How did religion play a role in creating the american character

The average woman or man on the street might not automatically associate religion and entertainment. The latter might seem to be secular by design or default. The former lends itself to words like sacred, holy, worship, ritual, and maybe even humorless. America’s arch-gadfly, H. L. Mencken may have best expressed this thinking with his witticism about Anglo-America’s founding faith. “Puritanism,” he quipped, could be summed up as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”1

Defining Entertainment

Such examples abound all through American history. Yet before delving into the rich history on the intertwining of religion and entertainment, it will help to set out some of the parameters. What do we mean by “entertainment” when it comes to American religious history and culture? Like the terms “pop culture” or “mass culture,” entertainment can seem quite nebulous. John Storey, the British cultural studies scholar, and some others have pointed to one standard definition of pop culture as “the culture which is left over after we have decided what is high culture.” This usually indicates “inferior culture.”4 But entertainment can be of the “high” or “low” variety. An organ recital in an Episcopal church in New York City or a bebop jazz concert in a Berkeley, California, Catholic church will look rather different from a low-budget fundamentalist TV puppet show or a performance of the martial arts and strongman evangelism of the Power Team. But whether high or low, these can be under the same broad, general entertainment category.

Pre-Columbian Developments and Native Americans

Colonizers and Cultures in Conflict

Puritans, in other aspects of life, encouraged play and some leisure activities. Children’s toys and evidence of games and sports speak to this lighter side. Puritan literature and sermons, as well, could have a playful and entertaining quality. Bruce Daniels, for instance, observes that “As does the popular culture of any society, Puritan writing fused religion, entertainment, moral education, and views of science and history.” The ubiquitous metaphor of pilgrimage, Daniels argues, could include harrowing accounts of journeys and fanciful tales of sin and salvation. Indian captivity narratives, too, were intended to instruct the saints. But these also thrilled, inspired, and entertained readers with shocking accounts of heroism, redemption, and fearful struggle.14

African Slaves and African Survivals

18th-Century Revivals and Preaching

These heavily attended spectacles also brought to the fore what might be called America’s first celebrities. Well-known traveling preachers—including Gilbert Tennent, James Davenport, and Andrew Croswell—were among these. The promoters of this new, heightened spirituality denounced the staid, established ministry. They also emphasized the need for a converted ministry, extemporaneous preaching, and a more passionate style that could draw massive, non-denominational crowds. Most successful, and most famous, was the Anglican iterant George Whitefield. Though he suffered from crossed eyes and was a controversial figure for numerous, more conservative clergy, Whitefield had a special knack for planning and promoting his outdoor services.

Popular Religion in the 19th Century

Church Construction in the 19th Century

The Holiness Movement, Pentecostalism, and Fundamentalism

Immigrants and Hollywood

Hollywood studios and key figures in the industry had Jewish roots. Samuel Goldwyn (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios) and Adolph Zucker (Paramount) both studied in their youth at European yeshivot, religious training schools.31 Jewish actors like Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Groucho Marx, Dinah Shore, and Danny Kaye joined directors, cinematographers, and writers in making a major mark on popular culture. Still, many movies, as with those that dealt with Catholicism, downplayed religious differences and uniqueness and focused instead on assimilation and Americanization. A kind of consensus model of religion or a type of civil religion informed Hollywood throughout most of the century.

African Americans and Popular Music

Little Richard, one of the founders of the rock and roll genre, counted Tharpe as one of his most powerful influences. He also admired and styled himself after the flashy singing evangelist Brother Joe May, the “Thunderbolt of the Middle West.” Though Richard was raised a Seventh-day Adventist, he regularly attended black Pentecostal services because the music and the dancing were so invigorating. Other early rock legends similarly had experiences with and even deep roots in the black and white Pentecostal music and worship tradition. Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis both grew up in the Assemblies of God Church. Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette spent part of their youth in the Church of God (Cleveland). B. B. King, like Tharpe, went to the Church of God in Christ. Elvis counted himself an enormous fan of the gospel stylings of white quartets like the Blackwood Brothers and the Stamps Quartet. He also appreciated and modeled his singing after black groups like the Golden Gate Quartet.34

Jesus Rock and Countercultural Christianity

Televangelism, the Electronic Church, and Christian Pop Culture

Other religious celebrities of television, like Pat Robertson and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, experimented with the talk show format, the use of puppets and children’s programming, political chat shows, and more. The Bakker’s Christian theme park, Heritage USA in Fort Mill, South Carolina, was one of a range of amusement spots, roadside religious attractions, and leisure gathering places for the faithful. Others included the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida; the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter in Petersburg and Williamstown, Kentucky; and the World’s Largest Ten Commandments display in Murphy, North Carolina. By the 1990s and 2000s, new celebrity TV ministers dominated the airwaves, including T. D. Jakes, Joel Osteen, John Hagee, Creflo Dollar, and Joyce Meyer. These have all been made possible because, since the 1970s, new television outlets, such as Trinity Broadcasting Network, Christian Broadcasting Network, and Daystar blended lighthearted fair with hard-sell evangelism and shows about the imminent apocalypse.37 Campaigns that broadened out into podcasting, social media, Youtube channels, and other new media in the new century proved to be popular and natural extensions of ministry.

Over the centuries, American believers have shown a remarkable ability to blend their faith with popular culture. They have used once-shunned venues like the theater, the rock concert hall, or the amusement park to draw in seekers or new members. The mixture of sports and religion, since the days of Victorian muscular Christian, continues to be attractive to Americans, eager to link up small or large victories on the field with a higher message.

Review of the Literature

The literature on religion and entertainment in America addresses questions from a variety of angles. Some scholars focus heavily on the secular realm and film, popular music, performance, sports, radio, and television. Others study how churches, denominations, temples, and mosques engage in what might be called entertainment for outreach purposes. The scholarship on the topic goes all the way back to first contact between natives and white settlers. What follows is just a small sampling of the rich research on the subject.

How did religion play a role in American history?

How does religion influence the development of a person?

What role did religion play in shaping the Civil War?

What is the influence of religion in shaping the personality of a person?