Nelson, J.W. (1976). Your god is alive and well and appearing in popular culture. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.

OVERVIEW

You see immediately that this book is dated. But it encourages a look at popular culture—and reflections on how pop culture’s belief system has changed from the 1950s to the 1990s and beyond.

The author’s wife considers television to be the scourge of Western civilization and his friends wonder how and why a professor of systematic theology finds time to be a specialist in popular culture. Well, "popular culture entertains, to be sure; it provides laughter, tears, thrills and excitement, and occasionally sexual stimulation," responds the writer. But it also reaffirms the value of a society "in the same way that rituals of worship services undergird and reaffirm religious beliefs." (p. 16)

This is the thesis of this book: the many aspects of popular culture support, reaffirm, and celebrate the values of non-traditional, urban cultures in the same way that religious icons and services support and celebrate religious values:

The success of any unit of popular culture is directly proportionate to its ability to perform satisfactorily the religious function of affirming and supporting beliefs already held in the dominant American (or another society’s) cultural belief system.

Popular culture is to what most Americans believe as worship services are to what the members of institutional religions believe.

All religions offer a system of beliefs and values, but so does American (or any other) society. And the set of beliefs and values offered by American culture are not beliefs and values to which we are converted. We grow up believing that they are true. (p. 16)

All groups or cultures are drawn into a common belief system. Membership in that culture, society, or subculture is felt and seen in holding some common views or perspectives:

• Shared views of what is unsatisfactory about present experience.
• Shared views about the source of that unsatisfactory situation.
• Shared views of the nature of the delivering force through which the source of evil is defeated.
• Shared views of what a resolved situation would look like.
• Shared views of the "Way," or path to follow, to this perfection, if such a catechism is necessary. (pp. 20-21)

It is important to look at these aspects of a culture from the perspective of a gang or particular youth culture, rising fundamentalism (whether Muslim, Jewish, or Christian), new age, Hollywood, middle-class suburbia, and the inner city (barrio or ghetto and street culture).

Consider the nature and source of evil (in the first two bullets above) to family life (e.g., extramarital sex and divorce), to communities (drugs and crime), or a nation (terrorism or threat of war). Who can deliver us from such evil? Nelson says, "the predominance of American cultural faith is in the individual messiah (In the 90s, we might look to Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Capt. Rabb of JAG who brings in the team concept typical of the decade.).

Deliverance in secular drama (third bullet) comes from heroes with unusual human abilities.

More often than not, this special ability—whether a quick draw, iron fists, or kung-fu physical agility—will be combined with an almost uncanny coolness and imperturbable self-control in the face of evil incarnate. In any case, it will always be necessary for the hero to dispatch the villain with an act of violence. This is justified by the righteousness of the cause and the ineffectiveness (of law and criminal justice systems)_This individual deliverer in the ritual drama has a mysterious past, in unmarried and therefore "free" to come and go at will, and usually male. Finally, the individual’s deliverance of the community is a self-sacrificing deed. (p. 23)

What then is the goal of secular deliverance (fourth bullet)?

The situation into which we are delivered in the classic form is family and the family-community, stabilized and promoted by schools and churches, by law and order, by peace, tranquility, domesticity. Women make it possible. Their strength and centrality in family life is the mark of civilization. The adolescent irresponsibility of men makes deliverance necessary. The responsible life is married family life. Behind the gun is a man; behind the man is a woman. She gives the whole enterprise merit and purpose. (p. 23)

For Nelson "the dominant belief system of American life found a normative ritual form of expression in ‘the Western.’ In no other type of mythological drama is this dominant American salvation myth more comprehensively fixed." (p. 17)

When the Western plains of the open frontier were no longer a credible dream—and as the ideals of American mythology began to fade (after the 1960s)—it was necessary to create an anti-Western. In these movies heroes were flawed, lived and worked in the city, played with immoral women, and even died without success. Still, audiences craved drama in which good triumphs over evil. Their dramatic need was met by the good detective—and by taking the Western into space as in "Star Wars."

Finally, there is need for instruction in the proper way (bullet five). Ritual drama, according to Nelson, gives only the eschatological and heroic aspect of this teaching. Secular culture needs more instruction than the movies can give. Nelson constructs further parallels between the propagation of religious and secular values in various media.

• Movies are to secular audiences as revival or church services are for believers.
• Television began as a secular version of religious family devotions; now more like personal devotions. (Formulaic, regular time slot, anticipated)
• Magazines are secular manuals of catechism like personal Bible study. They are studied to show us how to look and live (girls and guys) or do our thing (guys and girls).
• Popular literature with its genres of Gothic romance, science fiction, horror, and detective fiction, though not as powerful as the word-image combination of TV and films, also promise some deliverance and final triumph of the human spirit over evil.
• Country music’s "ritual simplicity_consistent thematic organizations" gives hope for common people living in the real world. It was our country’s "secular hymnody" and continues to emerge in new styles.
• There is much of interest and insight in this book though it is obviously dated. In conclusion, the author leaves us with several suggestions in approaching popular culture.
• Resist the temptation of dismissing popular culture as trivial and remember that popular culture is ritual drama—not everyday life. It is usually an exaggerated and stylized picture of our existence.
• This study is not meant to make religious believers choose between their faith and culture but to see that there is an interface between one’s loyalty to country and to faith.
• It is important to "keep our fingers on the pulse of (our country’s) value system." (p. 204)
• "Be responsible for what you believe" in terms of your secular culture and your faith. Understand the premises and values of both. Develop a consistent world-view. (p. 206)

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What do you consider to be the necessary and legitimate functions of popular culture?
2. How do you assess the health of the popular culture of your society?
3. What do you consider to be the main values of your society? How strongly do you share the values of your country or culture? Would you die to defend them?
4. Do you agree with this author that a people’s values need to be affirmed and celebrated much as religious beliefs and values need instruction and celebration?
5. With what here do you disagree, or about what would you like to see further discussion?

IMPLICATIONS

1. As human beings we are all cultural creatures.
2. Each culture has a belief system and certain values held dear. These values do need to be affirmed and celebrated.
3. The beliefs and values of religious faith interface with secular beliefs and values.
4. Secular cultures allow for a plurality of faiths and belief systems. A plurality of beliefs brings relativity to cultural truth. People of faith seek absolute truth and values in religious revelation.