‘This nation under God’: The broadcast and film commission of the national council of churches and the new medium of television

Abstract

Throughout American history that form of Protestantism that designates itself and is publicly conceived as “old‐time religion” has regularly been the innovator in the area of media. In stark contrast, its more staid establishment counterpart has tended to be antagonistic to these new media, dismissing them with harsh theological and aesthetic judgments. In this process, the self‐proclaimed theological conservatives actually behaved in remarkably adaptive and imaginative ways, while the self‐proclaimed liberal establishment often acted as the cultural conservator, pressing for the preservation of the status quo. This article seeks to understand why those Protestants who define themselves as “modernist” and “adaptive” have been far less successful in using the media than their conservative “anti‐modernist” counterparts. The focus is upon a case study—the reception of television by the Broadcast and Film Commission of the National Council of Churches. The conclusion is ironic: those Protestants who depended upon “modern,” “social scientific” criterion to guide their television policies fundamentally misunderstood the power of television and its impact upon society.