Mattijs van de Port, in his article, "Visualizing the Sacred", pointed out a compelling statement, that "media are constitutive of religious imagination" (van de Port, 445). I found this statement surprisingly truthful. In his example that he gave, he mentioned that in some mass gatherings of the Charismatic catholics in Brazil, the Charismatic priests would ask the members to "be like antennas" to receive the Holy Spirit and in other cases instruct the members to "put a glass of water on the TV set during their live broadcast of prayer meetings to be a receptacle of the Holy Spirit, which infuses the water with curative powers" (van de Port, 444). I expected media and the perceptions portrayed to influence the morals or fundamental views of religions, however, I did not expect that the objects used in media such as the TV to be a literal medium through which the secular world could influence the practices of religion.
This characteristic of such religion could be problematic because one of the significant factors about certain religions is their uniqueness which is commonly shown through the traditions and practices unique to religion. However, in cases such as this Charismatic catholic group, which is swayed whichever way the wind blows the media's attention- from the current popular view, to the next trending fashion line, to the next hottest gossip -there might come a point that such religions would not be able to set foundations for the religion and maintain it for generations if media is what influences what they stand on as their beliefs.
No comments:
Post a Comment