Page 115 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

104 Articulating culture in the media age

messed up because society hasn’t done anything for its people. It’s just
the opposite. The people haven’t done anything for themselves. They
have chosen to stay where they are instead of saying “I’m going to break
free and I’m going to break the pattern.” . . . Priests were molesting kids.
If I was molested I would turn around and say yeah it was ugly. . . . Yeah
it was miserable but God has another plan for me. He wants me to take
that message. . . . I want to take the message of what happened in my life
and show other people that my family is absolutely wonderful now
because of Jesus Christ and He turned my life around and I’m not the
way I was. In January, I’m 20 years clean and sober.

In a sense, Glenn seems to be saying that his critique of this kind of media
is based on his judgment that the media have perpetuated trends in the
culture that he disapproves of. These passages tell us more about Glenn
and his ideas than they do about the media or about his use of the media,
however. In spite of his feelings about the media, though, he is aware of
trends in the media, attributing to reality shows, for example, some of the
worst motives and effects growing out of the media sphere. “You could
put a pulse on society by what the media is showing and promoting,” he
says. “Listen to the news. How much of the news is garbage and how
much is positive?” There is clearly a disconnect between the media and the
real, authentic values he sees as missing from contemporary life. He comes
back again to his theme that the media are somehow involved in perpetu-
ating values of cultural “victimhood.”
I think that is where society has a responsibility to teach our kids these
things through the media. I think the media can be a wonderful tool
but we are not using it. Look at school. Look at what is happening at
school. Books. Are we giving them the right information? People are
in there trying to change. . . . “George Washington was not a... he
had infidelity in his life” or whatever. We got to get George
Washington Carver in the books because he was black and we gotta
get this, this, and this in the book and before you know it, it gets so
muddled up that they are missing the message of what the entire
United States was founded on. The United States was founded on
Christian beliefs. That is the freedom to worship God. My problem is
that we have too many people imposing their views on what we
should be and should not be. Using the media. Johnny Cochran, the
anti-defamation League, you know, all these people come in there and
say you can’t do, shouldn’t be doing this or this.

Glenn’s political philosophy is obviously coming through in these passages.
He connects the Christian foundation of the nation with certain ideas
about race and culture. Interestingly, he seems to assume that there is a