Churches Try Television

Churches try television

Virtually no TV news programs which treat religious events and issues as something which Canadians want to know about. By Dennis Gruending A Toronto newspaper columnist has described Canada's churches as "yesterday's critics," who, in his view, lack "contemporary resonance." Not all Canadian reporters and editors would agree with that sentiment, but news coverage most often relegates churches to the margin of public life and debate. Christopher Waddell, CBC TV's bureau chief in Ottawa, says: "We cover big events, events, like the pope's visit to Canada or annual conferences or conventions. But on a daily on-going basis, there is very little coverage, virtually none."

One might argue that the churches' influence in Canadian society has waned, and that journalists and editors perceive no market for religious news. There is, indeed, a widespread belief that in Canada religious values hold little sway with people.

But this belief is being challenged. In the 1991 federal census, fully 87 percent of Canadians claimed adherence to a religion. In 1992, an Angus Reid company survey found that eight of 10 Canadians believe in God, two-thirds believe that Christ died and was resurrected, and one-third of the adult population prays daily.

Reid, among others, found the results surprising. "One might have assumed that a lot of Canadians are either atheists or agnostics on the basis of reading the secular press," he says. "I think the so-called elite have a lower incidence of religious belief perhaps than people of an everyday working level."

If Reid is right, those Canadian journalists who believe there is no public interest in religion are missing a big story.

It's worth mentioning that Canadian newspapers pay more attention to religion that does television. Several Canadian dailies, notably the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, and Vancouver Sun, have specialists assigned to covering religion and ethics.

But television is another matter. There are virtually no news programs which treat religious events and issues as something which Canadians want to know about.

It perhaps for this reason that Canadian churches, including Catholics, are becoming significantly involved in television production themselves. A coalition of Catholic groups appears weekly on Vision TV with a program called Catholic Journal. Another organization, the National Catholic Broadcasting Foundation, created by bishops in the English-Catholic sector and supported by Catholic and other organizations, is preparing to broadcast television programming as well.

Vision TV is the vehicle of choice for some churches, including particularly the Anglican and United Churches. But much of the most recent broadcasting initiative is coming from evangelical churches. They would prefer their own single-faith television services rather than an arrangement with Vision TV, where they must share time with people of other Christian faiths and world religions.

It was the evangelicals who challenged the CRTC's right to regulate balance and Canadian content in religious broadcasting, a action that led to the Commission's holding hearings in October 1992 to revisit its policy.

Following the hearings the CRTC loosened its broadcasting regulations, allowing for single-faith religious services. In April 1995, Victory Christian Fellowship in Lethbridge became the first such service to receive a licence. Eight other groups have attempted, unsuccessfully, to obtain permission from the CRTC to serve Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg.

In future we may well see a proliferation of religious broadcast services. The trend toward the fragmentation of television audiences in Canada, and the accompanying explosion of specialty television services is by now well established.

Churches may discover that, rather than lobbying unsympathetic mainstream networks to pay more attention to religious events and issues, they can provide the programming themselves.

Dennis Gruending wrote this article in 1995. Gruending has worked as a reporter for three Canadian newspapers, CBC radio, CBC TV and also served for four years as director of information for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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