Page 114 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

Articulating culture in the media age 103

This passage is important in relation to Glenn’s ideas about parenting and
is significant of what we might call his sense of “parental identity.”
Consistent with the findings in other studies of family media use, there is a
tendency for parents to want to describe themselves in this way. Rather
than specifically directing their children’s media diets, they would rather
think that their role is to equip their children with the skills and values
they need to make their own decisions. 36 Interestingly, this holds for
someone like Glenn, who we otherwise might have expected to be rather
rigid and judgmental in his attitudes about such things.
As for himself, Glenn initially seems reluctant to connect media with
anything positive. “What are there?” he asks,

a few books that are worth giving your kids to read? How many
Christian movies are out there? There aren’t any Christian
moviemakers that I know of. So, you have to take the secular and say,
“We sat down and watched a movie. What did you get out of that?”

When the Interviewer mentions the buzz that is beginning to build about
Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, Glenn – who has apparently not
heard about the film yet (this interview took place two months before the
film’s release) – assumes the worst about the film, and moves from that to
an argument about the role that the media play in perpetuating what he
sees as social dependency and a culture of victimization, issues he connects
directly with faith and spirituality.
Glenn: Oh, I’ll bet. Don’t get me started on that garbage. Give me a break.
No one is willing to assume responsibility for their lives today.
Everyone wants to blame everyone else for why their lives are messed
up. And I think that is so, so wrong. The media has done that! The
media says “Well, it’s okay, you poor black people. You were slaves.
We just did a terrible thing and we should probably pay you money
for what you lived through.” Baloney! I’m sorry but . . . that is just the
way life was and that is what happened. Get over it! So many people
are saying “Well, this happened to me. Poor me.” Look, I can say the
same thing. I was raised by alcoholics, by service people who moved
around constantly. . . . I can sit there and live in that or I can say
“Hey, I learned from all that how not to treat my kids or my wife.” So
we all have an opportunity to change. . . . So, I think what the media
says is “Oh, no, it’s okay. You were bruised, you were hurt. We will
make it better for you.”
. . . and the media takes ugly things that happen in life and points
fingers. Oh, the police messed up here on this investigation and on and
on. You know, they point fingers at everyone without getting to the crux
of the matter. . . . You can’t just say, at least in my eyes, that society is