Televangelism: The Marketing of Popular Religion

Abstract

The electric church is composed of independent, entrepreneurial, evangelical ministers working to save souls. There is, however, another side to its work, namely the creation of many large, complex organizations adept at using modern mass technology and market-oriented techniques to stir religious enthusiasms and sell a political ideology. Razelle FranklWhen the Reverend Jerry Falwell makes foreign policy statements and the Reverend M. G. Pat Robertson can consider running for the presidency, it is evident that the leaders of the electric church have mastered a powerful medium from which to sell their new term of fundamentalism television. Their programming is slickly produced, smoothly packaged, commercially successful, and ranges from talk-show formats to the more traditional gospel broadcasts. Estimates of the audience for this programming have soared in the past ten years, and as a result more religious programs are being produced than ever before in the history of electronic media.Frankl traces the history of this new form of evangelism from its roots in urban revivalism. She finds that The revivalist s role was more akin to that of an entrepreneur than to that of a minister or churchman. Beginning with urban revivalists such as Billy Sunday and Dwight Moody, Frankl discusses the development of urban revivalism into the electric church, which she describes as a new social institution.In her description of this process of institution building, Frankl highlights the possible political mobilization of the televangelists as well as the growing commercial investment involved in the programming of the electric church. Analyzing forty-eight programs of the most prominent members of the electric church, Frankl shows the change this new social institution has undergone from its beginnings in urban revivalism to its present incarnation, especially in the nature of the traditional ritual of fundraising.The commercial and political implications of the electric church are important issues in which Razelle Frankl has initiated formal study in this timely book. She has laid the foundation for much additional work in communication, religion, and sociology.

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