The Battalion
PINION
rhursday *July 10,195]
Trinity Broadcast Network brings religion to low leve
R eligion. Once this sacred
institution inspired rev
erent worship. Religiosity
was private, a sort of inner-ex
ploration and self-realization.
Worship was brought into the
public sphere only in the do
main of sanctuaries and for the
purpose of ritual ceremony.
Today Mecca is miles away.
This is the United States, 1997;
Crusades are like ancient his
tory, and religion is becoming
a circus.
Like everything else in America to
day, religion is but a couple of key
punches away. Don’t break out the
Bibles and rosaries just yet, for this is a
new religion. This religion breaks prac
tically all ties with its respectable prede
cessors. Sermons are now on sound
cards, pulpits have become TV screens
and computer monitors and the “mis
sionaries” are hardly saints.
Americans got their first taste of
electronic religion with Jim and Tammy
Faye Bakker and their PTL ministry in
the 1980s. This king and queen of tele-
vangelism amassed quite an empire
thanks in large part to Tammy’s tear-
stained (or maybe mascara-stained)
pleas for donations and Jim’s Plastic-
man-like overdramatism. These “mes
sengers of God” accumulated an empire
whose holdings included a theme park
Campus
Continued from Page 1
According to the library con
struction update on the library’s
Web site, the “library village” will
include a six-floor student com
puting center connected to the
library and a renovation of Cush
ing Library.
Hedleston said a Rapid Re
sponse Group (RRG) was recently
set up by the library administra
tion to let patrons and employees
know how construction will affect
the library’s services.
The Rapid Response Group is
made up of people within the li
brary departments, including ref
erence, acquisition and public re
lations, who compile messages
about construction for flyers, Bat
talion advertisements and updates
on the library’s Web page.
According to the Evans Library
Web site, a new parking garage with
621 parking spaces will be built next
to the complex.
Williams said this garage should
open around January 1, 1998. He
said the large columns in the area
near Lubbock Street next to the new
garage are part of the garage toll
plaza, which will be similar to the
one on Houston Street.
Williams said the toll plaza will
Close up Main Campus, and it will
no longer be a free-entry area.
“Motorists won’t be mixing with
students in the Commons area es
pecially,” Williams said.
The Kyle Field renovations will
be completed in October 1997 and
construction on the Reed Arena
Special Events Center will be com
pleted in January 1998 according
to a monthly construction status
report compiled by Facilities and
Construction Planning.
The area outside Blocker is
one of the most visible areas un
der construction. Les Swick, as
sistant director of Physical Plant,
said trees, raised planters and
stone benches have been re
moved outside Blocker so that
the concrete in front of the
building can be replaced.
Swick said the area experiences
lots of pedestrian traffic and water
had been getting under the build
ing, fracturing the concrete and
causing a tripping danger.
“We’ve had a lot of settlement in
front of the building, in excess of six
to eight inches in some spots,”
Swick said.
Swick said trees were removed
because some were blocking the
view of building, others were too
close together and roots were push
ing up the concrete. But he said the
area will get a face lift after the con
crete is replaced.
“We’ll reestablish some addition
al or new landscaping,” Swick said.
Many students said campus
construction does not bother
them, and they are excited about
the new facilities.
Thai Ho, a senior chemistry ma
jor, said construction has not been
a problem for him because he does
not drive on campus. He also said
he is looking forward to the changes
at the library.
“A parking garage and comput
ing center will make the library bet
ter,” Ho said.
Janean Mann, a freshman archi
tecture major, agrees with Ho.
“I think the new facilities will be
great,” Mann said.
Columnist
Handy Cater
Senior psychology major
(Heritage USA) and television
programming. Unfortunately,
a fortune was not all these two
ended up with; Jim has a rap
sheet for mail and wire fraud
and a reputation for adultery,
and Tammy, well, Tammy has
really bad make-up.
Jim and Tammy were only
the Adam and Eve of this new
Garden of Eden. This couple’s
fame (despite a less than
heavenly downfall) gave birth
to a stream of eager followers, hungry
to get a piece of the action, I mean,
spread the gospel.
Perhaps a clarification is in order.
There are some very legitimate religious
programs on the air. Programs like The
700 Club and Billy Graham specials at
least encourage some sort of intelligent
debate, and of course, there are broad
casts of actual Sunday morning services.
This category of programming should
not even be grouped with “religion as
entertainment” shows that are popping
up across the dial.
Case in point. One particular cable
channel solely is devoted to “religion,”
and viewers can tune in 24 hours a day
to be “enlightened.” Just a click of the re
mote, and an individual can be right in
the middle of a full-fledged tent revival
every day of the week.
These Bible-thumping jamborees
seem like worship time at Jim Morrison’s
“House of Acid.” There is arm waving,
speaking in tongues, gospel singing and
plenty of “hallelujahs.” Some days, one
can even catch a performance of the
channel’s Christian rapper, complete
with M.C. Hammer-style dancers. The
sets, I mean pulpits, are even reminis
cent of some Dr. Seuss tale gone bad,
complete with Rustoleum gold altars
and almost neon backdrops.
Dare we even mention the players
themselves. The ringleader is a garish
apparition of blue eye shadow and cot
ton candy-colored curls who sporadical
ly, and usually inappropriately, breaks
into song or laughter. Providing back-up
is a seemingly endless parade of pom-
padoured pledge-seekers who sing,
preach and “take testimony” from
washed-up celebrities on guest spots.
Perhaps the most entertaining, not to
mention downright scary, feature is the
casting out of demons. That’s right, real-
life exorcisms, complete with seizure
like reactions in the followers. The sick
and maligned simply can make their way
to the front of the church, and with just a
hand to the forehead and a quick abra
cadabra, the believers fall to the floor
completely “healed.”
This is not religion. Filling a packed
auditorium with paid audiences and
whipping them into semi-hypnotic
frenzies with chanting and singing is
not “church,” but some sort of evange
listic Lollapalooza that is a cross be
tween Mama’s Family and The Exorcist.
This is scary stuff.
Religion simply is not what it used to
represent. This is the institution that be
gat the likes of Martin Luther and Moth
er Teresa, and inspired works
like The Divine Comedy
and Paradise Lost. People
risked their lives in cata
combs and made pil
grimages across great
distances to places such
as Mecca and Canter
bury for the sake of re
ligion. In addition, our
country was created
for religious freedom.
One can be fairly cer
tain Pilgrims did not
cross the Atlantic and
die by the hundreds so
Americans of today
could be zombified by
Aqua Net nightmares
on the boob tube.
Whatever a person
believes, he or she
should stand by that and want
to see that belief respected. If
people want religious inspiration
or to share worship with others,
they should go to a local church,
synagogue or temple.
Religion inspires a great manyunan -,
swerable questions, but here’s a fact tort ^
on: When the 24-hour donation line is
constantly up on the screen, yourreligio
fulfillment is not top priority. And wh3e
might be fun to sing along with "Betty
Sue” on Trinity Broadcast Network’s (/pi
Melody Mountain, remember, even “Ben
Sue” has to make a buck.
<
Graphic: Brad Graeta
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