The Religious Relevance of Television by William F.Fore

In this article, Fore examines that the Christians should have re-present the Gospel in stories that connect with the lives of people living in today’s culture. He said the stories of the Old Testament belong to a completely different culture. Thus, the presentation of Jesus in the New Testament is a re-presentation. However, Fore thinks there is a confliction between the world view of today’s culture and the religious world view. He points out the television represent the myths about our society. First of all, Fore mentions four myths of the television.
1. That the media tell us the way life really is, that ‘seeing is believing’.
2. That information overload is inevitable, a ‘natural’ price to pay for living in modern society.
3. That the issues of life are simple, and TV helps us identify who and shat is ‘good’ and ‘bad’.
4. That there exists a free flow of information; that anyone with a message can ‘get on TV’.

Then, he says television supplies many more myths about the society;
1. Efficiency is the highest good: if it ‘works’, it is good.
2. Technology is progress, and progress cannot be sopped, regardless of the human implications.
3. The fittest survive, and the fittest are young, white males.
4. Power and decision-making start at the centre and move out, and those at the centre know best.
5. Happiness consists of limitless material consumption. Thus consumption is inherently good, and property, wealth, and power are more important than people.
In opposition, Fore mentions the religious world-view;
1. Christian scriptures tell stories about freedom.
2. The covenant stories affirm that God will be with all humanity but only if they worship the true God and not anything is less than God –such as possessions, powers, beauty, or success.
3. Parables about the reign of God make it clear that God is not ‘out there’, but rather a presence within and among us.
4. The stories about Jesus’s life tell of a person both servant and Savior, who through his death and resurrection became the Lord of history, providing hope and reconciliation for all.

Chris arthus, ed. Religion and the Media.
University of wales press, 1993.

error

There is something wrong with this blog today.
I tried to post the article from the book titled Religion and the Media, but I lost it.
I will try it again later.

Postmodern documentary

I found this article from internet.
This is a 'PDF' file, so that I could not find the name of the author nor the book title.
If you want to read the whole article, go to http://newkularfamily.org/mediareadings/postmodernistdocumentary.pdf

"Postmodernist documentary holds a unique position among postmodern textsbecause of its ability to convey a diversity of visual, aural, temporal, and spatial dialecticsand convergences through a single, dynamic medium. The viewer interprets the subjectbased upon images, sounds, geographies, and modes that are reflective of a broader, yetschizophrenic understanding of the world; a condition that film and video represent mostrealistically.
It makes sense to argue that all video documentaries are postmodern experiences. Regardless of the filmmaker’s vision or mode of presentation, the viewer experiences theworld through a series of images and sounds, going on virtual safaris, taking trips back intime, and cultivating a culturally diverse circle of friends. However, there are certain documentaries that can be more specifically cited as postmodern, as their aesthetic lies deeper in Postmodernism’s opposition to the truth and authorship sought by Modernist documentarians."

Postmodernism and Christinaty

I searched many books about Postmodernism and Christianty.
Many Chistians think postmodernism and Christinaty does not belong together.
Evangelism is to persuade people to become Christians by saying the Jesus Christ is the God.
Christians believe this is the only truth. However, postmodernists rejects of the dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism. They believe there is more than one truth.
Then, why some Christians think postmodernism threaten the Christianity?
I think this is from the modern view. Many people only think about the opposite side. (bipoalr oppositions)
Good and evil. Life and death.
Truth and death of the truth.

Here is some comment from the book Belief in Media.

"The dominant framework for thinking about culture at the time was Richard Niebuhr’s formative work, Christ and Culture (Neibuhr, 1951). Aspects of Neibuhr’s five models of rapprochement between Christianity and secular culture were frequently questioned and debated. What was neither questioned nor debated was Neibuhr’s modernist assumption that it was possible to see religion and culture as two separate entities. There was little debate also on whether one could talk about ‘Christ’ without at the same time talking about culture. It was still possible with integrity to think of a single entity called Christianity or ‘The Church’ which was separate from the culture and what was needed to protect it from cultural contamination."

Fianl script of the mission documentary

On august 2005, I went on a mission trip to Tijuana, Mexico with my church group.

We stayed in front of the beach. The sea breeze was cool. I felt like I was on a vacation. There were many people who greeted us. They sold accessories for a cheap price. One woman sold a bracelet for three dollars. Right next to her, a man sold the same bracelet for five dollars. My friend bought me the bracelet from him. I later found out that he was her husband.

The church we were to serve was twenty minutes away from the hotel. The houses were shabby and looked miserable. I felt pity for the poor people. I hoped that I could help them. I wanted to make them happy. We gathered young kids and did performances.


After that, we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They did not like them that much. They were not starving to death. Later, we ate ham and cheese sandwiches and then prayed for their faith and happiness.

On the next day, we made puppies, swords and hats with balloons. Some kids brought the balloons home and played with them. I felt sorry for the poor kids. They did not have fancy playgrounds, toys or Barbie dolls. We decided to buy toys and candies fro them. We bought a power ranger pinata and put all candies in there. Small kids started to hit the pinata. It was funny to see that. They were killing their hero.

One girl hit that character hard and all the candies fell down on the ground. All the kids started to grab the candies. They screamed and they fought each other. One big boy jumped onto the candies with his body and got half of them. People asked him to share candies with others, but he wouldn’t. He said that was the rule of the game. He was right.

One girl grabbed my hands and brought me to a field of flowers. We made rings, crowns, and necklaces with flowers. It reminded me of childhood. When I was young, my parents were not rich. We lived in the country side. There were small hills and rice fields.
On the last day, we went to the center for old people. That place was hot and smelled bad. The Mexican pastor brought homeless people there. There were many people who could not even move. We had to clean their faces and bodies. One girl said she did not want to get old. I talked my mom about those poor people. She said we have to save our money for the future if we don’t want to live like that.
<>

While we did performances, the people seemed very happy. The Mexican pastor told us that they are not afraid to die because they believe in God.

Postmodernism and Christianity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QahoRB9Fcak

This is a video footage titled "The Dreams of Faith".
There are some opinions about the modernism, postmodernism and christianity.

models of teaching and learning

This is the models of teaching and learning method.
Of course there are many other teaching models,
but this is one of the example of traditional (a) and postmodern (b) teaching method.
Many churches use teaching model (a).
For a long time, pastor preaches the sermon to people.
However, people believe what they want to believe.
Thus, there are many bible study groups in the church.
People share their opinions and experiences.