Turn off the TV and tune in community, faith

I recently spoke with a friend in the media industry who insisted that television has become more powerful than God.

Now, as you might imagine, this statement was issued expressly as a move in the taunt-the-minister game.

My longtime friends – smart, savvy men and women in their early 30s who live in large cities and work in media, computers, publishing and the ever-expanding service industry – never tire of throwing down the popular culture gauntlet and watching me take up the challenge.

On this occasion I did not disappoint, but sallied bravely into battle, insisting that religion – be it liberal or conservative, Christian, Unitarian Universalist, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu or Jewish – was more powerful than the televised media, and that the innate spiritual nature of human beings would always win out over the most intoxicating televised drama, factual or fictionalized.

And, I have to tell you: I lost this fight.

These women and men, some with families, some single, are exactly the people we would like to attract to our religious communities.

They are independent, both financially and intellectually, educated, earnest, deeply concerned about the world, and longing for empowerment and insight. Perhaps you know people like them. Perhaps you are one.

These “young adults,” as we term them in Unitarian Universalism, will tell you that they are not “religious.” And, they do spend a lot of time watching awards shows, HBO dramas, local newscasts, CNN, political commentaries and comedies, sitcoms, and “Lost.” They get both their stock and news updates via the Internet. They are motivated by good causes and often politically liberal, but they don’t vote. They never come to church, mosque or synagogue.

In the lives of this segment of the population, both liberal and conservative, and in the lives of many other groups in our American culture, television is more powerful than God, or, certainly, more influential.

Television dictates behavior, dress, artistic preferences and future trends. Certainly there are charismatic and fundamentalist megachurches able to buck this trend, able to attract young adults through a huge variety of programming and what some of us might feel are questions to answers of faith too easily given and received.

But for most mainline churches, and many synagogues, this loss of the young and upcoming crowd to the secular religion of media is of grave concern. Not only do we feel the drain of this trend on our religious communities, we feel its inevitable influence on our society as a whole.

While the religious and political right rises, often using the televised media to get its message broadcast locally, nationally and internationally, liberal and moderate mainstream Americans remain underrepresented in both broadcast and print media, without any visible movement toward changing that trend.

One answer to this dilemma is to change the media, make them more representative of our varied cultural, political and religious voices, hold them accountable to the mainstream and liberal views of America, demanding truth and integrity in reporting and a separation from corporate ownership and sponsorship of radio, news, television shows and film.

In this scenario, media continue to reign supreme, but their dictatorship becomes more benevolent.

There’s another solution.

It is the acknowledgment by smart and savvy men and women that even moderates and liberals can and do worship at the altars of false gods.

We might think hard about our loyalties and priorities and deduce that no television show in the world, no matter how entertaining, insightful, newsworthy or culturally influential, can fulfill the human desire to achieve spiritual knowledge about ourselves, our attachment to and communion with the divine, and our desire for loving connection with other human beings.

The place to achieve that kind of communion and community is at our local church, synagogue, mosque or temple. Contrary to popular belief, joining in the spiritual journey at one of these places will not limit our smarts or savvy or inhibit our intellectual or financial freedom, but will enhance our ability to gain insight, make changes, live kindly upon the earth and join in the struggle for justice in our neighborhoods, cities and states.

Sure, the hilarity of “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart can let you enjoy a short-lived satirical catharsis, but only a deeply spiritual community can give you the ability to sustain your sense of humor in the face of both triumph and tragedy.

And, yes, CNN can tell you what’s in the news, but your local religious community can teach you how to be part of it – a real and active part of the pulsating human drama that invites and involves us all. Turn off the TV – join in the show.

Jennifer Emrich-Shanks is student minister at Castine Unitarian Church. She may be reached through bdnreligion@bangordailynews.net. Voices is a weekly commentary by Maine columnists who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.