Page 315 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

304 Notes

emergence of a successful new commercial educational and encounter move-
ment, called “Spiritual Cinema Circles,” devoted to supporting, viewing, and
discussing spiritually significant films.
22 Similar trends were underway, over the same period, in the UK and in Europe
in general. In the case of the UK, see, in particular, Tracey (1998).
23 This debate flares from time to time. In the winter of 2004, it arose over an
incident involving the singer Janet Jackson during the Super Bowl halftime
show. She exposed too much skin for traditional tastes, and a series of investi-
gations, hearings, and threats by the FCC ensued. In the same time period, the
Commission also cracked down on popular radio “shock jock” Howard Stern
and levied fines for what they saw as on-air indecency and profanity.
24 Lattin (2003).
25 Poovakkattu (2003). In some ways, though, American religious evolution
differs significantly from that on the other side of the Atlantic. For example, a
2001 survey published in the Scotsman reported that while nearly 37 percent of
Scots have had a supernatural experience, 55 percent never attend religious
services, and only 28 percent believe clergy contribute to society (Kerevan
2001). The New York Times reported in 2003 on the situation of a priest in the
Danish Lutheran Church who was suspended from his parish for saying he did
not believe in God. Members of his parish and his local community rallied to
his defense (Alvarez 2003).
26 Evans (1999).
27 The most influential work related to religious restructuring was Wuthnow
(1990). In the area of religious practice, Roof (1992) was particularly influen-
tial, as has been his more recent Spiritual Marketplace (1999), which we will
discuss in more detail presently.
28 Giddens (1991), pp. 179–80.
29 This is, of course, a contradiction to traditional social theory, which would
hold that the decline of religious differentiation would lead to a decline in
interest in religion. As religion scholars such as Roof and Warner (who we will
discuss presently) point out, this idea of secularization relied on the assumption
that religion was a property of religious institutions and structures. This new,
more individualized religion is instead thought by its adherents to be something
for which they are responsible instead.
30 Hammond (1992).
31 Roof (1992).
32 Roof (1992), p. 195.
33 Roof (1992), p. 256.
34 Wuthnow (1998).
35 Roof (1999), p. 9.
36 Roof (1992), p. 247.
37 Roof (1999), pp. 67–8.
38 Giddens (1991), pp. 32–4.
39 Roof (1999), p. 41.
40 For complete discussions, see Silk (1995) and Hoover (1998).
41 Detailed examples of media decision-makers’ impressions of religion can be
found in Silk (1995) and Hoover (1998), as well as in John Dart and Jimmy
Allen, Bridging the Gap, Nashville: The Freedom Forum First Amendment
Center, 1993.
42 Silk and Hoover both detail James Gordon Bennett’s early introduction of reli-
gion coverage into the pages of the New York Times as a competitive strategy.
The Times continued to cover the sermons of prominent New York City pulpits
well into the 1960s. Time Magazine was distinctive for its attention to religion