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110 Articulating culture in the media age

ideas, his narrative reveals a range of elements, some synthetic, some
contradictory, that he weaves together into a coherent stream. It is a narra-
tive that is dense with normative ideas and aspirations. Further, it reveals
much about the relative presence of media and religion in Glenn’s social
experience and daily life. There is a level on which the media are assumed
and religious institutions are not. Certain media, particularly Evangelical
media, are an important, even critical element in Glenn’s social-spiritual
philosophy. Institutional and clerical claims are less important. Consistent
with Roof’s ideas about “Baby Boom” religion, Glenn demonstrates a deep
desire to be “fluid, yet grounded,” but to see that as his own quest. He
thinks of himself as autonomously responsible for his own faith and his
own salvation, and has – in his mind – ample evidence, through his
recovery, of the success of this approach.
In a way, Glenn sees the world as a conflict between his normative
social and spiritual ideals, ideas that are supported and perfected through
his experience with certain media artifacts, and a cultural sphere, also
defined by its media, that is in conflict with those ideals. There is a “bright
line,” for him, but rather than a line between a sacred world defined by a
contrast between religious doctrines and a secular media sphere, the
boundary is situated elsewhere. Glenn lives in the culture defined by the
media. He sees and understands much about the media sphere and is
familiar with its outlines. The conflict for him is between his ideal, norma-
tive world of spiritually supported self-reliance and an alternative world
that preaches victimhood and spiritual anomie. There are media on both
sides of this gulf. The distinction between them seems to be drawn in two
ways. First, there are media that are by definition “good,” those media
produced by or consonant with the values and symbols he identifies with –
the Christian books and other publications he and Liz read and the
Christian music he encourages his son to listen to, for example. Second,
there are media that are more “secular” in origin, but that are either inof-
fensive enough (along traditionally understood dimensions) to be
acceptable (Griffith again), or that contain “nuggets of truth.” The politics
of this latter world, though, are such that Glenn does not entirely trust the
motives of those who would produce and present such “nuggets.” His
sense of the cultural politics of the times leads him to suspect that the
approach that the media take to social and moral philosophy is the result
of a worldview that intends to affect the society and culture in certain
ways. Thus, there is a cultural struggle afoot, and Glenn is pretty clear on
which side of it he stands.
Glenn’s is obviously not the simplest case to use in an investigation of
religious symbolism in the mass media. As we will see in later chapters,
there are more explicit narratives. In a way, Glenn is a type that we would
expect to be relatively less interested in or involved in secular media,
anyway. In Roof’s taxonomy, discussed in the last chapter, he would reside