
By: R. Murray-o'hair
Re: Reselling of Religion

 THE RESELLING AND RE-PACKAGING OF RELIGION

  by Conrad Goeringer

   Faced with declining attendance, churches throughout the country are
desperately seeking ways of bringing in new members of the flock.

   In an analysis of recent media reports, church officials spoke of
"repackaging religion" and even making their services more "user
friendly."  An associate professor of religion at one university
declared, "You're dealing with a product that you can market and sell."

   In the modern era, the trend actually goes back to the Vatican Council
("Vatican I") which replaced the old Latin mass with English and
other-language versions.  The sixties witnessed attempts to modernize
religious services, using everything from rock and roll music to "street
ministries" based in store fronts.  Trendy practices such as inviting
female participation ("co- celebrants") raised burning questions about
women distributing communion. Churches also had priests and ministers
face the audience -- an alternative to the perpetual turned back.

   Rewriting songs, prayers and even biblical verse is being tried as
well.  Several church groups have conveniently altered the word of their
supposed infallible god, omitting "sexist" or "violent" language. Ersatz
"feminist" movements within some religions, including  the Roman
Catholic, are promoting the worship of "Sophia," a goddess of sorts who
seems to be a cross between the Virgin Mary and Jehovah.

   All of this symbolizes the trend of "do it yourself" religion, a
development not viewed favorably though by biblical literalists  and
fundamentalists.

   A relatively recent trend is the "express worship" service for busy
parishioners.  One New Jersey pastor offers Sunday superstition-ritual in
22 minutes.  Nearby, a Roman Catholic priest has set up a chapel in a
shopping mall for "quickie" masses and confessions.

   "Churches ARE changing," has declared one minister.  "They're using
words like marketing. We have to market a church so people know we're
there . . . "

   Another source in the changing face of American religion has been the rise o
 the televangelist,
the "electronic church." Bishop Fulton Sheen was the first major prelate
to take advantage of the TV medium in the 1950s, a step which led to such
boring programs as "Mass for the Shut-In. But it was Protestant, and
mostly right-wing evangelicals who seized upon the power of television to
create an "extended church.   Today, religious groups own cable channels,
satellite programs, movie/video production companies  and a considerable
mass-marketed outreach.

   Ironically, religion is taking advantage of other social trends,
including the "dumbing down" of people and the inability of individuals
to sustain their attention for prolonged periods of time. According to
the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, one religion professor declared "The people
who have grown up on the mall and MTV have a different attention span and
a different way of dealing with the world around them.  It probably makes
sense to package religion in a way that appeals to them."

   Whether this mass-market strategy will reverse the trend in declining
church attendance remains to be seen.  Larger mainstream religions have
lost membership; crank-cults and fundamentalist churches, however, have
grown.  So has the Mormon church.  Quickie-express religion may be as
ephemeral as anything else which is peddled at the neighborhood mall.

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