Television Church

Fundamentalist church of the United States has tried to adopt modern methods of propaganda to attract more people to their side. The church using modern technology and offering diverse facilities, tries to distance its message of invitation from the church space and its limited number of attendants who come to church on Sundays and holidays and special occasions, and using Satellite and TV, develop its advertising ranges across the United States.
An American citizen, while taking a rest in his home or lying on his bed will be able to participate in religious programs and television Church's prayer ceremony without going to the church. By giving a small amount of subscription to the church, he can make use of such programs; he may also receive various publications. These publications don’t only contain moral and religious recommendations, but also discover all things that are attractive to people, from elections and political issues to social affairs, taxation, abortion, the role of women, prayer in schools and family, nuclear war, communism and the approval and support of the policies of Israel as factors that lead to God's satisfaction.
Studies and surveys of Gallup organization has shown that about seventy million Americans use such "Television Church" networks whose number amount to 104 transmitters. In addition, 1006 cable TV channels provide Christian programs.
On the other hand, the number of publishers of Christian books reaches to 1300 publishers that seven thousand bookshops are responsible for the distribution and sales of these books and the yearly sale of these book amounts to three billion dollars.
Television Church with its attractive programs keeps different walks of society of various ages, even children, busy to themselves. Studies have shown that 30% of viewers of the program “Gospel Hour” which is performed by Bishop Jerry Falwell, are children.
In order to attract more viewers, television Church do not only broadcast diversified programs through radio and television transmitters, but it purchases other attractive programs from popular networks and broadcasting them in order to increase the scope of its acceptance. The penetration and influence of Church programs on the character and thought of American citizens is so much that after the press which is the fourth estate, it is referred to as the fifth pillar.
Gallup Research Institute in 1981 declared that in the course of one month, about 52 million Americans watch television church at least once. The figure in 1983 reached to sixty million, and in 1984 it reached to 25 million a week.
In any case, what is certain is that these TV programs, in the eighties, had developed qualitatively and quantitatively to the extent that its artists were introduced as a new phenomenon in American people's daily lives. It is to be mentioned that the number of broadcast stations of this TV in 1985 totaled to 1500.
According to information from the magazine Christianity Today gathered in cooperation with Gallup Institute in 1980, 26% of Church TV viewers donate more than 10% of their income to support and strengthen Church TV visual and audio programs.
The data indicate that 85% of listeners and viewers of media Church, by the have turned to religion influenced by the programs of the church. In addition, these data indicate that annual revenues of these churches from donations of the followers reaches to more than one billion dollars and if we add the revenues from advertising and other things that to it, the figure will reach to an amount of two billion dollars a year.
More recent studies indicate that in the United States, the average time a high school students spend for watching TV is more than the time they go to school, but adults spend half of their leisure time for watching TV.
Here, the programs by the bishop Billy Graham which is one of the oldest religious programs and is broadcasted by the title "decision time" from 1950 is run by nine hundred radio and television stations. The program "Bible study", is also broadcasted by a thousand radio station in the world, and the daily program "Day of Discovery" has seven million viewers.
Pat Robertson program called "seven hundred Club" in the world, has more than a million viewers all over the world. CBN television network broadcasts its programs in sixty countries and in four different languages. James Dubson organization in order to run the radio program, "Paying attention to the Family," which is broadcasted from eight different stations, spends114 million dollars annually and about five million people listen to it in a week.
In addition to famous figures of Christian Zionism, a multitude of diverse religious programs are broadcasted in the United States continuously by eight hundred fundamentalist priests, through more than a thousand visual media.
Christian fundamentalists in the United States, in addition to publishing special advertising messages through Church TV, radio, cassettes, computer CDs, internet networks, books, magazines, various publications, have also use other products such as T-shirts, hats, kitchen furniture, and travel goods.