Today’s blog post got picked up by WIMN (Women in Media & News). Be sure to check out their site for some insight from a female perspective.

According to an article in today’s New York Post, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer is instrumental in 50,000 women leaving the church every year. This information is based on a new report by Dr Kristin Aune, a sociologist at the University of Derby. According to this work, Buffy introduces young women to Wicca, which holds a particular appeal to this group because of the empowerment messages for women within this belief system. This message is more appealing for this demographic than those provided by traditional religious institutions.

Surprise, surprise, the Post article is a bit misleading. Dr. Aune’s work is contained in an edited booked called Women and Religion in the West: Challenging Secularization.

This title suggests that similar to my own thinking, this work attempts to evaluate how faith is being practiced in new ways and not necessarily that there is horror at the decline in traditional church attendance (a fundamental aspect of secularlization theory). Much as I argue that faith has not disappeared, but rather is found and practiced in new ways, Dr. Aune seems to be suggesting the same ideas.

“Today’s modern woman sees more relevance in TV icons who promote female empowerment such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, than in church and traditional religion” (University of Derby Web site)

In digging a bit further, I found that Buffy is just one element in what Dr. Aune believes has contributed to the decline in church attendance. Others are:

* Fertility levels – women have fewer children and are not having enough children to replace the older generation lost from the church.
* Feminist values – feminist values began influencing women in the 1960s and 1970s. Feminism challenged traditional Christian views about women’s roles and raised women’s aspirations.
* Paid employment – At the beginning of the 1900s, a third of women were in paid work, now two thirds are in the labour market. Juggling employment with childcare and housework causes time pressures and attending church is one activity to suffer.
* Family diversity – compared to wider society, churches include fewer non-traditional families. Family forms which are growing such as singleness, lone-parent families and cohabitation are under-provided for and even discouraged by churches.
* Sexuality – The church’s silence about sexuality is driving women to leave, feeling that the church requires them to deny or be silent about sexual desire and activity.

When I first read the Post article, it didn’t make sense to me because the research seemed to fly in the face of other media and religion scholars, notably Lynn Schofield Clark’s From Angels to Aliens. Rather, this research furthers existing work including my own. I guess it should not surprise us that the Post went for the sensational rather than the informational.

I just finished watching the interviews that Pastor Rick Warren did with Barack Obama and John McCain. All the news stations carried it. Here is the link to CNN.

Here are some random thoughts on this event. Please feel free to add your own:

If you’ve been following the case of Victoria Osteen, you know that the co-pastor of the Lakewood Church is accused of attacking a Continental airlines flight attendant.

While we may never know what exactly happened on that plane, what we do know is that Victoria and mega-pastor husband, Joel, as well as their two children were escorted off the flight. We also know that the Osteens paid $3000 in FAA fines. I say where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Beyond that, really, are two more interesting issues: the image that Victoria presents overall (and does that effect the marketing of the church) and women as the power behind successful religious leaders.

Victoria is the Texas, blonde, beauty queen (I don’t know if she ever really was a beauty queen but she looks like one of those Dallas women who spent their youth in endless pageants) who shops until she drops. We know this because Joel jokes about it in his sermons almost weekly. While Joel keeps the Jesus language to a minimum, Victoria endlessly invokes his name when she takes the podium (always off camera in terms of the TV audience). Can we get any more stereotypical?

In terms of marketing, however, this is perfect. The woman who keeps the home, loves her hubby and looks completely put together doing it all while being a “Christian woman” is the ideal for the type of membership that Lakewood appeals to.

On the other hand, Victoria seems to be the power behind the throne. Joel says she is the one that believed in him before he did himself. I don’t know, but I have to think she probably pushed to turn the Lakewood Church into the monolith it is today. It reminds me of the Kabbalah Centre — another successful profit-turning, tax exempt entity. Karen Berg, the wife of the Rav (the rabbi that began the organization), is reportedly the one who suggested moving to California and recruiting celebrities — a very smart business strategy indeed.

How could Victoria’s aggression not come out somewhere? How would you feel if you were the one calling the shots but someone else always got the spotlight? Maybe a more powerful prayer is needed.

The latest marketing trick to get people into church seems to be subsidizing people’s trip to the pump. I don’t remember where I originally saw this (I thought it was Religion & Ethics Newsweekly but I couldn’t find it there.) So I googled it and found that this seems to be a wider phenomenon than just one market.

While different churches are using different strategies, the prevailing trend appears to be for the church to pay 25 cents per gallon for each gallon purchased. While this is not a lot, it can mean an additional $5 in someone’s pocket.

Also, think about it, the church has a “captive audience” while someone is filling up their tank. What a great time to share the gospel! Several churches claimed they were just trying to demonstrate the love of Jesus and were not using the opportunity to proselytize which may in fact be the case. However, just being there and saying who they are is the very essence of marketing.