Page 206 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

Believers, dogmatists, and secularists 195

the assumption that most media, most of the time, are involved in
supporting ideas and values that he disapproves of. While he believes with
most others that it is the role of parenthood to equip children more than it
is to protect them from negative media, Glenn has some pretty extensive
critiques of media content. Unlike others, then, it is content more than
time that concerns him.
Glenn and Liz Donegal limit their television viewing to inoffensive
“clean” programming. When asked what they specifically avoid watching,
Liz stresses sex more than violence.
Liz: MTV. We have that blocked. Anything that is kind of, you know,
extreme sexual content, or . . .
Glenn: Not even extreme.
Liz: Yeah, well, I just read a thing today that on prime-time TV they are
going to start showing more and more sexual content. We just try to
remind the kids to discern. We can’t get away from all of it, that is for
sure. And it depends on the level of violence. I mean there are movies
that we do like that have violence in them, Braveheart. The Green
Mile.
Glenn: There are some movies like Shawshank Redemption . . . there is a
lot of profanity but it was a very poignant movie so those are things
we will allow the kids to watch with us if we preview them primarily.
But I think it is important that there is a strong message sent in those
movies. And if you can kind of filter out the not so good ones, which
is hard. There is an intense level of discernment that needs to go on.

While Liz and Glenn express some pretty clear ideas about what is and is
not appropriate in television, particularly with reference to their chil-
dren, they do watch regularly themselves. They are fans of a situation
comedy that they watch regularly, and say that it is their practice to
watch television (usually the late-night comedy-talk shows) in bed for an
hour each night. For them like others, media seem to be more or less
inevitable.

Secularists

I suggested in Chapter 3 that “secularists” according to Roof’s classifica-
tion would be typified by two characteristics. First, because of their
tendency to be over-represented in the upper-income and educational
strata, they’d be likely to be infrequent consumers of popular media. They
also might be more selective and targeted in their media diets, preferring
things like public broadcasting over commercial broadcasting. Because of
their relative uninterest in religion, they’d also be unlikely to be attracted
to religious or spiritual content in media.