Programmes like ‘Songs of Praise’ are only popular among strong believers, they do not try and convert people and never discuss issues, it is simply a televised Church service. The other programme tends to be more popular as it does not have ever really a bias one way or the other, giving both arguments. They are not really religious programmes. They are for entertainment. Religious programmes have never attracted many viewers so it is completely understandable that there are so few of them on television nowadays. The only ones that do attract viewers are those which discuss topics such as euthanasia and capital punishment, subjects which are related to religion but are not actually about the Bible itself.
Describe how a religious issue of concern to Christians has been dealt with on a TV soap opera
The Soap Opera ‘Brookside’ dealt with the issue of abortion and having a child before marriage. A character called Arianna was going to have a child but was considering having an abortion. The programme looked at the issue from several different perspectives. That of a medical perspective, an economic perspective, that she had no husband and that she did not want to destroy human life.
From the medical perspective the show looked at how having the operation for an abortion could have been damaging to her health and that she may not have actually survived the operation. The programme made this one of the most important factors about whether or not she should have the operation. After having been told that she would not survive it she immediately decided that she would keep the baby.
Arianna was also worried that she would not be able to afford bringing up the child. She was young and did not have a real job. This was seen as a major factor in the decision but eventually was resolved as one of her friends said the he would help to bring up the child.
The other worries were the more religious issues, destroying human life and that she was going to have a child even though she had no husband. The programme addressed the second issue as Arianna’s mother was wholly against the idea that she was to have a baby with no husband and tried to persuade her not to have the child unless her boyfriend married her. This was not seen however as a major issue and was only addressed for a short while. The issue that Arianna was most concerned with was that she would be destroying her own child. She eventually decided that she would have the child as she could not bring herself to destroy her child.
The programme steered away from addressing the more religious sides of having a child. Only alluding to the fact that she did not have a husband for a short while. It also briefly talks about destroying human life. It came to the conclusion that in killing the embryo you are killing a human. Though even when it addressed this issue it looked more at the fact that she would be destroying her child instead of looking at the issue of whether abortion is murder or humane and sensible. The programme preferred to look at more simple issues such as whether she could afford the child and that the operation could harm her. This shows us that the public are not really interested in hearing about the religious issues and regard them as old fashioned, having the religious views coming from and old woman and not even discussing whether abortion is compassionate or not. It shows us that the public are more interested in health and safety issues and the fact that poverty is a problem rather than taking a serious look into the religious pros and cons of abortion itself.
Describe how a moral issue of concern has been dealt with in either a TV drama or Film
“Television always presents religious people as out of touch with the modern world”
