The mass media and religious groups in America regularly argue about news bias, sex and violence on television, movie censorship, advertiser boycotts, broadcast and film content rating systems, government regulation of the media, the role of mass evangelism in a democracy, and many other issues. In the United States the major disputes between religion and the media usually have involved Christian churches or parachurch ministries, on the one hand, and the so-called secular media, on the other. Often the Christian Right locks horns with supposedly liberal Eastern media elite and Hollywood entertainment companies. When a major Protestant denomination calls for an economic boycott of Disney, the resulting news reports suggest business as usual in the tensions between faith groups and media empires.     Schultze demonstrates how religion and the media in America have borrowed each other’s rhetoric. In the process, they have also helped to keep each other honest, pointing out respective foibles and pretensions. Christian media have offered the public as well as religious tribes some of the best media criticism— better than most of the media criticism produced by mainstream media themselves. Meanwhile, mainstream media have rightly taken particular churches to task for misdeeds as well as offered some surprisingly good depictions of religious life.      The tension between Christian groups and the media in America ultimately is a good thing that can serve the interest of democratic life. As Alexis de Tocqueville discovered in the 1830s, American Christianity can foster the “habits of the heart” that ward off the antisocial acids of radical individualism. And, as John Dewey argued a century later, the media offer some of our best hopes for maintaining a public life in the face of the religious tribalism that can erode democracy from within. Mainstream media and Christianity will always be at odds in a democracy. That is exactly the way it should be for the good of each one.   Quentin J. Schultze is Professor of Communication Arts and Sciencs at Calvin College. He has published a number of books about media and Christianity, including Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Age of Information. Christianity and the Mass Media in America Toward a Democratic Accommodation By Quentin J. Schultze Michigan State University Press Copyright © 2003 Quentin J. Schultze All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-87013-696-2 Contents Introduction.................................................................................................1Chapter 1: Conversing about Faith and Media in America......................................................7The Rhetoric of ConversionThe Rhetoric of DiscernmentThe Rhetoric of CommunionThe Rhetoric of ExileThe Rhetoric of PraiseChapter 2: Praising Technology: Evangelical Populism Embraces American Futurism.............................45Christian Optimism and TechnologyEvangelical Theology and Mass CommunicationThe Mythos of the Electronic ChurchProphetic Mythos As Science FictionChapter 3: Leading the Tribes Out of Exile: The Religious Press Discerns Broadcasting.......................89Pressing for Tribal Loyalties in a Strange LandCommonweal: The Primacy of CommunityAmerica: Freedom of the AirwaysChristian Century: The Ecumenical SpiritChristianity Today: Marketing the GospelCatholic World: An Apostolic ToolChapter 4: Converting to Consumerism: Evangelical Radio Embraces the Market.................................139The Rise of Religious RadioThe "Bazaar" Rhetoric of Public InterestMarketing Religion on the RadioThe Struggle over Network BroadcastingMarketing Religious ConsumerismChapter 5: Searching for Communion: The Christian Metanarrative Meets Popular Mythology.....................175Religious Uses of Narrative CommunicationThe Liturgical Character of Mass-Mediated NarrativesMedia Criticism As Tribal Exegesis and Prophetic ImaginationFour Examples of Tribal CriticismChapter 6: Communing with Civil Sin: Mainstream Media Purge Evil............................................221From Sin to EvilCivil SinCivil Sinners As Victims of Immanent CausalityPurging Civil Sinners from the Media WorldChapter 7: Discerning Professional Journalism: Reporters Adopt Fundamentalist Discourse.....................263News As the "Good News"Mainstream Journalism as Informational FundamentalismThe Power of News As Unimaginative Social LiturgyChristian News in the Public SquareChapter 8: Praising Democracy: Embracing Religion in a Mass-Mediated Society................................309Balancing Culture in Time and SpaceBalancing Tribal and Public InterestsBalancing Religious and Secular CultureBalancing Technology and CultureNotes........................................................................................................353Index........................................................................................................423 Chapter One Conversing