Televangelism is the preaching of religious ideals using different forms of media like television and the radio. The beginnings of televangelism can be traced back to the arrival of the household radio in the 1920s. The introduction of the radio to the average American home allowed religious leaders to preach about their partisan and sometimes anti government beliefs due to the few regulations placed on radio broadcasting. The US government probably didn’t predict that the radio would be used to spread anti government ideals much less by ministers. Regardless, religious leaders were able to gain mass followings due to their preaching of political beliefs.
After a while, radio networks grew to dislike some of the messages that ministers were preaching on the air like their disdain for Jews and Blacks in America. These ministers ended up getting banned and radio networks realized that they couldn’t allow any religious preacher on the air. They started only allowing large representative bodies of each religious group on the air like the national Council of Catholic Bishops, the Federal Council of Churches (Protestant), and a coalition of three national Jewish organizations.
When television arrived in the 1950s, each one of these groups were given a time slot to air their program every Sunday. The Federal Communications Commision (FCC) granted these licenses and gave the networks that aired these religious groups “public interest credit” for free. This credit boosted the popularity of the network and gave the religious groups more viewers. Yet, by 1960, the FCC declared that networks could sell network time and still get “public interest credit”. This caused religious groups to line up to buy time on networks, and networks selling their time to the highest bidder.
Ronald Reagan’s presidency in 1980 led to the deregulation of the TV and radio industry by stripping the FCC of its control over the networks. Reagan deemed that television was no different than a toaster or any other appliance and should be allowed to be in the hands of the marketplace and not the government. As a result, many of the smaller stations were bought by the bigger networks until multinational corporations owned the whole broadcasting system. This greatly benefited televangelists as they were now allowed to use money sent in by users to buy more radio and TV station licenses, further expanding their business. Since they were all religious organizations they were not taxed and could keep 100 percent of what they were earning.
Televangelism took a major hit when Jim Bakker, one of the faces of televangelism, was found guilty of trying to defraud his ministry by paying women to keep quiet about sexual history. Bakker preached about being loyal and even asked people to donate money to his family so that they could be closer to God. Yet, he went against what his own preaching and significantly tainted Televangelism as people now started to question whether or not the money they donated to religious groups was going to good use.
Overall, Televangelism in America marked a period in time where there was a shift in religious values being preached as well as a successful revitalization of religion in the homes of Americans.
https://medium.com/@rlg233g6/a-history-of-christian-televangelism-how-does-it-survive-4fdea9d6ebd6
https://daily.jstor.org/televangelism-got-big/
https://www.religion-online.org/article/the-unknown-history-of-televangelism/
I like how concise and descriptive your blog post is. Jim Bakker's televangelism is a sad, yet common, trend in US history of Americans letting their greed and desire for wealth overcome their morals. Unfortunately, fraud televangelism isn't confined to the 80s; it still exists today. Recently 10 televangelists have faced controversy after the majority of them were criticized for owning extravagant items. Kenneth Copeland, a Texas evangelist, was criticized for owning three private jets. Similarly, another televangelist bought a $200,000 Lamborghinis as anniversary gift. Copeland attempted to defend himself in a logical way, similar to what Bakker did. He claimed "if [he] flew commercial, [he'd] have to stop 65% of [the preaching] [he's] doing."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/17/joel-osteen-kenneth-copeland-10-televangelists-trouble/1471926001/
Your blog post does a good job of outlining the background of televangelism, and its rise and fall. I decided to research further into the tactics that allow televangelists to gain so much attention from the public. I found that televangelists use the "prosperity gospel," which is that the will of God aligns with financial blessing. If the viewers send donations, they too will bear fruits of wealth in their own lives. Using this ideology, televangelists were able to gain large sums of money from their viewers.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.prindlepost.org/2016/12/seeds-doubt-televangelism-regulated/