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As long as there has been a church, there has been Christian communication - people of the book bearing the good news from one place to another, persuading, teaching and even delighting an ever-broadening audience with the message of the gospel. Amid ongoing advances in technology and an ever-more-multicultural context, however, the time...
As long as there has been a church, there has been Christian communication--"people of the book" bearing "the good news" from one place to another, persuading, teaching and even delighting an ever-broadening audience with the message of the gospel. Amid ongoing advances in technology and an ever-more-multicultural context, however, the time has come for a broad appraisal of the state of evangelical communications. Quentin Schultze and Robert H. Woods Jr. have assembled scholars from across the country to analyze and assess a wide range of media including radio popular music worship music and media television film periodicals books Internet church drama comics gaming theme parks advertising public relations merchandising These shifting media, and the communications enterprise as a whole, are put in cultural and ethical perspective. Also addressed are Catholic and Jewish perspectives on the state of religious media. This project is ongoing. For additional resources and further conversation, visit understandingevangelicalmedia.com.
In 1999, the Reverend Jerry Falwell outed Tinky-Winky, the purple character from TV's Teletubbies. Events such as this reinforced in many quarters the common idea that evangelicals are reactionary, out of touch, and just plain paranoid. But reducing evangelicals to such caricatures does not help us understand their true spiritual and political agendas and the means they use to advance them. Shaking the World for Jesus moves beyond sensationalism to consider how the evangelical movement has effectively targeted Americans—as both converts and consumers—since the 1970s. Thousands of products promoting the Christian faith are sold to millions of consumers each year through the Web, mail order catalogs, and even national chains such as Kmart and Wal-Mart. Heather Hendershot explores in this book the vast industry of film, video, magazines, and kitsch that evangelicals use to spread their message. Focusing on the center of conservative evangelical culture—the white, middle-class Americans who can afford to buy "Christian lifestyle" products—she examines the industrial history of evangelist media, the curious subtleties of the products themselves, and their success in the religious and secular marketplace. To garner a wider audience, Hendershot argues, evangelicals have had to carefully temper their message. But in so doing, they have painted themselves into a corner. In the postwar years, evangelical media wore the message of salvation on its sleeve, but as the evangelical media industry has grown, many of its most popular products have been those with heavily diluted Christian messages. In the eyes of many followers, the evangelicals who purvey such products are sellouts—hucksters more interested in making money than spreading the word of God. Working to understand evangelicalism rather than pass judgment on it, Shaking the World for Jesus offers a penetrating glimpse into a thriving religious phenomenon.
A new history explores the commercial heart of evangelical Christianity. American evangelicalism is big business. For decades, the world’s largest media conglomerates have sought out evangelical consumers, and evangelical books have regularly become international best sellers. In the early 2000s, Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life spent ninety weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list and sold more than thirty million copies. But why have evangelicals achieved such remarkable commercial success? According to Daniel Vaca, evangelicalism depends upon commercialism. Tracing the once-humble evangelical book industry’s emergence as a lucrative center of the US book trade, Vaca argues that evangelical Christianity became religiously and politically prominent through business activity. Through areas of commerce such as branding, retailing, marketing, and finance, for-profit media companies have capitalized on the expansive potential of evangelicalism for more than a century. Rather than treat evangelicalism as a type of conservative Protestantism that market forces have commodified and corrupted, Vaca argues that evangelicalism is an expressly commercial religion. Although religious traditions seem to incorporate people who embrace distinct theological ideas and beliefs, Vaca shows, members of contemporary consumer society often participate in religious cultures by engaging commercial products and corporations. By examining the history of companies and corporate conglomerates that have produced and distributed best-selling religious books, bibles, and more, Vaca not only illustrates how evangelical ideas, identities, and alliances have developed through commercial activity but also reveals how the production of evangelical identity became a component of modern capitalism.
Do journalists report more favourably on people that they like than on those they don't? Canada's evangelicals think so. For years, they've accused the country's news personnel of being prejudiced against them both personally and in their coverage. However, up to now, the evangelicals' charge of media bias has never been empirically examined. This book puts that charge to the test. An in depth survey of national news personnel accompanied by an extensive, multi-year examination of news coverage reveals how Canada's journalists feel about evangelicals, how they report on evangelicals, and how and when their feelings influence their reporting. In the end, this book concludes when the beliefs and actions of Canadian evangelicals directly clash with the heart-felt convictions of Canadian national journalists, the journalists are willing to abandon their professional objectivity and slant their stories against their ideological opponents. In addition, this book uses the media's treatment of evangelicals as a backdrop for the discussion of larger issues. How the media construct the news, how and why the media cover religion as they do, whether journalistic objectivity exists at all, and the affect media messages have on audiences is explored. Also, advice on how religious groups can overcome media bias is offered. As the first book to apply the tools of quantitative research to the topic of religion and the news in Canada, this book is groundbreaking. However, written with the lay reader in mind, the theoretical underpinnings of the work and methodologies used are presented in accessible, easy-to-understand terms. This book will be of interest to all member of the evangelical community, clergy and faith leaders, and scholars of religion or mass communication. "This is response rather than reaction. Intelligent, balanced, incisive and instructive. At last such a book about such a subject from someone who understands evangelical Christianity as well as media. Essential reading for everyone interested in both." - Michael Coren, Author, columnist and broadcaster David M. Haskell, Ph.D., is associate professor of journalism and contemporary studies at the Brantford campus of Wilfrid Laurier University.
