Author: Papri Sri Raman
Publication: ThaIndian.com
Date: July 22, 2008
URL: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/looking-at-christianitys-handshake-with-media-in-india-book-review_10074366.html
Book: "Strong Religion, Zealous Media";
Author: Pradip Ninan Thomas; Publisher: Sage Publications; Pages: 207 The
book is a result of a two-year study done in Chennai by Pradip Ninan Thomas,
an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the
University of Queensland, and naturally an academic point of view.
"(It was) inspired by a comment about
conversions and riots in Gujarat by the historian William Dalrymple in an
article several years ago," Thomas told IANS.
"It suddenly opened my eyes to the fundamentalism
that is getting entrenched in Christianity across the world, in Brazil, (South)
Korea, Africa and also in India."
One of the reasons why Thomas took up the
study of modern-day Christian fundamentalism in Tamil Nadu is because as many
as 62 million people in the southern state follow the religion.
"Chennai is today considered the fastest-growing
hub of Christianity in South Asia," he says.
His study is preceded by Lionel Caplan's 1987
work "Fundamentalism as a Counter-Culture: Protestants in Urban South
India" and Susan Bayly's 1994 study in southern Tamil Nadu and Kerala,
"Christians and Competing Fundamentalism in South Indian Society".
Thomas has left himself open to criticism
that he is playing directly into the hands of rising Hindu and Islamic fundamentalism
by choosing to investigate how neo-Christian camps in India use the media
and its audio-visual power to hypnotise their constituencies with "good
news", miracles and blessings.
Thomas writes that "Christian fundamentalists",
like Islamic fundamentalists, "belong to a global umma and harbour real
and perhaps imagined…longings directed towards making all of god's people
Christian".
Thomas says he himself is a practicing Christian,
but that it is time "mainstream churches" begin looking at "Christianity
in India and begin going to the media more" to halt what he calls "Karaoke"
Christianity.
His concern is delivered in his critique of
the media-supported Joshua project, the Christian Broadcasting Network and
the evangelism of GOD TV, the 700 Club, Num TV of the Chennai-based organisation
Jesus Calls, the Rede Record TV Network belonging to Brazil's Pentecostal
movement and such other mass followed sects.
He fears that more and more the "worship
experience on a Sunday" is being overtaken by rallies like those organised
by Benny Hinn Inc (in the US).
"Politics of mis-recognition certainly
applies to Christian broadcasting in India," Thomas notes.
The book takes a close look at India's Pentecostal
and neo-Pentecostal movements, their use of radio, television, merging church
space with multi-media.
Thomas says his is a "wake-up call"
to the traditional church in India to recognise the danger of fundamentalist
incursions into a faith that is largely seen as beneficial and peaceful, surviving
for several thousand years in a multicultural, multi-religious space, which
this subcontinent has provided.
Warning against "evangelic spectacles"
and various "brands of exclusive Christianity", Thomas gives the
example of "militantly pro-conversion events" like the "Every
Tribe, Every Tongue" convention in 2006, attended by political bigwigs
like P. Chidambaram and from the self-proclaimed atheist Dravidian party the
DMK and 20,000 others who had gathered in Chennai from all across tribal India.
The event was supported by the International
Living Mission; the stated objective of this group is: "In India itself
there are more than 500,000 villages who have never heard about Jesus. There
is neither a church nor has any missionary been in these parts. Our responsibility
as the chosen one of god is to make an opportunity for these people so that
they too can hear the word of god."
Such events generate "new meaning for
religion and politics, simultaneously mixing the religious with business and
finance, creating spectacular events and media personalities", Thomas
points out.
"Liberal Christians…along with many
others in India certainly have serious misgivings about" this kind of
aggressive proselytisation, Thomas says.
"The traditional church is, however,
reluctant to admit it and take action against this, especially in the face
of rising Hindu and Islamic fundamentalism."
The traditional church "keeps quiet"
because it "feels the need to maintain unity" among Christians of
all denomination, Thomas says, advocating that traditional religion, including
traditional Christianity, should search for a media model like Canada's "Vision
TV" to reach out to India's pluralist multitude.
