for an equal amount of time each side to a political argument.
The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine ultimately paved the way for Limbaugh's now distinct politically conservative radio style to take shape. Not long after, the on-air host left KFBK for a position at the ABC radio network, bringing his newfound fame with him, as well as a reputation for having strong right-wing ideologies.
The Rush Limbaugh Show, nationally syndicated from New York City by ABC Radio, premiered on August 1, 1988. Known for its heavy political focus and sometimes extreme conservative slant, the Rush Limbaugh Show has been on the air for more than three decades, at one point becoming the highest-rated American talk show program.
The show is currently syndicated by Premier Radio Networks and can be heard on more than 600 stations nationwide. In addition to his success on the radio, Limbaugh makes regular appearances as a political commentator on various TV programs and has authored numerous articles and books, including 1992's best-selling The Way Things Ought To Be and 1993's See, I Told You So.
This is a quote from him in this article. Quote, It's my job, it's my life, it's my career, it's my passion, Limbaugh once said about his politically charged career as a radio host, commentator and writer.
He goes on to say, I'm doing what I love. I think I'm doing what I was born to do. I have no specific goals from this point forward. I never had specific goals. I've always thought I know generally what I want to do.
I want to be in media. I want to be in radio. It's what I love. It's what I do best. And I'm open to all opportunities that come my way. End quote. Limbaugh was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1993 and the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1998.
Additionally, he's a five-time winner of the National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award for Excellence in Syndicated and New Network Broadcasting. In February 2020, Rush revealed that he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.
Shortly after that, during the State of the Union Address, President Donald Trump awarded Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom. Rush died on February 17, 2021 after a battle with advanced lung cancer. Now, again, that was taken from an article on biography .com.
And I wanted to read that because I wanted to share some of the things about his life about which I imagine some of us may have not ever known. On a personal note, I wanted to talk a little bit about my experiences with Rush as well.
As a young Christian and a conservative, I was saved when I was 19 years old. And therefore, I was going into my 20s as a young Christian man. I had grown up in a socially conservative home and I had basically conservative values, but I didn't really know how to articulate those values.
I knew a lot about what I believed and really in my heart why I believed it, but I didn't know how to put those beliefs into words. I remember many hours of riding in my car, whether it was going back and forth from work or whatever.
I remember being in my car listening to El Rushbo teach about conservative thinking from behind his golden EIB microphone. He helped me to understand the powerful political influences which were at work on both sides of the political aisle.
He aided in my ability to articulate my positions as a young man still trying to figure out the world. And for that, I will always appreciate how he worked in my life. And so when I heard about his death, I went about seeking out folks that I thought he might have influenced and I've had a few folks write in a few things and I want to share those with you today as part of this tribute.
Again, I want this to be a positive remembrance of Rush's life because of his strong political stance. I know, as I said earlier, there's going to be a lot of negative, there's going to be a lot of people saying hateful things, vitriolic things.
It's very common in situations like this where somebody had such a polarizing position because they took such a hard, strong stance on these things that often create a lot of enemies and certainly Rush had a lot of enemies.
But again, we're not here today to concern ourselves with his enemies. I want to hear the positive things from people who loved him. So the first one comes from Sam, and Sam says this. I remember listening to Rush Limbaugh since the mid -90s.
I was a truck driver for five years and every time that we would be able to listen to his show driving down the road, my wife and I would do the Rush dance. He is the epitome of the happy warrior and the world has definitely lost something.
God bless Rush Limbaugh and to God be all the glory. Well, that's certainly a wonderful statement from Rush. That was an encouragement. I can imagine what the Rush dance looks like. I have no idea, but I'll have to ask Sam next time I see him to show us what the Rush dance looks like.
The next one is from Richard. Now Richard's is a little shorter. He just says, I'm going to miss his Clinton impersonations and hearing him say the Reverend Jackson every time he spoke about Jesse Jackson.
And of course, I remember that as well. And I know my impersonation or my impression was not in any way very good. So I apologize for that. But Matthew, listener Matthew, also sent a quote in, but instead of sending a memory about Rush, he sent instead a quote from Rush.
And I think this is probably one of the most important things that we could hear. This came from Rush, I believe it was recently that he said this on his program. He said, and this is, again, a quote from Limbaugh.
I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Limbaugh said on his radio program Monday. It is of immense value, strength and confidence. That's why I'm able to remain fully committed to the idea that what is supposed to happen will happen when it's meant to.
I think that's an encouraging word to hear when someone has passed from this life into the next, because as we all know, no matter how good a person is, no matter how positive a person is, outside of Jesus Christ, there is no salvation and outside of Christ, there is no hope.
So to hear Rush proclaim his relationship with Jesus Christ is an encouragement. Well, I had one other thing that was sent in. I had a few folks do some short memories of things, but the one that caught my attention the most was sent in from my friend Mike, and I want to end with this.
Mike says this, who was Rush Limbaugh? He was the big voice on the right, America's truth detector and America's real anchorman. He was more than a voice on the radio. He was like a father, a friend, teacher and voice of reason during times of chaos, turmoil and even the good times.
He was everything that he claimed to be and more. He loved his audience and we loved him. What did Rush Limbaugh mean to me? I listened to Rush for three hours a day, five days a week for just about 20 years.
I found Rush shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9 -11 because I wanted to hear about how America was making terrorists pay for attacking America. I found Rush who validated everything that I thought and knew about America and I never turned him off.
I joined Rush 24 -7 in order to stream when I couldn't listen live because I was hooked on his show. He taught me what it truly meant to be an American and that being an American who believes in American exceptionalism is a conservative.
He defined conservativism to me in a way that I could easily understand and better yet defend to others. I became a conservative before a Christian and when I became a Christian I was easily able to apply my Christian faith to my conservative beliefs and determine truth based on what I learned from Rush.
No single person has ever spoken to my life more than Rush Limbaugh and his passing feels like a dear friend, mentor, father and teacher is gone. It is a void that may never be filled again in that form and he was truly the greatest radio host that ever lived.
Brother Mike, that is touching and I appreciate you sharing that with all of us. And again for everyone who shared, I appreciate all of you writing in and certainly it is true that conservatives in the United States have lost a strong voice.
Our warmest thoughts and sincerest prayers are extended to the Limbaugh family in this their hour of grief. May God bless them with the comfort that only he can provide. Thank you for listening today to Coffee with a Calvinist.
My name is Keith Foskey and I've been your Calvinist.
May God bless you. Thank you for listening to today's episode of Coffee with a Calvinist. If you enjoyed the program, please take a moment to subscribe and provide us feedback. We love to receive your comments and questions and may even engage with them in a future episode.
As you go about your day, remember this, Jesus Christ came to save sinners. All who come to him in repentance and faith will find him to be a perfect savior. He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through him.
May God be with you.