Page 127 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

116 Reception of religion and media

Wyonna Fallon, 39, and her two daughters, Jill, 14, and Uta, 12, live in
a medium-sized city in a western state. Wyonna works at two jobs while
she is finishing an undergraduate degree in social work. The family
belongs to the conservative Church of Christ denomination and the girls
attend private Christian schools. Their formal involvement in this religion,
though, is relatively recent, having evolved after they moved to their
current city about four years ago. They are somewhat unusual in that they
do not own a conventional television set, only a small combination
TV/VCR unit, on which they watch videos regularly. Wyonna attributes
her preference for videocassettes to the autonomy it allows. The
Interviewer is naturally curious as to whether their video-viewing habits
might be related to their relatively conservative religious attitudes (Roof
would probably classify this household as “born-again Christian”). 6
Wyonna: I guess I can see a big discrepancy between TV and video. I guess
videos, you watch what you want to. TV is just crap.
Interviewer: When you’re renting videos – or any of the videos that you
own – do they relate to spirituality or religion?
Jill: We had one.
Uta: The (Island?) thing.
Interviewer: The what?
Uta: The Ireland thing.
Jill: There was one. . . .
Wyonna: Oh, The Secret of Irish Rum [The Secret of Roan Inish].
Jill: Yeah. That wasn’t a good one.
Wyonna: It’s kind of a folk tale.

The Interviewer notices a more specifically religious videotape sitting on a
nearby shelf and asks about it.

Interviewer: What about Jesus Christ Superstar?
[Everyone responds at once; general shouting, discussion, laughter.]
Wyonna: Before we started going to church. That [Jesus Christ Superstar]
was our religious thing. At Easter we’d watch that.
Uta: That’s another movie we memorized. We also made up songs.
Wyonna: We started watching that in Florida.
Jill: Plus we tape movies. Like Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
Wyonna: I’d say that’s their all-time favorite.
Uta: [Making funny noises in background; I think in an attempt to imitate
parts of The Holy Grail.]
Interviewer: That’s the family’s all-time favorite – The Holy Grail?
Wyonna: Yeah. I like it. But those two love it. We taped it off the TV.
There’s one section of The Holy Grail that’s a little – it’s not bad –