This is Courtney. I found this chapter to be fascinating. I agree with Postman on most of it, but I have to argue against him as well. He says that "on television, religion, like everything else, is presented, quite simply and without apology, as entertainment"(Postman.116). I agree, that on television especially, religion is there to be entertaining. But I have to say that having religion at a church is just as entertaining. I used to go to church very often. In general the more often you go to church, the more devout you are (or at least in our society that seems to be a trend). There are services on Wednesday nights and Sundays. My church also had picnics and potlucks throughout the week and "teen night" at least once a week. These events were all entertaining, and all social. They had very little to do with actually worshipping. So while religion on television is entertainment, a lot of religion done in person is entertainment as well. In the past, Sunday morning church was the only time people had to socialize, and they took that opportunity. Television doesn't have the social aspect to religion that actually physically going to church does.
On a seperate note, Postman also says "If the delivery is not the same, then the message, quite likely, is not the same"(Postman, 118). I can agree with Postman on this point, but that goes for everything. On 9/11 the delivery for people in New York and Washington D.C. was quite different than the delivery for people in Colorado. I know because I was in Washington D.C. on September 11th, 2001. That morning we watched the smoke billowing up from the Twin Towers on television. I remember thinking "I am so glad we are n Washington D.C., and not there. An emergency announcement came out while my family and I were on the metro. I can't remember the exact words, but it was something to the effect of "The Metro will not be going any further than the (Street Name) stop (It was the stop right before the stop for the Pentaagon). A airplane has been flown into the Pentagon. Please exit the Metro as quickly and calmly as possible". The exit was an underground concrete stop. I goes without saying that we all headed for the stairs, trying to get a better look at what happened. The difference of delivery between the Twin Towers on television, and the Pentagon, as an eyewitness, were astounding. I think this concept can be applied to many different mediums and messages.
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Excellent point about the social difference between TV religion and brick religion. I grew up in the totally opposite tradition. There was no social aspect to the religion. It was worship on Sunday and, for adults, Wednesday. We used to look with wonder across the fence at the Presbyters who would have activities more like you describe.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, what you say about 9/11 surprises me. It seems more "normal" than I would have thought. I would have thought (probably an idea generated by television coverage) that there was , along with the gawking, a significant aspect of social bonding, of unanimity of feeling, of "solidarity." Maybe there was, and you were just focusing on the other aspect of the difference. For us, in Colorado, there was not, until well afterward, much of that social sense. It was television, after all.