Page 78 - Key Words in Religion Media and Culture

Community 61

minded Christians are renowned for their innovative uses of the media
motivated by the belief that technologies remain gifts of God for Christian
mission. For example, non-Western Pentecostal-charismatic religious
communities emerged as a direct result of contacts with North American
televangelism. The powerful theology of “sowing and reaping” and the
“health and wealth” gospels in these contexts are traceable directly to people
like Oral Roberts and the Copelands. The availability of religious television
has not only engendered a sense of belonging to international organizations,
but the distribution of audio and video tape recordings of the international
ministries synchronized messages and led to the development of important
networks.
The new religious communities that have emerged in the non-Western
world as a direct result of religious media are by no means restricted to
Christianity. New religious communities of Hindu, Buddhist, and syncretistic
persuasions have formed in these contexts too. They include Eckankar, a
middle-class neo-Hindu movement with a North American guru or “living
master” called Harold Klemp, the Nichiren Shoshu Soka Gakkai of Buddhist
lineage, and the Hindu movement, International Society for Krishna
Consciousness. These are movements with roots in Asian traditions, but most
of them have come to the Third World through American devotees. New
religious communities in non-Western contexts thus very often owe their
origins to the influence of the Western media. In many cases, a “seeker” after
alternative ways of being religious has listened to a tape, seen a documentary,
read a book or magazine written by a North American devotee, and has
proceeded to request more material. These media-instigated contacts have
eventually culminated in the establishment of branches of such movements
in Third World contexts.

New media and community

Because the element of “communing” is implied in communication, the goal
of communication is partly a call to community (Lehikoinen 2003: 254).
In an article on Living Word hosted by Pastor Mensa Otabil of Ghana’s
International Central Gospel Church, Marleen de Witte enables readers
to see how new kinds of media theology from the stables of Pentecostal-
charismatic religions allow virtual communities to participate in religious
discourses and practices (De Witte 2003). In instances known to me, healings
and breakthroughs have occurred through prayers offered on television and
radio programs. The new media available include posters, overhead street
banners, and car bumper stickers that not only advertise the programs of
churches but, most important for our purposes, tell the world about the
benefits of joining a particular church community (Asamoah-Gyadu 2005a).