Page 178 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

Born-agains and mainstream believers 167

toward “high culture” than to “popular culture,” and more suspicious than
born-again believers of mass culture more generally. As the mainstream or
establishment churches have been less involved than Evangelical groups in
producing their own media, we might expect this group not to identify
readily with self-consciously “religious media,” and to even be suspicious of
such media. Whereas we might have expected a kind of moralistic cultural
critique of media content from the born-again Christians, mainstream
believers might be expected to be less involved in such critiques. Because of
their identification as “mainstream,” I also suggested that they might well
identify with aspects of media culture that could be typified as themselves
“mainstream,” commonplace, or “consensual.”

The Boswell family
Dan and Laura Boswell, both in their mid-forties, live in the suburbs of a
major western city with their three children, Catherine, 15, Emily, 13, and
Ryan, 8. Laura was raised Roman Catholic, and the family continues to
regularly attend, and identify with, a local Catholic church. Dan was
raised in a Congregational church, but has since converted to Catholicism.
The Boswells lack the kind of focused story of personal salvation typical of
the born-again believer. To them, religion is something they expect to
participate in, and something that is authentically experienced through the
institution of the church. Weekly attendance is important, though Laura
reports that the children typically resist this practice. 13
Our conversation with the Boswells about the connection between their
faith and their media focused on three media in particular: magazines, the
library of videotapes they maintain, and their online and Internet activities.
They are less explicit about any regular viewing of broadcast television.
Consistent with many of our other interviews, questions of the children,
child-rearing, and media values dominated these discussions. Values are
clearly on Laura’s and Dan’s minds when they think about media and their
children. A discussion of the values of YM magazine was typical:

Emily: It’s just kind of like a teen magazine, but sometimes they have bad
stuff in it. We don’t read the bad stuff. We just read the fashion
columns.
Interviewer: What do you mean by “bad stuff”?
Emily: Well....
Laura: It talks about how to kiss your boyfriend when you’re 14, you
know . . . how to start relationships, and it just seems like it’s a little
more than early teenagers need to know. I mean, I think even for
Catherine it’s just kind of . . . (something)... where probably
Seventeen or something like that would have been a better choice. I
think even they get into some of that, but not quite so graphically. [to