Televangelism
Since the beginnings of commercial radio, evangelical Christians have recognized the effectiveness of the broadcast media as a vehicle for disseminating their faith. By enabling them to reach new audiences as well as committed believers, broadcasting has provided evangelists with a means of building large and widespread followings. As a result, religious broadcasters have continually taken advantage of new broadcast technologies, from local radio programs in the early 1920s to 24-hour cable television networks by the late 1970s. The use of television by evangelists as a medium for expressing their views proved to be an especially influential development during the last quarter of the twentieth century, as conflicts between religious conservatives and mainstream popular culture grew. In this context, the term "televangelism" became widely adopted to describe the use of broadcasting to promote not only evangelical Christian beliefs, but also a wide range of social and political views espoused by Christian fundamentalists.
The roots of contemporary televangelism can be traced to the 1950s, when evangelists such as Billy Graham, Rex Humbard, and Oral Roberts started to use television programs to spread their conservative Protestant beliefs. Most early examples of televangelismadopted a traditional format, concentrating on sermons, church services, and revival meetings, and operated on fairly small budgets. Early televangelist programming was also generally restricted to Sunday mornings, and was usually broadcast over a small number of stations covering a limited geographical area. Over time, however, technological changes and increasing resources allowed televangelists to reach much larger audiences. The advent of videotape, for example, provided an inexpensive and flexible means of distributing programs, so that they did not have to be broadcast live or recorded on expensive motion picture film. And the proliferation of television stations during the 1950s and 1960s provided a broader variety of outlets for televangelism, as did the subsequent expansion of cable television.
As a result of these innovations, televangelism underwent a major period of growth during the 1970s. Organizations like Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and Jim Bakker's Praise The Lord (PTL) Satellite Network were able to use local cable television systems, linked by satellite transmissions, to bring their programming to virtually all parts of the country, and throughout the week, not just on Sundays. To take advantage of this increase in exposure, televangelists also adopted new programming formats, such the talk show and the news magazine, which had become staples of commercial television. The rapid growth in their operations also brought greater political influence to televangelists during the late 1970s and 1980s. With the conservative turn in American politics at this time, and the rise of the Christian right as a political force, prominent televangelists like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson found that broadcasting provided them with a powerful tool for publicizing their views and shaping the nation's political agenda.
Towards the end of the 1980s, however, televangelism went into a period of decline, primarily as a result of separate financial and sexual scandals involving Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, two leading religious broadcasters. Their sexual misconduct and Bakker's misappropriation of funds donated to the PTL Network exposed televangelism to increasing public criticism and suspicion. The core audience of the television evangelists did not turn away from them, but their broader influence within American society dropped, as did their television ratings. The failure of Pat Robertson to win the Republican presidential nomination in 1988 also marked a downturn in the political influence of the conservative televangelists. Christian broadcasters responded to these trends by trying to broaden the appeal of their programming, experimenting with new formats and offering an increasing number of family-oriented programs without an explicit religious or political message.
Through their successful use of broadcasting technology, televangelists have established a notable presence in American popular culture over the past several decades. Considerable disagreement exists over the size of their audiences, even before the scandals of the 1980s, and a number of studies have suggested that televangelists have had more success in reinforcing the faith of existing believers than in reaching new converts. Nonetheless, televangelism has become a persistent feature of the American broadcast media, and as such has contributed substantially to the diversity of views that constitute American popular culture.
Further Reading:
Armstrong, Ben. The Electric Church. Nashville, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1979.
Bruce, Steve. Pray TV: Televanglism in America. London, Routledge, 1990.
Hadden, Jeffrey K., and Anson Shupe. Televangelism: Power and Politics on God's Frontier. New York, Henry Holt, 1988.
Hadden, Jeffrey K., and Charles E. Swann. Primetime Preachers: The Rising Power of Televangelism. Reading, Massachusetts, Addison-Wesley, 1981.
Schultze, Quentin J. Televangelism and American Culture: The Business of Popular Religion. Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House, 1991.
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