Page 70 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

Media and religion in transition 59

On the “left,” American religion (and Western religion more generally)
saw the emergence of new religious constructs and movements more
typical of the kind of personal and autonomous sensibilities introduced
earlier in our discussion of Roof and Wuthnow. A virtual explosion of
interest in things religious and spiritual was demonstrated in such things as
the trends in entertainment television we’ve already discussed.
Additionally, a range of controversies began to roil the religious establish-
ment from the left. Women became more active in seeking roles for
themselves in the institutions of Catholicism and Protestantism. Ethnic-
based ferment became prominent as well. And, the century ended with a
growing controversy over the role of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgen-
dered people in relation to membership and leadership positions in
religion, and over the issue of “gay marriage,” something that divided
major Protestant bodies, and became an important political issue. This was
brought to public attention in the autumn of 2004 when the liberal US
Protestant denomination the United Church of Christ premièred a televi-
sion advertisement stressing its openness and inclusion of sexual minorities
and people of color. Deemed “too controversial,” the ads were refused by
two major US networks. The resulting furor brought questions of religious
openness to the center of debates about American religion. 47
These things became news, and the fact that popular culture also
began picking up on increasing levels of religious and spiritual interest
meant that the news media began increasingly to notice religion. 48 The
range of ways religion appears in the news runs a wide spectrum. US
general elections generally bring out a spate of stories on religion and
politics. Both the 2000 and 2004 presidential races featured a great deal
of coverage of the religious leanings of the candidates. In 2004, in partic-
ular, questions of religiosity and its relationship to politics came to the
fore, with much commentary on the so-called “religion gap,” wherein
the more religious sectors of the electorate were thought to dispropor-
tionately favor conservative candidates, an issue we return to in Chapter
9. Since the September 11 attacks, international news in the US and
Britain has focused more and more on trends and developments in what
we used to quaintly think of as “world religions,” particularly Islam, and
on what has come to be called “ethno-religious conflict.” Domestically,
there are more and more stories relating to the increasing religious diver-
sity resulting from immigration. Also at home, intra-religious battles
continue to rage over social values and other “culture wars” issues. The
ferment on “the left” also results in coverage, looking at new religious
movements, so-called “New Age” practices, “cults,” and of course reli-
gion and spirituality in popular culture. 49
Beyond the formal news outlets, there are of course a wide range of
sources of information and “news” of religion, particularly through the
Internet and on the World Wide Web. Many of these sources are dedicated