"The danger is not that religion has become the content of television shows but that television shows may become the content of religion!".
~ Neil Postman.
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Media is considered to be a window to the world, as well as an opportunity for learning. It has evolved from simple text in the papers, to voices on radios, to voices with pictures in television and movies, to the very broad, information packed Internet. "By definition, mass communication is a process in which professional communicators design and use media to disseminate messages widely, rapidly, and continuously in order to arouse intended meanings in large, diverse, and selectively attending audiences in attempts to influence them in a variety of ways" (Curtis, Anthony R., 1). Television is the most popular type of mass communication and a vital source from which most Americans receive information, writes John Seel, a proud member of World Journalism Institute and the headmaster at The Cambridge School of Dallas (19). Religion is where billions of people invest their hopes, dreams, beliefs, and most importantly, money. The greedy, selfish minds of our world see this not as a way to fix problems, but a way to make profits. Religion is no longer for worship, but for profit. "Television," Billy Graham writes, "is the most powerful tool of communication ever devised by man. Each of my prime time "specials" is now carried by nearly three hundred stations across the U.S. and Canada, so that in a single telecast I preach to millions more than Christ did in his lifetime" (Postman, 118). .
Religion is not being practiced on television, it is being mocked. In the book Faith on Earth, H. Richard Niebuhr defines belief as "a state or habit of mind in which trust is placed in some person or thing- and more to the point "conviction of the truth or reality of a thing based on grounds insufficient for positive knowledge" (31).
