![]() ![]() Because the same television will have been the context for a multitude of "profane," banal, and totally disassociated shows or events, it is difficult for it to be a frame to deliver a profound religious experience (120). Audiences watching television in their homes are free to "eat, talk, go to the bathroom," and their space does not change its context at all through what is on the screen (119).įurther, Postman argues that our associations with the television make it inherently secular. However, television markedly refuses such a consecration. There must be a specific space that is consecrated no matter the building, it becomes a place of "ritual enactment" through symbols like crosses placed on walls through certain observed behaviors like kneeling or solemn quiet and through the community it inspires. What he wishes them to realize is that the context of traditional religion is crucial towards its encouragement of spiritual transcendence. He believes that contemporary televangelists have not considered what is being lost in the translation from the church hall to the television, perhaps because they believe that the much larger audience afforded by broadcast assuages that loss. In the same way that prose translates fairly well into other languages but poetry does not, so do some things not translate their context appropriately between mediums. He suggests "not everything is televisible" (118). ![]() What Postman suggests is that the limitation is less in the quality of the preachers, and moreso in the medium of television itself. Everything that has made religion significant to society over the ages is absent. Postman notes that at the time of his writing there are 35 stations operated by religious organizations, and that though he watched a large amount of its programming, he could have watched far less to realize that religion on television is solely entertainment, with "no ritual, no dogma, no tradition, no theology, and above all, no sense of spiritual transcendence" (117). He then speaks of Jimmy Swaggart, who takes a more "fire-and-brimstone approach" which is belied by a more moderate tone designed not to offend any potential television audience (115). At the end of each "700 Club" episode, someone says "All this and more…tomorrow on the 700 Club" (115). He speaks of Pat Robertson, whose program "700 Club" is a more sophisticated television program, in terms of its use of "interviews, singers and taped segments" (115). Reverend Terry had recently declared bankruptcy, he ironically notes. The first is Reverend Terry, who leads her congregation by inspiring laughter and suggesting that godliness can lead to financial profit. He begins by detailing three popular televangelists of his day. In "Shuffle Off to Bethlehem," Postman explores how the media-metaphor of television has morphed religion into entertainment. ![]()
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