Читать книгу Field Guide to the Wild World of Religion: 2011 Edition - Pamela J.D. Dewey - Страница 6

How does the picture of the simplicity of choices in the 1950s line up with the reality of the 21^st century? The adventurous grandson of that young man with the Elvis haircut of the Fifties has a lot more possibilities with which to startle his parents. Even if you live in a small rural town, chances are these days that you’ll barely blink an eye at the outlandish hairstyle of the bag-boy at the local Wal-Mart—whether it is a purple Mohawk, a pony-tail down to his waist, a spiky neon orange mop that looks like he just got out of bed and didn’t comb his hair, or perhaps even a totally bald skin-head look.

The average American turns the TV on these days and chooses not from three options, but 53 or 103 or more. Cable and satellite TV now make those paltry choices of the 1950s seem pathetic. The sci-fi fan can find a channel that will feed his obsession 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The news hound can likewise feed his addiction around the clock, either with continuous hourly updates of the latest news, or continuous commentary on current events by professional pundits. Whether you want sitcoms, nature shows, sports, comedy, or the latest adventures of Sponge Bob Square Pants, the sky is the limit.

And this also applies to the world of TV religion. In 2000 AD, you could still choose a Roman Catholic evangelist—but now he … was a she. Mother Angelica, a roly-poly, unendingly cheerful little nun created her own 24-hour-a-day cable network in 1984 that featured teaching, preaching, worship, and entertainment with a Roman Catholic twist. Although (as of 201) she has been retired as a result of a series of strokes in 2001, you can still see re-runs of her Mother Angelica Live talk show on her EWTN (Eternal World Television Network.)

The mainline Protestants still have a presence, represented by Baptist Charles Stanley, Presbyterian D. James Kennedy, and, until the past few years, even an aging Billy Graham. Oral Roberts was still doing a little preaching on occasion up until a short time before his death in 2009, although his son Richard had been the primary voice for the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association for quite some time.

But, just as with the exploding presence of specialized networks and their almost unlimited programming choices, the world of televangelism has exploded since the advent of cable and satellite programming. And most of the explosion has not included that Old-Time Mainline Religion of the 1950s.