Jimmy Swaggart's Secular Confession

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The published version is available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02773940902766748 .Following the exposure of televangelist Jimmy Swaggart’s illicit rendezvous with a New Orleans prostitute, the Assemblies of God simultaneously orchestrated a massive attempt to silence those who would discuss the tryst and arranged the most widely publicized confession in American history theretofore. The coincidence of a “silence campaign” with the vast distribution of a public confession invites us to reconsider the nature of the public confession. For what place has a public confession, the discourse of disclosure par excellence, in a silence campaign? This question is best answered, I argue, if we understand public confession not as a stable a-historical form, but as a practice that is informed by multiple, competing traditions. I argue that by situating Swaggart’s performance in a philosophically modern and secular tradition of public confession we can understand both its complicity in a silence campaign and, more generally, the political logic of the modern public confession

The afterlife of colonial radio in Christian missionary broadcasting of the Philippines

The article explores Christian missionary radio broadcasting as part of a wider sonic colonization of the Philippines under US colonial rule. Specifically, I explore how some post-Second World War faith-based broadcasters shaped the listening practices of Filipino audiences through programming tactics such as blocktiming. Furthermore, I consider how missionary broadcasters cultivated direct relationships with listeners through the imagined ‘shared experiences’ of aural space. As a case study, I explore the activities of the US-based Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC), which began its operations in the Philippines in 1948. Since then, the organization has used the country as a hub for its expanding domestic and international radio network, which now includes broadcasts to South East Asia, China and other parts of the world. In addition to exploring how FEBC’s localized approach to programming has cultivated specific listening audiences, I explore how programmes have been received by listeners in the Philippines, many of whom continue to tune in via terrestrial radio

Three steps to powerful Christian communication in a digitally fallen world (Video)

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonslectureships/1690/thumbnail.jp

Talk back session, (2002, June 18)

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatschapelservices/4187/thumbnail.jp

Why teaching and preaching are so ineffective in today\u27s world

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatschapelservices/4912/thumbnail.jp

From Jerry Springer to Matt Drudge : miscommunication in a postmodern world (Video)

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonslectureships/1689/thumbnail.jp

Dancing in the dark : youth, popular culture, and the electronic media

Grand Rapidsxii, 348 p.; 23 c