How to win back a place in the media
Hard questions and tough answers
By Gerry Bowler • Special to ChristianWeek
I don’t know what part of the day you spend thinking about the hard questions–those imponderable puzzles that have plagued humanity since our earliest days, such as: "why is there evil?" "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" Or, "why does God allow Don Cherry?" My own time of deep thought is late at night, alone in front of the television.
As I flip my way up and down the 55 channels, a particular question has been troubling me of late. How, I wonder, have Christians managed to make the free offer of a relationship with the creator of the universe, the chance of an enriched earthly life and the promise of immortality into a package that repels most Canadians?
But then when I encounter overtly religious programming I realize I have the answer: in a media-saturated age Christians have failed to understand and effectively use media.
Diagnosis is easier than cure, as several readers were quick to inform me when I first wrote about this problem. They challenged me to find ways that Christians could use the media more effectively and so I, ever-obedient to my devoted public, humbly submit the following suggestions.
1. Think long-term: A Christian presence was not instantly abolished from television, radio or movies. It took decades to replace a worldview that made room for religion with the secular, consumerist, amoral sensibility that now dominates the marketplace. We should realize that we are in the midst of a culture war that is more than a century old and must be prepared to be in the fight for the long haul.
2. Think mainstream: Most effort and money–thousands of careers and billions of dollars–expended by North American Christians on accessing the mass media is spent on programming for Christians. We are comforting the comforted and turning off our non-religious neighbors who do not speak our jargon, sing our songs or care for our in-your-face evangelizing.
This is a failure of (excuse the expression) biblical proportions. It isn’t just a badly conceived strategy, but it is actually counter-productive. The shenanigans of lewd and greedy televangelists, the cocky strutting of alleged miracle workers, the bizarre musical renditions of toupˇed tenors, the mile after mile of insincere-looking smiles of program hosts have repelled infinitely more souls than have been won by the massive investment in radio and television air time. If we’re serious about winning back the continent we have to scramble over the ghetto wall and concentrate our efforts in the mainstream of art and entertainment.
3. Infiltrate and connect: To that end Christians have to consider the media as the prime area for mission activity in the 21st century. Young people must consider television production, screen and novel writing, advertising composition and computer game design as religiously worthy careers. Christian colleges must educate the next generation in these skills, which will take them to the heart of cultural decision-making. Churches that now contribute money to send their teens on summer trips to paint latrines in Guatemala might consider sending those same young people to a media workshop or find ways for them to network or intern in the arts.
4. Advertise: Television performs only two functions well and one of those is to sell things. Despite this well-known fact, Christians have been strangely reluctant to advertise their ideas and institutions. Only the Mormons have used the medium cleverly, selling not theology but virtues such as honesty and family togetherness and thus associating themselves in the public mind with these attributes. If a few simple techniques can induce billions to buy fizzy water, shouldn’t we consider using them to sell eternal truths?
5. Tell stories: The other thing that television does well is tell stories. Hard hearts can resist the endless sermons, healings and teary-eyed pleas that have been thrust at them for decades by television ministries. However, they can be broken by the stories of a child down a well, a family staying together in hard times, or a kindness done to a stranger. Christians who have been so insistent on the necessity of straightforward proclamation of their messages need to learn the magic of fiction and remember who it was who taught by parables and stories.
6. Use old ideas in new ways: Getting our stories into the mainstream of public awareness will not be easy but we have faced this problem before. Faced with barbarians, ignorant medieval peasants or jaded aristocrats and merchants, Christians invented new art forms such as Salvation Army street bands, oratorios, Christmas carols and mystery plays. It’s time for the church to once more sponsor the arts–including architecture, music and drama–and again make Christianity synonymous with compelling entertainment. Remember that there is an insatiable demand in this society for it to fill empty lives, theatre seats, record stores and those 500 channels that are around the corner.
7. Excellence above all: Finally, if we are to succeed in the marketplace we must abandon the culture of mediocrity that has infected evangelical Protestantism for too long and seek to be nothing but excellent. Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s "Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring" or Michelangelo’s "Pieta" profoundly touch millions to this day because they demonstrate the highest accomplishments in depicting humanity reaching out for God and the divine response. If they had been as carelessly created as most of today’s praise music or as shallow as what passes for Christian drama, they would have proven to be no use to God or man.
The soul of a culture is too precious not to be worth our best efforts.
Gerry Bowler is a Winnipeg writer and historian. Contact him at gbowler@videon.wave.ca
