Page 139 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

128 Reception of religion and media

Interviewer: Is that what an angel does?
Judy: Yeah. They’re just regular people that um. . . . I don’t know if some-
body talks to them . . . and they right away jumped to... something
going on and they go and they interact without thinking they might be
in danger.
Interviewer: I’m thinking on Touched by an Angel the two main charac-
ters, and maybe there is a third, are they people on earth or are they
brought from somewhere else?
Judy: They are brought from somewhere else, but that’s fantasy.
Interviewer: But in the miracle show, they talk about angels on earth,
actual people who do good things?
Judy: Actual people, yeah. There’s a difference there, yeah.
Interviewer: Is there a difference for you?
Judy: Well, let’s see. As far as... the fantasy and the reality, yes. But as
far as actually doing the purpose, it’s about the same.
Interviewer: Do you wish more people watched them?
Judy: Yeah, then they would see more or less what’s going on. Kind of like
not being so greedy and materialistic. Just more or less an eye-opener,
yeah.

Judy thus sees both piety and ethics in these programs. Her sense of the
value of the shows connects her piety with what she sees to be their
concrete reality. At the same time, they are object lessons for others, effec-
tive ways of communicating positive, even Christian, values of justice and
other-worldliness. There is a difference, though, in that one of these
programs (Touched) is “fantasy,” while Miracle is “reality” in relation to
the nature of angels. Both programs are “real” to Judy in that they connect
with people’s real experiences, and either divine or divinely inspired inter-
vention in them.
We learn more about Judy’s religious and spiritual proclivities in a
discussion about her use of computers. The family has a computer, but it is
an older, slower model, and they have normally gone to the library when
David wants to play video games or search the Internet. Judy describes
herself as not using computers “right now.” “I’m not done with them. I
just put them to the side for now,” she says. The Interviewer asks if there
are things on the Internet that interest Judy. She replies, “Stuff like I want
to get back into, maybe stuff on healing. I’m more into the healers and
the . . . let’s say the astrology and the stars and stuff.”
Like many other informants, Judy makes a clear distinction between the
kinds of media – on television or the Internet – that she is interested in and
“religious” programming, which she does not get much out of. It is inter-
esting that she interprets the Interviewer’s question about seeking
inspiration through media to mean this latter kind of programming, which
she equates with televangelism.