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LYNCHBURG--The United States Senate is now considering legislation that seeks to place "a la carte" or per-channel charge regulations on subscription television providers. While it may sound like an attractive idea initially, a closer look reveals that any such regulations would have a devastating effect on religious and inspirational broadcasters.

The rise of religious broadcasting has arguably been the most important advance for the spread of Christianity since the publication of the Gutenberg Bible 500 years ago. With the emergence of cable, satellite, and digital technology, the ability to share the gospel over the airwaves has been revolutionized over the past quarter-century.

Early missionaries sailed the oceans, braved the elements, crossed continents, and climbed over dangerous mountain passes to visit villages from sub-Saharan Africa to the furthest regions of Asia. But in the last half-century, the ability of the church to reach the lost has been revolutionized by a new technology: television.

Today over 90 million American households and millions more worldwide can now hear the gospel through a religious broadcast directly into their home. It can truly be said that satellite and cable television have been second only to the Bible in the most powerful evangelistic tool in history.

I have seen this in my own ministry. In 1956, I founded a Baptist church in the small town of Lynchburg in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. In 1957, I started the "Old Time Gospel Hour," a local broadcast that soon grew to a national broadcast. Through cable and broadcast outlets, it ultimately covered the U.S. and 76 nations.

Thanks to modern technology, my many ministries are now global in scope. Yet at this most promising moment, the very survival of religious broadcasting is threatened in the United States. A little-known federal regulation has been proposed to institute a per-channel charge on cable television (sometimes called "a la carte")--which threatens to purge Christian broadcasts from the vast majority of U.S. households.

Proponents of placing a per-channel charge on cable and satellite programming range from Naderite consumer groups to well-intentioned proponents of decency standards. They mistakenly believe that a federal mandate on per-channel charge would reduce cable costs to consumers and make television a better medium for their children.

On both counts, proponents of these regulations are incorrect.