Is there something good in Televangelism?

Since the beginnings of commercial radio, evangelical Christians have recognized the effectiveness of the broadcast media as a vehicle for disseminating their faith. By enabling them to reach new audiences as well as committed believers, broadcasting has provided evangelists with a means of building large and widespread followings. As a result, religious broadcasters have continually taken advantage of new broadcast technologies, from local radio programs in the early 1920s to 24-hour cable television networks by the late 1970s. The use of television by evangelists as a medium for expressing their views proved to be an especially influential development during the last quarter of the twentieth century, as conflicts between religious conservatives and mainstream popular culture grew. In this context, the term "televangelism" became widely adopted to describe the use of broadcasting to promote not only evangelical Christian beliefs, but also a wide range of social and political views espoused by Christian fundamentalists.

But televangelism was a failure because of so many controversies and criticisms. Some of the reasons are the following: emphasis on supernatural theology, flamboyant lifestyles of pastors or evangelists, emphasis on the collection of donations, personality cult around the televangelists, false prophecies, exploitation of members, etc.

Nevertheless, not everything found in televangelism is bad or negative. As Catholics we could imitate the zeal and the effort of televangelists when it comes to their preaching and attracting their audience and also their use of the mass media. In the Philippines, I admire some Protestants preaching inside the malls, buses, trains, etc. without being ashamed at all to what people will say. Of course, I am not in favor of their style of preaching is such places because those are not the proper places where the Word of God is supposed to be preached since nobody will listen to them, but their attitude, effort and zeal in preaching is very admirable. It would have been very nice if all Catholic preachers have that same zeal when they deliver their homilies during the celebration of the mass in the church or on television. ®

MEDIA: Promoter of Consumerism

Human beings are always in search for more and are never satisfied at any moment with what they have. This is where consumerism comes into the picture. Consumerism has the root word “consume” or “consumer” which would refer to “acquisition”, “accumulation”, “possession”, etc. This is the weakness of human beings, we are never contented with what we have and this becomes the “light at the end of the tunnel” for those people involved in the media and businessmen. They use media to amplify this “craving” and problems start to come in.

The more people are exposed to media the more needs are created in them. Commercials and advertisements are very good at convincing people to buy their products because they are capable of making people look at the external aspect of the person as the most important: beauty, health, contentment because of material things, etc. They are somehow indoctrinated by what media tells them and most of the times they never think that not all that the media presents to them are true and they buy their products because they feel something is lacking in their life if they do not have them. For these people indoctrinated by commercials and advertisements regard happiness and contentment as having material possessions, money, beauty, accessories, etc. and this is what drives companies and businessmen to produce new products for people to acquire. In short, luxury is presented initially by media in commercials and advertisements as a “desire” or a “craving” or a “fancy” for the people and eventually becomes a “need” or a “necessity” for them. And all these things are done for the sake of money.

But after all these “created needs” people crave for some more because media tells them to do so. Confronted by these situations, we must develop a healthy attitude face to face with what media presents as values. This means that each individual must have the personal conviction that material things or accessories do not create the personality of individuals. These may add something to the personality but it does not say all about a person; thus, we should not judge a person by his or her external appearance. We should know when things are really important to us. We can actually live normally even without these things. We should be aware therefore that not all we see on commercials and advertisements are true. Even if media tells us that we need a certain product but if we know that we do not actually need it then nobody should be compelled or forced to acquire it. ®

The Media-Savvy Pope

As I was surfing the internet the other day, I came across an article posted by ABC News on its website in April 2, 2005, about the late John Paul II and the heading goes like this: “Pope used media to his advantage: Media-Savvy John Paul II Got His Message Out Via Media and Technology”.

Pope John Paul II became a truly global figure, in part, because he knew how best to use the media -- whether it was television, radio or the Internet. In Poland, Mexico or America, wherever Pope John Paul II went, it became a media event, with all the pomp and circumstance of a royal wedding, all the hype of a Super Bowl, all the uproar of a rock concert. The combination of theology and technology made him the most media-savvy pope in history. John Paul II used technology to get his message out. Rather than railing against the press, as many public figures do, the pope used the media to deliver his message. John Paul II became pope in 1978, the same year instant global television first became available. Other popes, of course, in the past have used different kinds of communications but John Paul II was the first who fully understood that the church has a great opportunity to reach the entire world by using the mass media.

