Electronic Technology & American Religion

Although composed of numerous religious affiliations, the primary constituency of the Christian Right is the white evangelical community. This community is Protestant and largely fundamentalist. The following four fundamentalist beliefs bond evangelical Christians: the divinity of Christ, acceptance of Christ as necessary for salvation, the infallibility of biblical scripture, and the recognition of a mandate to spread the Gospel (Wilcox, 1992, p. 43). Hadden and Shupe (1988) add to this list a creationist worldview. Bendroth (1993) describes the worldview of the early fundamentalists which still holds true for many in the Christian Right: "Most, but not all, were dispensational premillenialists, which meant that they saw human history only in terms of decline and expected a literal Second Coming of Christ" (p. 4). Because including all conservative Christians in the definition of evangelical is technically correct, some authors use the terms fundamentalist and evangelical interchangeably (Hadden and Shupe, 1988, p. 82).

For decades, conservative Christians have used the broadcast media to promote

. . .
e revivalist preachers who are likely to be dynamic speakers with the ability to mobilize resources and engender loyalty in their viewing audience. Their religious programs rely on television imperatives, charismatic leadership and cultural fundamentalism (Frankl, 1987, p. 108). Television imperatives include fundraising activities such as financial appeals, appeals to continue watching, and motivations for viewers to contact the ministry. Besides meeting their basic financial expenses, television preachers often initiate special projects that require massive fundraising efforts. Multi-million dollar complexes, e.g., Oral Roberts' City of Faith and Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral are examples of the kinds of social services projects that televangelists favor. Pat Robertson used his religious program, the "700 Club," to expand his Christian Broadcast Network into a state-of-the-art telecommunications facility and major network. Charismatic leadership is necessary for broadcast evangelists to engender the loyalty of their viewers. According to Frankl (1987), "In charismatic leadership, it is the preacher's credibility and worthiness, his extraordinary qualities, which serve to motivate the viewer to support his missio
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Hadden Shupe, Moral Majority, , According Frankl, According Fea, Christian Voice, Religious Broadcasters, Christian Opposition, Identity Movement, Genesis Gospel, shupe 1988, hadden shupe 1988, hadden shupe, frankl 1987, moral majority, conservative christians, university press, balmer 1989, wilcox 1992, television preachers, national religious, kelly cook 1995, national religious broadcasters, social movement united, balmer 1989 contends,
Approximate Word count = 2006
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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