It begins with help or advice on the teenagers to think more positively of themselves, and how they should act towards a relationship and health and hygiene as it were of their own bodies.
The programme discusses some difficult concepts including abstinence, but as a programme this is sensitively portrayed as not the main objective in it, but for the teenagers to lead a more fulfilling end/life as a benefit.
The teens join the ‘Romance Academy’ for several months, aiming to earn self respect in many aspects in their life but to generally in sex or in the groups case celibacy. They are taken to Florida by the youth workers to see the Silver Ring Thing, also called the true love waits movement. So far there is roughly 36,500 American teenagers who have taken the pledge, which means not to have sex until they marry, also meaning they will wear a silver ring on their ‘wedding’ finger until this is exchanged for a wedding ring.
After they have witnessed this act in Florida, they are up to the deciding to whether take the pledge or not, some being nervous on thoughts of others, but in the end they feel its what they think and want to lead there life and take the pledge.
This is a documentary aimed at an audience of teenagers, to show them how all other teenagers have pressures in there life, and how they can avoid or deal with the situation. Aswell as the main audience, teenagers, there would be a side audience like parents and teachers or other people that work around teenagers, as it would be useful as it shows how teenagers feel and react with all sorts of matters.
The Heaven and Earth show was a magazine programme; Gloria Hunniford was the main presenter. It was shown on Sunday mornings on BBC1 at 10am until 11am, this show was recently cancelled to be replaced with a new ‘fresher’ magazine show.
A magazine show is basically a show with many different articles that allow viewers to see a moral and spiritual side of life.
In its time of broadcasting, they interviewed many people, including Petulia Clark about her singing career, Gary Newman - what it’s like to be famous and the highs and lows of his career, and many more featured throughout the shows. Along with others Gloria Hunniford debates the big ethical, religious and moral talking points of the week. Following the debate is a talking session about lent, what it is and why this is. This programme is suitable for people from any religion or none at all as it looks at spiritual, religious, moral issues and current affairs so anyone could watch this show or at least the segment that interests them.
Aii. Analyse and explain the way in which a religious theme of concern to Christians has been dealt with in a television soap opera.
Eastender is a popular soap opera shown 4 times a week on BBC1 at 7:30 – 8:00. it’s at ‘prime time’ as it attracts thousands of viewers for each episode. Its popular because it mirrors real life in some aspects.
Soap operas were first aimed at house wives but now anywhere from teens to OAP’s watch it. But why do people watch soaps? Maybe because there own lives are dull, to see how people deal with various problems, cliff hangers keep them hooked, or is it just something for them to talk about.
A moral issue is one where there is an issue of right or wrong. In the episode we watched there were issues including: -
- Violence, attempted murder.
- Adultery.
- Single parent, mixed race families.
- Whether a premature baby should be christened or not.
In my work I am going to focus on the issue of adultery. In the episode that we watched, Phil had had sex with Shirley, despite his current partner still being with him, Susie. And in the Christian faith, this is wrong, as they believe that you commit to your partner, whether you’re married or not. You be loyal to them and sleep with nobody else. But this may just be seen aimed at married couples but in the eyes of Christians maybe everyone as they may see it aimed at any couple that are committed to one another.
Christians don’t agree with promiscuity, as the Bible says and shows it is wrong as it does go against pre-marital sex as children should be created with in the marriage of two people just as God intended. The adultery view on it is wrong as it breaks one of the vows. The Ten Commandments ‘do not commit adultery’.
Relating Christian teachings to the Eastenders episode it is clear that Phil has gone against any commitment he made, he has not committed adultery as he and Susie are not married. Although. In anyone’s eyes it is wrong what he did as any commitment as I said was broken, he was unfaithful towards her.
