Religion: Amusing Ourselves to Death, Chapter 8

Source

{If you don't see an image, it's not important.} Just change that out dated television to a computer screen, or better yet, a smart phone and it's applicable today. Do you agree?

Intro Ch. 1 Ch. 2 Ch. 3 Ch. 4 {pt 1} Ch. 4 {pt 2} Ch. 5 Ch. 6 Ch. 7 
Ch. 8 Ch. 9 {pt 1} Ch. 9 {pt 2} Ch. 10 Ch. 11

Part II, Chapter 8 "Shuffle Off to Bethlehem"

At the start of this chapter, which is relaying how television has affected religion, Postman gives some descriptions of televangelists that I don't know who are. "Reverend Terry" who just looks uh, perfectly religious? Perhaps that is a good paraphrase. But her audience looks just like what you'd see in the audience at a Las Vegas performance, but they might be "more wholesome" looking. Reverend Terry's message is of prosperity, and getting closer to Jesus. She offers a "kit" that will bring them closer to Jesus and set them on the road to prosperity at the same time. 

By the way, according to Postman, Reverend Terry ended up filing bankruptcy...

The first more modern examples of this for me may be Joel Osteen or Joyce Meyers. I will be honest and tell that I don't listen to either but smidgens that I hear through friends. I get the impression they'd sell a kit that promises getting closer to Jesus and getting rich in the process.

Postman continues with a contrast but still the religious scene: Pat Robertson. The name is much more familiar to me. I grew up sometimes watching the 700 Club on television at my grandparents house. He is much more low key than Reverend Terry but still includes features you'd find on an entertainment show: skits, singers, and video segments. Postman states that the people featured in the videos, people who have been helped by the 700 Club, are twice elevated. First by bringing them closer to Jesus and second by making them a star on television. But which is the higher elevation? It is often difficult to tell.

Next up, Jimmy Swaggart; a fire-and-brimstone kind of evangelist. "But because this is television, he often moderates his message with a dollop of ecumenism...his message suggests that they [meaning the Jews in this particular instance] are rather to be pitied than despised but that, in any case, many of them are pretty nice people" (p. 116). Interestingly he doesn't go soft at all when speaking of the Devil or secular humanism: "Then they [evangelists in general] are quite uncompromising in the ferocity of their assaults, partly, one may assume, because neither the Devil nor secular humanists are included in the Nielsen Ratings. Neither are they inclined to watch" (p. 116).

I am afraid I will skip most of this chapter because it seems that it need not be gone over overly much. I know it is not just me who thinks that churches today are more entertaining than convicting. They are more concerned about numbers, whether through the Nielsen Ratings or the membership count at a physical location. Postman makes the repeated mention of televangelists offering something more than just salvation; more than closeness with Jesus. They offer, as Reverend Terry, "prosperity", or as he says later about Jerry Falwell, something physical. "You can get your share of the audience only by offering people something they want" (executive director of the National Religious Broadcasters Association, quoted p. 121). How many churches hold free events with freebies for those who attend? Too many perhaps.

Christianity demands much but when it is put on television, or put out as entertainment, then it is delivered as amusement and is not given serious consideration. I really like where Postman talks about how easy television makes idolatry. I would think it would be easy to see how this is, no pun intended. Preachers on television are often charismatic, appealing to us, but not because of what they preach. It is rather the presentation. "For God exists only in our minds, whereas [a televangelist] is there, to be seen, admired, adored...If I am not mistaken, the word for this is blasphemy" (p. 123). These become the graven images we are forbidden to idolize. Nowadays, I think that the entertainment factor in the church in general is becoming a problem. Did it start with the television?

I will end with these words from Hannah Arndt and the reply of Postman:

"This state of affairs, which indeed is equalled nowhere else in the world, can properly be called mass culture; its promotors are neither the masses nor their entertainers, but are those who try to entertain the masses with what once was an authentic object of culture..."

"There is no doubt, in other words, that religion can be made entertaining. The question is, By doing so, do we destroy it as an "authentic object of culture"?"

Perhaps I've only skimmed this chapter but is because it is better presented by Postman himself. There is much reference that I don't get because I don't and haven't really seen it, on television. I see it in real life.

Next chapter is titled, "Reach Out and Elect Someone"

Politics, anyone?