An estimated 1 billion people watched John Paul in 1987 when 23 satellites linked him to 16 countries in what was called "A Prayer for World Peace." Later that year, he took center stage at a Hollywood theater, holding a conversation via satellite with thousands of young Catholics in four cities. This pope also came out with a music video, featuring him singing and reciting psalms and the Gospels. He also recorded the rosary. He published best-selling books, and during John Paul's papacy, the Vatican went online, getting its own Web address.

It was John Paul II who approved some very rare, candid photo ops -- the pope on holiday, skiing, even wearing sneakers. In the early years of his papacy, the media credited John Paul II with helping bring about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and broadcast his many messages condemning human rights abuses. Among his many accomplishments, Pope John Paul II will be remembered as a media-savvy pope who transformed the papacy and set the standard for his successor. ®

The Gaza Conflict

As of January 12, 2009, 898 Palestinians have been killed, 3,695 wounded since the Gaza war erupted last December 27, 2008. According to the media, almost half of those killed are women and children. On the side of Israel, 13 have died, 10 of them are soldiers. The war between Gaza and Israel is already on its 17th day and casualties on both sides continue to escalate. World leaders and even the UN had already intervened but to no avail. Missiles and rockets continue to be launched from both sides and Israeli ground troops are waging a fierce battle with Hamas militants in the city of Gaza.

Many are surprised and ask themselves why Israel went into war with Gaza. Israel has only one answer: to protect its people. Many did not agree with the move of Israel to invade Gaza because this would mean more civilians casualties caught in between the two warring nations but I think Israel has the reasons to do it. I am not against the Hamas militants who are branded as “terrorists” and I do not condone the death of civilians but I agree that Israel has to do something to protect its own people. I have been following up the news about the fighting in Gaza in these past days and I came to know that the decision of Israel to wage war with Hamas is triggered by the determination to put a stop to the horrible experiences of people in Southern Israel who are like living in ghost towns because they have been continuously taking cover in bomb shelters and bunkers to protect themselves from the missiles and rockets fired from Gaza.

I feel sorry about the civilians in Gaza, especially women and children, because they are used by Hamas as fronts to show to the media of Israel’s brutality. Of course, it is impossible not to have civilian casualties because Hamas militants live with these civilians, they store their weapons in ordinary houses and even use mosques as meeting areas and training ground of its army. In short, the civilians are somehow used as shields to protect themselves from being fired upon and to cover up their military operations. Who would not feel angry and disappointed with Israel if all what are seen on TV and newspapers are pictures of dead women and children? I am wondering why media only show to the people worldwide civilian casualties and not show even a single picture of Hamas casualty. There are speculations that Hamas are hiding their dead and injured comrades but I think this is just one way of media saying that: too much lives have been wasted, something has to be done! ®

Media Imperialism

Imperialism comes from the root word “emperor” which means a sovereign ruler of great power or rank, especially one who is ruling an empire. From such definition, “media imperialism” means that media is the sovereign ruler that has great power. This means that media has the absolute power, total control, dominion, etc.

Media has the control or power because the people behind the media and controlling it are actually powerful people. This is also the issue of media control and ownership. For example, in the Philippines, most of the TV networks and newspapers and even radio stations are owned by rich businessmen and they are actually the ones who have the power and control. Only a few are owned or run by the government or by the church. This is the reason why many programs aired or broadcasted by these privately owned broadcast and print media seldom if not never speak of the problems of the society like poverty, social justice, rights of workers, etc. Instead, they broadcast about luxury, the world of prestige, entertainment, etc. Poverty and its consequent problems are often ignored by the media, which is controlled by the rich and the elite. Thus, the media seems not to be bothered by these issues and problems.

I can say that there are two things that contribute to the power of media: rich people who are controlling and people who adhere to everything what media tells them because of colonial mentality. To confront these problems, I think that print and broadcast media owned or run by the government or the church should exert more effort to balance what is presented by the rich people and their powerful media. This means that they have to make more effort to make the people aware of the poverty, social injustices, rights of workers, etc.; they have to make effort to reach out to simple and ordinary people through the use of the media itself. And also, through the use of media, they have to promote patronizing our own and not just simply relying on others for everything. This is a challenge that can be done to confront colonial mentality that destroys the identity of a country or a culture. ®