Religion And The Media

INTRODUCTION

There are many different ways in which religion and religious issues are dealt with on television. Some issues are dealt with on educational programmes or documentaries with great respect and interest. Other issues can be treated as comedy and humour.

Song Of Praise

Songs of Praise is a national institution in Britain, with a weekly audience of 5 million. It is one of the most popular and longest running programs on the BBC.

It prides itself on being a musical celebration of life and faith in the UK today, and provides something for everyone, from those of vague faith to regular worshippers.

Each week Songs of Praise travels to a different town or county in Britain, with occasional visits overseas, presenting a colourful programme of hymns and music, local events and touching stories of belief. It features interviews with British celebrities as well as drawing on the experiences of local people.

Songs of Praise broadcasts all over Europe and America and has attracted a loyal following in Australia over the years.

The program has been hosted by a diverse array of British performers and presenters including, Sir Harry Secombe, David Bellamy, Jimmy Savile, and or course Pam Rhodes who is one of the best loved, longest serving hosts. The programme is shown at prime time television 11 am, Sundays BBC 1. 

Heaven And Earth

There is a wide of worship and magazine programmes shown on terrestrial television. Some appear very Sunday, other at various times around the year.

BBC has recently replaced its Christian worship type programmes on Sunday morning by the more daytime television programme The Heaven And Earth Show. Simon Biagi and Amanda Redington sitting on a sofa present this show and there is a phone-in for every item so that the audience can be involved.

The programme last for a whole hour and typical programme had the following items:

  • The mind and mind festival in Manchester with discussion of new age ideas and alternative medicines.
  • An interview with Yuri Geller discussing his alleged psychic powers, from fork bending to mind reading Russian political for the C.I.A:
  • Recipes for the Sunday lunch:
  • Sex, lies and cover up – a discussion with 2 American Christians about whether president Clinton should carry on as president and whether leaders should be sexually moral:
  • A documentary about the problems of transporting the 300-strong Mormon tabernacle choir to appear on songs of praise at the Albert Hall:
  • A discussion on the b-sky-b take-over of Manchester United related to the morality of extreme wealth:
  • A mini- documentary on a police detective who is a medium at Wimbledon Christian spiritualist church followed by phone-in discussion:
  • A reading of in spiritual poetry.        

Religious Documentaries

Documentaries are perhaps the most popular of television religious broadcasts because they deal with religious issues as if they were the same as any other issue. They also tend to deal with issues, which are a major concern for religious people in Great Britain at the moment.

Religious And Moral Issues In Soaps And Drama

Here are a few such issues from soap operas to show you how these programmes can illustrate religious and moral issues.

Eastenders:

Featured a religious issue when Dot helped her sick friend to die. This issue is called Euthanasia. Ethel wanted to die with dignity and pleaded with Dot to help her. Dot is a very religious person and Christianity teaches that Euthanasia is wrong. Dot went to see her priest to ask him for advice. In the end Dot put her needs for her friend before her faith however she had to live with guilt of what she had done. Dot had to struggle with her conscience to deny her religion to help her friend.

Join now!

Also featured a religious issue when the vicar, Alex, was attracted to Kathy Beale and began an affair with her. The programme explored the issue of how a vicar can become too closely involved when helping women with problems.

And featured a moral issue when Ian and Cindy Beales marriage broke up and they fought over the custody of the children, involving kidnappings, flight to Italy and shooting by hired killers. All of this explored the issues of adultery, divorce and the way in which children can be used as pawns in battles between parents in the name ...

This is a preview of the whole essay