Eastenders includes storylines like the one above as soap operas mirror real life and sadly people sleeping with others behind their partners backs is fairly common in the UK. We have a huge divorce rate in the country; it is 2 in every 3 that get divorced. One of the main reasons for this is down to adultery. So as it relates quite strongly into real life, soap operas such as Eastenders can use this to show so they can create effects such as love triangles and affairs to keep as many viewers hooked, and stuck in a guessing game really, who will sleep with whom?
I think Eastenders shows a good view on real life but I don’t think that many lives go to the extreme on what is sometimes seen, but in this case the issue of adultery can relate to a lot of people. It’s portrayed as people having arguments and can get out of hand, and sympathy may be shown from another character. But after the occasion, things are shown as in the guilt, and the lies maybe that are in use of covering up their unfaithful acts. It is this sort of storyline that keeps viewers of all ages hooked into soap operas so Eastenders used this moral issue very well.
Aiii. Analyse and explain the way in which a moral theme of concern to Christians has been dealt with in a film.
Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey), a television reporter in Buffalo, N.Y., is discontented with almost everything in life despite his popularity and the love of his girlfriend Grace (Jennifer Aniston). At the end of the worst day of his life, Bruce angrily ridicules and a rage against God and God responds. God appears in human form (Morgan Freeman) and, endowing Bruce with divine powers, challenges Bruce to take on the big job to see if he can do it any better.
He believes he thinks he is being treated unfairly as his life doesn’t seem to be going well for him. And he has one person to blame if he even is a person, but as the film portrays him, he is, and that is God. God doesn’t appear to sit back and carry on, God responds and due to this Bruce is found carrying all of Gods powers. With his life, as what he see’s now being on track by correcting anything he wants, but due to this it effects everything that his powers cant change, that matter most, love of his girlfriend Grace being one.
When Bruce is told that he is being considered for the position of anchorman, he goes out to do a live feed but when it is announced that Evan Baxter was going to be fulfilling that role, and he acts frustrated, and ruins the live feed at Niagara falls. Down to that he loses his job, and aswell out in the car park try’s to complete an act of good will, but involves him getting beaten up. And this is somewhat all Gods fault. God then decides to give Bruce his powers. Bruce, with things to set his life straight is enjoying it. He sabotages Evan and gets his job he was up for as anchorman. But when he realizes that he has to deal with e the task that God is faced, answering prayers, he seems to find it a struggle until he finds a way to deal with it. To begin with its voices which annoys him and he embarrasses Grace in a restaurant. He then leads to having them as e-mails, which he would read and answer, but it was too hard. So he ends up answering every prayer with ‘yes’. While Bruce appears to be sorting out his problems, he seems to have missed out one thing, his girlfriend, who in the end leaves him to stay at her friend, Debbie’s. And it seems that the only thing that he can't do is alter a person's free will, so if he wants her back, he has to do it the hard way and win her back. Because the powers he has won’t allow him to make someone love someone else unless that’s how they actually feel. Then he realizes maybe the job/role God has in life isn’t as easy as he’d first thought.
Throughout the film, Bruce is shown meeting and talking to God. God is portrayed as a black man who takes on different roles – a janitor, a homeless man etc… one of their conversations goes as follows: -
: Who are you?
: I'm the one. The Divine Being. Alpha and Omega.
: Oh, I see where this is going...
: Bruce... I'm God.
: Bingo! Yahtzee! Is that your final answer? Our survey says... God! Bing bing bing bing bing! Well God, nice job on the Grand Canyon, and good luck with the Apocalypse. Oh, and by the way: you suck!
This is important to the film as it goes to show his anger even further towards God as a character, as he thinks it’s a joke. He needs it showing to him, which is done through a hand trick giving Bruce 7 fingers on one hand for a few seconds. Bruce wanted to test God.
