The question was so simple that Haddon Robinson wasn\u2019t sure he had heard it correctly. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhat is Christmas?\u201d, asked the man in the next airplane seat, once he learned that he was chatting with a seminary professor. The businessman thought he knew, since he was an ordinary American who had grown up surrounded by old movies and television specials. Then he asked, \u201cWhat is Easter?\u201d That led to, \u201cWhat do you mean by \u2018resurrection?\u2019 \u201d Robinson described the biblical accounts of God raising Jesus from the dead. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis man said to me, \u2018Do all Christians believe that?\u2019 I said, \u2018All Christians should believe that,\u2019 \u201d said Robinson. \u201cThen he said, \u2018That\u2019s interesting. I think I knew about Christmas. But I didn\u2019t really know about Easter.\u2019 \u201d <\/p>\n\n
This puzzled Robinson, but later something clicked. Some Christmas hymns have made it into popular culture and almost everyone hears snippets of the story year after year. But where \u2014 via mall, multiplex and mini-satellite dish \u2014 would anyone soak up Easter images? For millions of viewers the resurrection is what happens at the end of \u201cThe Matrix.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
If missionaries came to America, they would immediately spot the dominant role played by mass media and, especially, visual entertainment media. They would study the moral and religious messages in mass media, seeking insights into the lives of potential converts. This is how missionaries think. But this is not how religious educators think and, thus, few clergy are taught to think like missionaries. <\/p>\n\n
Robinson has been studying these issues since the mid-1950s, during his doctoral work in communications at the University of Illinois. Today, he is a distinguished professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological outside Boston and, in 1996, received national media attention when Baylor University named him one of the top 12 preachers in the English-speaking world. <\/p>\n\n
Effective speakers study the forces that shape the people to whom they speak, said Robinson. Today, that means taking visual media seriously. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cTelevision is omnipresent,\u201d he said, in a sermon that swept from oral traditions and clay-tablet libraries to satellites and computer networks. \u201cThe way in which people get ideas, the way in which they shape their ideals, comes not because they read books, but because they see it, they visualize it. It\u2019s on television. \u2026 <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThat has shaped the way we think. \u2026 It affects the way that we preach. It affects the heart and core of communication.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
Robinson preached that sermon exactly 10 years ago, while serving as president of Denver Seminary. Little has changed. Robinson said that he knows of no seminary that requires future ministers to take a single course on how mass media affect American life. <\/p>\n\n
If anything, the situation has gotten worse, he said. While the ecclesiastical elites ignore the subject, megachurches often uncritically embrace virtually every new technology. Many churches are adding expensive digital equipment in their sanctuaries and leaping into multimedia music, drama, humor and sermons illustrated with movie and TV clips. Clergy quickly discover that they\u2019re expected to use this gear in every service. The audience demands it. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe pastor is thinking, \u2018Now that I have all of this stuff, where can I throw it in?\u2019,\u201d said Robinson. \u201cAll of a sudden, rather than thinking of the most effective way to communicate a message, you\u2019re thinking about all that money you\u2019ve spent. \u2026You\u2019re thinking about media, where before you were thinking about your message.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
Robinson\u2019s advice to preachers, young and old, is that they worry less about using mass media and more about learning what is shaping the souls of their listeners. Today, every flock includes many listeners who understand little or nothing about the Bible or basic doctrines. In fact, he said, their heads and hearts are full of conflicting images and values, the result of years of spiritual channel surfing. <\/p>\n\n
This was already true a decade ago. Robinson said that preachers must realize that they work in a hostile technological environment, one that \u201ccommunicates with images. It doesn\u2019t come out and argue. It just simply shows you pictures, day after day after day after day. Before you realize it, in the basement of your mind, you discover that you have shifted your values and many times you\u2019ve lost your faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The question was so simple that Haddon Robinson wasn\u2019t sure he had heard it correctly. \u201cWhat is Christmas?\u201d, asked the man in the next airplane seat, once he learned that he was chatting with a seminary professor. The businessman thought he knew, since he was an ordinary American who had grown up surrounded by old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n