Page 196 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

Believers, dogmatists, and secularists 185

games – as a potential distraction from education, enlightenment, and
creativity. While they do not make a great matter of it, there is also a sense
that these “screen” media are somehow less valuable and more distracting
than other media, specifically books, would be. Both parents speak
approvingly of books and reading, and reflect on books as more spiritually
significant in their own lives than either films or television. In this way,
they are more like others among their social and educational class, where
it has always been more common to accept such culturally hierarchical
attitudes about media.

The Tabor-Collins family

Sarah Tabor, age 41, lives in a medium-sized city in the western US with
her three daughters, Samantha Collins, 17, Christine Collins, 14, and
3
Chloe Collins, 13. Their annual income is less than $25,000, but they live
comfortably in a split-level home. They are Buddhist, and their home
includes a shrine and other symbols of their faith. When asked if she
would describe herself as a convert to Buddhism from another religion,
Sarah responds that she was raised in a household that had very little, if
any, religiosity. “I was pretty much raised as an atheist,” she says. “My
father was an atheist so I was pretty much agnostic.” She offers that, for
her, Buddhism is not really a “religion,”

Sarah: I mean I see it more of a daily practice than I do as a religion. I
guess it is a religion, is an organization but . . . it’s you know, the orga-
nization is very quite spread all over the world and it’s a very strong
peace organization . . . critical of violence, you know really supportive
people, and just what it takes to be a human being.
Interviewer: But if somebody would ask you. . . .
Sarah: If I was very religious?
Interviewer: What kind of religion would you say. . . .
Sarah: Then I would probably say Buddhism.

The girls, by contrast, “go back and forth,” Sarah says. Their paternal
grandmother is a “strong Christian woman” so they are coming under
Christian influence, too. The family, however, goes to a local Buddhist
center weekly for meditation, so that is their most regular religious or spir-
itual involvement. While they are in a way conventional in their practices
as American Buddhists, they nonetheless fit most appropriately in the
“metaphysical believer and seeker” category. 4
Based on our reading of Roof, we expect families in this category to be
somewhat unconventional in their media tastes and behaviors. If the media
sphere does provide commodified resources to seeking, as it seems to, these
families should be the ones that express that through the way they interact