Neil Postman, onetime director of...
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Neil Postman, onetime director of the National Religious Broadcasters Association, summed up in an address what he called the unwritten law of television ministries: "You can only get your share of the audience by offering people something they want." He commented that this is an unusual credo. There are no great religious leaders, from Buddha to Moses to Jesus to Mohammed to Luther to Wesley, who offered people what they wanted, only what they needed. Postman went on to discuss why television cannot offer people what they need. Television is user-friendly. It is too easy to turn off or change the channel. So television, to keep its audience, provides trivial messages which translate into ratings. Then he commented, "Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether." We need to get beyond the easy believism, the prosperity promises, the glitter of American church growth, and remember that there is a cost of living, a cost of discipleship.
-- Olson
-- Olson