This film would come across as a concern to Christians as it shows a character in which they want to show God, the characteristics that many religious believers that feel God holds and the idea of a human being able to take on the role/responsibility of God. This film can be linked to many different Christian beliefs and teachings. For example Bruce changes after his religious experiences in the film – these include an experience as Bruce and thinks he changes his life for the better. Bruce performs miracles using the powers he has been given by God. A miracle is an event so that changes laws of science or something that only satisfies a persons needs without an explanation of its happening, people can only say it’s an act of God. The prayers in the film are answered by Bruce all by one word, ‘yes’. This appears a problem to more people than it does do better for people. And people were just getting what they wanted.
All of the above can cause an effect on people as it can give them an opportunity to have an opinion on God, even those that hate him like Bruce at the start of the film and those being atheist. If people cannot find a logical explanation it may lead them to a firm belief in that God exists, and maybe around them. There are many explanations to the happening of the film. I believe that Grace has some idea in that Bruce maybe involved in these strange occurrences (miracle) as they seem to be affecting him more than anyone for then better.
I feel Bruce was maybe looking for some meaning to his life, as it wasn’t what he wanted. During the film God stated to Bruce:
‘People underestimate the benefits of good old manual labor’.
This is saying you have to work a little to gain a little basically or maybe other things down to firm beliefs. Also, Bruce when he takes on the role of God, he has to think about and face some of the questions people ask of God as a character. There are many questions, endless lists, but I feel to ask important questions maybe such as- Why are you here? Or what’s the purpose of life? But you could ask anything.
Many may ask questions but it’s a cycle of a question as an answer as nobody knows a true answer. Question leading them to think many things, a place where the good will be rewarded and the bad will be punished. Many believe that God is the only one who can give divine justice, so the search for meaning and purpose leads people to God or just through the cycle of questions, as it’s the film saying there is meaning in my opinion but you must find it, and maybe its not to ask the question. The film Bruce Almighty has things included to show many meanings, such as a portrayal of God or basically as how I feel, Bruce find his way, but he doesn’t ask the question.
B ‘Television always presents religious people as out of touch with
the modern world.’
Do you agree? Give reasons for your opinion showing you have considered another point of view. In your answer you should refer to specific television programmes.
Certain characters can be seen out of touch with the modern world, but not all cases this is true. Such as Geraldine Granger, the main character from the TV series, Vicar of Dibley. She comes across as being a very religious character, which she should being a vicar. This part she plays doesn’t seem out of touch as it’s a modern role for women to be part of the church. But as a character aswell as the job she partakes, she’s not out of touch. Geraldine was known to smoke and drink which as a Vicar, not the attitude to have. And also she admitted to liking Robbie Williams, him being part of the modern world, and she recognizes the world around so being part of it.
A character of Eastenders, Dot Branning, appears out of touch of the reality. She is a Christian and her faith is basically the main part of her life. Dot makes quotes from the Bible, a great deal of the time and in all situations people often make fun of her for this. But she is a well liked character despite her ideas being old fashioned. She is known to smoke a lot of the time, and also drink when she can. This can be seen as being old fashioned aswell as being modern, partly because of the smoking ban etc… She went against her faith to help her friend Ethel end her life, which lead her to feel guilt and steal things and try to get herself punished as she felt she wasn’t accepted by God as she had gone against the Bible. Dot appears and interesting character as she is shown as being in and out of touch with reality.
These characters that are seeing don’t just appear as actors etc… but can be seen in cartoons such as the Flanders family, from the Simpsons. Especially Ned, as the man of the family. He appears old fashioned and very religious; he often rings up the reverent and requests advice about his religious concerns. As a family, his wife seems to be a follower of Ned, although she is religious herself just not as deep as Ned. They have 2 children Rod and Tod. And these are only allowed to play biblical games, which is used as the theme as one of the episodes. Strange about the names, they rhyme with God.
So as a family they appear old fashioned and out of touch from the modern world as Homer demonstrates with his acts as a neighbor.
So I disagree and that a religious character can be portrayed as anything, whether out of touch from reality and old fashioned or aware and very in touch with the modern world. It al depends on the story line of the show they appear; I think the Vicar of Dibley is a great example of this, and shows that the statement is neither true and nor false.
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