Page 175 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

164 Born-agains and mainstream believers

more as a teachable tool. And plus helping them learn what life is
about. ’Cause they’re gonna make mistakes. My daughters all could
go out and get pregnant out of wedlock, and I’m not gonna throw ’em
out of the house or anything like that.

It is important to Terry and Rachel that they not then appear to be moral-
istic and prohibitive in their attitudes toward media. They would expect
such an approach to be typical of the “religion” that they see themselves
transcending. Religions are “moralistic” and the Alberts are finding the
prohibitions of traditional religion less and less valid. They want to control
their children’s access to certain things, but at the same time do not see
themselves as determining their children’s attitudes for them. Terry is
particularly concerned that such an approach could appear – or be –
“hypocritical.” Interestingly, one of the programs they watch together as a
family actually describes for them the struggles they feel between tradi-
tional religiosity and what they see to be their authentic faith. On a
fundamental level, Seventh Heaven is too preachy and judgmental for
Rachel.

Yeah, they portray basically the traditional pastor, his wife, and their
kids and the way they’re supposed to live their lives. It’s just kind of
the judgmentalness of it all. I don’t like that aspect as a label of
Christianity. This goes back to my strong feelings against what I call
“Churchianity.”
When the conversation gets around to the kinds of media Terry and
Rachel Albert find spiritually and morally meaningful, it is not “Christian”
or “religious” media they refer to, but “secular.” In Terry’s case, he found
Braveheart to be a fully acceptable film for even his 8-year-old to watch –
because “it really happened” – in spite of its violence and his and Rachel’s
criticism of overly violent entertainment. What Rachel and Terry choose to
watch together is also interesting and significant. Rachel finds science
fiction media to be particularly compelling, even in spiritual terms. They
watched the X-Files regularly.

Rachel: Well, we actually watch TV . . . Terry and I watch the X-Files on
Sunday nights, so we pretty much plan, everybody knows they’re
supposed to be in their beds looking at books while we watch TV.
(laughs) And that’s a new thing. And we used to watch Star Trek after
the kids went to bed, but we’re kind of not into that right now.

Star Trek had been a particularly meaningful show for Rachel, even
though she clearly identified within it values that “the religious right,
whoever they are” would label “liberal.” At the same time, though, the