Ship of Fools: Easter and the media

Thread: Easter and the media Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by bib (# 13074) on :

I guess it is the increasing secularisation of Easter that there are not even any token efforts by the media where I live to acknowledge that it is anything but a long weekend with a chance to indulge in eating chocolate. I seem to remember in years past that there was usually a movie such as King of Kings, a telecast of a church service and the playing of appropriate music on the radio. On looking through my tv guide I find there are no 'religious' element offered, just sport and more sport interspersed with murder films. The radio is on at the moment before I go to church for Good Friday services, but they are playing loud rock music. I don't have time to search all the stations, but I doubt if there would be any other offering apart from the classics station for which I don't get very good radio reception. I get the impression that people are embarrassed to admit to any Christian allegiance and often don't even know the Easter story. After all, Easter to them is a time to eat Good Friday buns which have been consumed since Christmas followed by chocolate eggs chasers.

Posted by Al Eluia (# 864) on :

It's better here, even in my relatively unreligious corner of the USA. I just saw a commercial for The Ten Commandments (with Charlton Heston), which is being run on one of the major networks on Easter Sunday.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

quote:
Originally posted by bib:
I get the impression that people are embarrassed to admit to any Christian allegiance and often don't even know the Easter story. After all, Easter to them is a time to eat Good Friday buns which have been consumed since Christmas followed by chocolate eggs chasers.

If that is in fact their spiritual state, let them get on with it. Better that they should honestly do so than that they should hypocritically make a show of a faith they don't possess and aren't interested in.

Besides, it's a hell of a lot easier to evangelize non-Christians than pretend-Christians. [Two face]

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

A bit of a distance north from Bib, we had the observance of Good Friday as the lead item on our ABC radio news at 1pm. There was even a sound clip of a portion of the Epistle being read at a Catholic parish in SW Sydney by the prime minister - far from his home parish, so probably hoping for a few votes from his visit as well.

We certainly have lost quite a lot over the years. The TV news sessions 50 or more years ago would always include the Stations of the Cross at a monastery the semi-rural outskirts of Sydney. The property has long since been sold and subdivided for housing, and no substitute has been found. Many shops are now open on Good Friday, even in our local group. You can now buy fuel, as service stations are open whereas it used be one of the days that they were closed. Then again, shopping hours overall have been deregulated. In our local centre, many shops are now open even on Anzac Day - fortunately including a coffee shop to go to after the local service. So the changes are not limited to religious observances.

I don't know that there has been any real change in radio music. Almost all was secular then and still is, only the style changing.

Posted by The Silent Acolyte (# 1158) on :

What frosts my cookies is that the media seem to think only the Latins matter. It is as though the Greeks and the Russians and the Serbs and the Antiochians and all are completely invisible.

Posted by cosmic dance (# 14025) on :

I as saying the very same thing to Mr Cosmic as we drove home from Good Friday service. A cursory glance at the TV guide showed not a single programme with any relationship to Easter.
Still, we live in very secular country so its hardly surprising.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

Things are more secular now. However I'm surprised no one has started an internet streaming site for the various services. I would think a church looking for outreach would find it simple enough to broadcast their services.

Perhaps there's a market opportunity here.

Posted by Nicodemia (# 4756) on :

There is a surprisingly positive leader in
The Guardian (not with a usually even neutral position on Christianity) this morning -

For this particular newspaper (left wing, responsible, not rubbish) this is amazing!

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Link didn't work: try this instead. A good article: Giles Fraser manqué, perhaps?

[ 03. April 2015, 09:51: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Silent Acolyte:
What frosts my cookies is that the media seem to think only the Latins matter. It is as though the Greeks and the Russians and the Serbs and the Antiochians and all are completely invisible.

This is a good point. It's not everybody's Easter this weekend. I've long said that public holidays (and, for that matter, tv schedules) should be decoupled from religious festivals. Let the world go its own sad way.

Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on :

Very good article; value is not about utility - what a good line.

Posted by Prester John (# 5502) on :

quote:
Originally posted by The Silent Acolyte:
What frosts my cookies is that the media seem to think only the Latins matter. It is as though the Greeks and the Russians and the Serbs and the Antiochians and all are completely invisible.

I suspect it's a numbers game, at least here in the U.S..

Posted by IconiumBound (# 754) on :

I look at these as more evidence of a increasing loss of traditional religions. Here, in a major city, I noted that the Saturday ads for Easter services were only four. Several decades ago there would be an entire page of such ads.

Posted by Raptor Eye (# 16649) on :

It's a shame that so few people seem to grasp the significance of Easter, but not surprising. Motorists and shoppers complain if they're inconvenienced by a procession with a cross, while if they paused and pondered they might benefit.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by IconiumBound:
I look at these as more evidence of a increasing loss of traditional religions. Here, in a major city, I noted that the Saturday ads for Easter services were only four. Several decades ago there would be an entire page of such ads.

Thirty years ago the Phoenix newspaper had two full pages of church ads every Saturday, but then they got greedy. The prices for advertising went up and up and up every year. The church ads have now completely disappeared, even at Christmas and Easter. (This happened before the internet replaced a lot of advertising.)

A similar thing has happened with "yellow pages" advertising in our phone books. As fewer people are using phone books and their circulation is down, their ads have become of less value (to churches, businesses, etc.) -- so they've raised their rates enormously. It makes no sense.

Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :

BBC Radios 3 and 4 usually mark Easter (and other major festivals)- see e.g. R3 schedule here: not just Passions etc but reflections on the Lord's Prayer in the late night essay spot this week

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

BBC is also screening 2 programmes about Peter.
radio 4 has a eucharist celebrated by the first (of C of E)woman bishop

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by leo:
... radio 4 has a eucharist celebrated by the first (of C of E)woman bishop

I suspect that may be more because of who the bishop is than from any compunction to mark the Resurrection.

According to this if we wait a few years we'll be a Minority and they'll have to take notice of us.

[Devil]

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:

quote:
Originally posted by leo:
... radio 4 has a eucharist celebrated by the first (of C of E)woman bishop
I suspect that may be more because of who the bishop is than from any compunction to mark the Resurrection.

According to this if we wait a few years we'll be a Minority and they'll have to take notice of us.

But they have a live broadcast of a church service every Sunday at that time.

During Lent, they included a series of sermons based on a book by Desmond Tutu.

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