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The Social Significance of Religious Television
Robert Wuthnow
 Review of Religious Research
, Vol. 29, No. 2, Analyses of Religious Television. (Dec., 1987), pp.125-134.
Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0034-673X%28198712%2929%3A2%3C125%3ATSSORT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8
 Review of Religious Research
is currently published by Religious Research Association, Inc..Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/rra.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community takeadvantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.http://www.jstor.orgThu Jul 5 00:00:22 2007
 
THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RELIGIOUS TELEVISION 
Robert Wuthnow
Princeton University
Review of Religious Research,
Vol.
29,
No.
2 (December, 1987)
Drawing primarily on the results of the Gallup survq which was conductedin
1984
as part of the Religion and Televisionproject, this article considers thequestion of whether or not religious television firthers the privatization that isallegedly characteristic of American religion. Finding only qualified supportfor this thesis, an alternative framework is proposed which emphasizes socialcleavages in American religion. Much of the data seems to indicate thatreligious television viewing falls along the lines of broader cleavages in Ameri-can religion and reinforces the strength of these divisions.
Other than the new religions and the political upsurge of the Religious Right, fewdevelopments in American religion illustrate so effectively the full impact of thestate, technology, and education on matters of faith as the rise of religious televi-sion. Bred of favorable changes in
F.C.C.
regulations, succored by the latestadvances in telecommunications technology. and deeply conditioned by the risinginfluence of higher education. religious television provides a vivid example of thesocial processes that have restructured American religion since World War
11.
To many, the advent and rapid growth of religious television exemplifies thecontinuing vitality of evangelical religion in American society. To suggest thatreligious television may instead be linked to some of the most thoroughly secular-ized forces currently operating, therefore, is likely to seem either far-fetched orhopelessly naive. Nevertheless, it is this relationship that deserves attention, not inorder to cast any doubt on the sincerity of the televangelists or their audiences, butas a means of illuminating the deep extent to which social conditions have influ-enced the character of American religion. Framed in perhaps a less provocativeway, the question at issue is not one of scrutinizing the message of the televisionpreachers for some hidden agenda-as many in the theological establishment havebeen prone to do-but of utilizing the development of religious television as a casestudy for testing some popular conceptions concerning the processes of seculariza-tion.
The Privatization of American Faith?
One of the most frequently advanced characterizations of American religion isthat it is becoming increasingly "privatized" (e.g. Luckmann,
1967).
That is, thepublic, corporate, communal quality of religion is said to be declining, leavingindividuals with their own highly subjective and idiosyncratic expressions of faith.The terms "private" or "privatized" actually carry several connotations in thiscontext. One suggests that the religion practiced by an increasing number ofAmericans may be entirely of their own manufacture-a kind of eclectic synthesisof Christianity, popular psychology. Readers Digest folklore, and personal super-
 
stitions, all wrapped up in the anecdotes of the individual's biography (Bellah, etal., 1985). A different connotation suggests that religious practices remain subjectto much more orthodox influences, namely the churches and synagogues; theymerely have no influence on public affairs in the world of business and politics.According to this conception, religion has withdrawn into the "private sphere" tofunction much in the same manner as leisure activities, voluntary gatherings, andfamily relations (Habermas, 1975). Still a different connotation focuses on thepossibility that even within the private sector religious expression may have becomeless public, less organized, less relational, leaving individuals radically alone intheir experience of the divine. All three of these connotations bear some resem-blance to popular images of American religion.The idea that religious expression is becoming increasingly the product of indi-vidual biographies is supported by the very fact of America's pluralistic religiousculture. With several hundred different denominations, sects, and cults to choosefrom, every individual can pretty much tailor his or her religious views to personaltaste. As individuals are increasingly exposed to the teachings of different faithsthrough books, television, travel, and geographic mobility, eclecticism becomesthe likely result. This tendency is also reinforced by the highly individualistic ethosin American culture which asserts the individual's freedom of conscience inmatters of religion. We believe that individuals should make up their own mindsabout what they believe, drawing on whatever sources of inspiration they may find.Thus, it is not uncommon to find public expressions-president Eisenhower'sfamous remark uttered in the1950s, for example-that faith is important, but we donot care what that faith is.The second meaning of privatization-that religion has no influence in the publicsphere-seems on the surface to be contradicted by the voracious appetite thatAmerican politics has shown for religious influences. From the civil rights move-ment to the anti-abortion campaign, examples of religion playing a direct role
in
public affairs are scarcely difficult to identity. Yet these examples fail to contradictthe deeper insights of this version of the privatization argument. The question is notso much whether clergy lead sit ins or Presidents draw support from religiousgroups, but whether any of these activities matter on as broad a scale as they oncedid. The argument of theorists who have advanced the idea of privatization is that agreater and greater share of the decisions affecting public life are made strictly ongrounds of economic profitability, technical feasibility, and political control. In-deed, even this formulation may be an understatement since it suggests greaterexercise of conscious decision-making capacities than may be the case, given thetremendous complexity of economic forces, bureaucracies, and vested intereststhat shape social life. For the individual the effect of these impersonal forces is seenincreasingly in a withdrawal from active participation in political life, other thanvoting, in evidence of psychological alienation from government and business, andin actual retreat into the private pleasures of consumerism, personal hobbies, andthe nuclear isolated family. Religion, it is claimed, has accommodated itself to thisbroader retreat from public life. Apart from obvious exceptions such as religiousorganizations against nuclear warfare or abortion, the evidence suggests thatchurches focus the bulk of their resources in areas dealing with personal spiritual-ity, moral behavior, child-rearing, marital relations, and emotional care, ratherthan delving into the implications of religious values for issues of communityplanning, capital investment, business conduct, social justice, or public policy (e g.
of 00

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