The Bible includes prophetic speech and at times the church and its representatives are called to speak prophetically. But in our media-saturated age when many claim to speak for God, how can we evaluate the avalanche of supposedly prophetic speech? What does it mean to truly be prophetic? And when Christians should speak prophetically, how can they do so in a biblical and effective way? Using vivid examples, this book offers clear guidelines for creating, critiquing, and consuming popular media, as well as practical suggestions for faithful communication. It also helps readers think critically about communication technology. The book includes a foreword by Quentin Schultze and a preface by Clifford Christians.
In Pure, Linda Kay Klein uses a potent combination of journalism, cultural commentary, and memoir to take us “inside religious purity culture as only one who grew up in it can” (Gloria Steinem) and reveals the devastating effects evangelical Christianity’s views on female sexuality has had on a generation of young women. In the 1990s, a “purity industry” emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girls—resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—and trapped them in a cycle of shame. This is the sex education Linda Kay Klein grew up with. Fearing being marked a Jezebel, Klein broke up with her high school boyfriend because she thought God told her to and took pregnancy tests despite being a virgin, terrified that any sexual activity would be punished with an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. When the youth pastor of her church was convicted of sexual enticement of a twelve-year-old girl, Klein began to question purity-based sexual ethics. She contacted young women she knew, asking if they were coping with the same shame-induced issues she was. These intimate conversations developed into a twelve-year quest that took her across the country and into the lives of women raised in similar religious communities—a journey that facilitated her own healing and led her to churches that are seeking a new way to reconcile sexuality and spirituality. Pure is “a revelation... Part memoir and part journalism, Pure is a horrendous, granular, relentless, emotionally true account" (The Cut) of society’s larger subjugation of women and the role the purity industry played in maintaining it. Offering a prevailing message of resounding hope and encouragement, “Pure emboldens us to escape toxic misogyny and experience a fresh breath of freedom” (Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and founder of Together Rising).
A pioneer of the “exvangelical” movement examines how toxic right-wing beliefs took over American Christianity—and why people are leaving the church and speaking out against it With the rise of Trumpism, the American evangelical movement has more political influence than ever—yet at the same time, people are leaving Christianity in record numbers. Why are so many people walking away from the right-wing religion they were raised in, and what are they doing to overcome the past? Writer and podcaster Blake Chastain is uniquely positioned to understand this phenomenon. Raised evangelical, he went to a Christian college intending to become a pastor—until he found himself unable to reconcile his faith with the prejudice and even abuse he saw being done in God’s name. He created the popular hashtag #exvangelical and the hit podcast of the same name, and soon became part of a growing movement of people walking away from toxic religion and using the unique tools of the internet to speak out, find healing, and build new communities. In Exvangelical and Beyond, Chastain delves into evangelicalism’s deep roots in American politics and society, and explains why and how so many Christians—and ex-Christians—are forging a new path online. Blending history, personal narrative, and incisive analysis, this is a must-read for anyone who has left the church, is deconstructing their own faith, or simply wants to understand religious culture in America.
The American political scene today is poisonously divided, and the vast majority of white evangelicals play a strikingly unified, powerful role in the disunion. These evangelicals raise a starkly consequential question for electoral politics: Why do they claim morality while supporting politicians who act immorally by most Christian measures? In this clear-eyed, hard-hitting chronicle of American religion and politics, Anthea Butler answers that racism is at the core of conservative evangelical activism and power. Butler reveals how evangelical racism, propelled by the benefits of whiteness, has since the nation's founding played a provocative role in severely fracturing the electorate. During the buildup to the Civil War, white evangelicals used scripture to defend slavery and nurture the Confederacy. During Reconstruction, they used it to deny the vote to newly emancipated blacks. In the twentieth century, they sided with segregationists in avidly opposing movements for racial equality and civil rights. Most recently, evangelicals supported the Tea Party, a Muslim ban, and border policies allowing family separation. White evangelicals today, cloaked in a vision of Christian patriarchy and nationhood, form a staunch voting bloc in support of white leadership. Evangelicalism's racial history festers, splits America, and needs a reckoning now.