Page 309 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere
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                Fig. 14.3. Advert of Royal House Chapel. Photograph by Birgit Meyer.





                the Royal House Chapel, even advertise themselves on large posters (depicting,
                among other things, Jesus peering up into the sky) put up at bus stops, thereby
                drawing an analogy between Coca-Cola, one of the major advertisements at
                bus stops, and Christianity.
                  Pentecostal-Charismatic churches owe much of their appeal to the fact that
                they easily, and seemingly effortlessly, tie into popular understandings and, in
                particular, take seriously anxieties about the evil machinations of demons and
                witches, whom they represent as vassals of Satan. These churches all share a pro-
                jected notion of Christian modernity, which acknowledges the reality of all
                those evildoings, especially demons and other so-called superstitions, which a
                good Christian is supposed to “leave behind.” In this way they mediate between
                frustrations and anxieties, and the wish for a better, more prosperous life. With
                God, it is said, all things are possible, and this cry underpins the claim of Pen-
                tecostalism to offer access to Christian modernity (Meyer 1999a, 141ff.; 2002).
                  The diffusion of Pentecostal views into public space also affects the realm of
                popular culture. Not only does Pentecostalism tie into, af¤rm, and recast popu-
                lar notions, even formally independent media practitioners—from journalists
                to video ¤lmmakers, from painters to musicians—have adopted Pentecostal rep-
                resentative forms. Recently, for example, the famous Ghanaian Highlife singer
                Kodjo Antwi publicly announced that he has been Born Again and feels at-
                tracted to the church of Mensah Otabil, and, in his new album, has included a
                number of Gospel songs. Similar public conversions occur regularly, often after
                an artist’s reputation has been damaged by some scandal. While such a shift
                does not necessarily entail that artists truly perceive themselves as Born Again

                      298 Birgit Meyer
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