Page 183 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

172 Born-agains and mainstream believers

Melissa: Like Lucy, she tries to figure out everything to get something
back or do something back that somebody did to her so she like thinks
of an idea and she says, I got an idea and then she goes into the house
and then she hears somebody coming and she hides somewhere.

Compared to other families, the Allens seem to have few explicit standards
for appropriate media content. When asked about this, Jill’s ideas seem
less focused and more general than is often the case, and few specific
programs are mentioned.
Interviewer: Are there any TV shows or video games that aren’t allowed?
Laura: [nods no].
Interviewer: You could buy any video game you wanted and you wouldn’t
have a problem with it?
Jill: Unless it’s . . . no sexual. That’s all. But they both know.
Interviewer: For the TV also . . . ?
Jill: Right.
Interviewer: But are there things that you don’t let them watch?
Jill: No, I just say we can’t watch that and we watch something else.
Interviewer: And what would that be? What are some examples of things
that aren’t allowed?
Jill: Like a violent movie or something like that. And she knows pretty
good and I just don’t want her to see that most of the time, so young.
Interviewer: So violence and sex?
[Melissa puts her hands over her eyes]
Interviewer: Is that what you do, cover your eyes?
Melissa: Yeah.
Interviewer: How do you know when to cover your eyes?
Melissa: My mom tells me.

For Jill, it seems that the fact that she typically watches with them is a
check on her daughters’ viewing. But, beyond that, there is a sense that
television is a tacit and normal aspect of the family’s daily life. Thus, for
Jill, the threshold of concern or suspicion about it is rarely reached, except
for vague concerns about sex and violence. These seem rather empty and
meaningless, though, when the majority of viewing they do is of inoffen-
sive family sitcoms and dramas anyway. Beyond the re-runs of classic
programs such as I Love Lucy, their television diet includes more contem-
porary programs such as Seventh Heaven and Home Improvement.
Seventh Heaven, as we have seen, is a program that can be read for its reli-
gious content (the lead character is a clergyman, but the program’s plots
tend to focus on family issues rather than his career). The Allens, though,
identify a bit more with the program’s religious content than others we’ve
spoken with. Laura notes that, while the father is a “preacher,” the