Does Anyone Actually WATCH Religious TV, Like EWTN Or Whatever?

[rastahomie]

NOTE: This is not a religious dig at anyone, nor is it a religious discussion.

Anyway, I just went through my DirecTV guide, line-by-line (all 800-something of them), and deleted the channels that I get but don't watch: mostly religious channels like EWTN and shopping channels and whatnot.

On the subject of EWTN, INSP, and other religious programming (I think I removed 20-30 such channels, from Catholic to Evangelical to Mormon to even Muslim and Jewish), does anyone actually watch those channels? The most devout Catholics I know have never seen an EWTN show in their lives, and the most devout Evangelicals I know regard most "Christian" TV programming as silly, at best, and condescending at worst.

So I ask, does anyone here find comfort, edification, or [a word like that] from watching channels like this? Clearly there's a market for this stuff, but as far as I can tell, that market consists of your grandmother's friend who is shut in but still wants to watch Mass on Sunday mornings so she can be a part of it.

 

[pryncess527]

My MIL "attends" a church she can only watch on TV like that. I don't think she watches other programming on the channel, per se, but she's watched her Pastor through his satellite channel for years. She even made the 700+ mile trip once to attend the actual church.

I honestly think she's averse to local churches in the area, a wide variety of reasons, and finds it easier to get the religious instruction she craves in a private environment.

 

[Magpie]

NOTE: This is not a religious dig at anyone, nor is it a religious discussion.

Anyway, I just went through my DirecTV guide, line-by-line (all 800-something of them), and deleted the channels that I get but don't watch: mostly religious channels like EWTN and shopping channels and whatnot.

On the subject of EWTN, INSP, and other religious programming (I think I removed 20-30 such channels, from Catholic to Evangelical to Mormon to even Muslim and Jewish), does anyone actually watch those channels? The most devout Catholics I know have never seen an EWTN show in their lives, and the most devout Evangelicals I know regard most "Christian" TV programming as silly, at best, and condescending at worst.

So I ask, does anyone here find comfort, edification, or [a word like that] from watching channels like this? Clearly there's a market for this stuff, but as far as I can tell, that market consists of your grandmother's friend who is shut in but still wants to watch Mass on Sunday mornings so she can be a part of it.

Nope. Closest I know of is a dear friend who enthusiastically watches Left Behind movies, and similar stuff. She also collects those tracts the door-to-door proselytizers hand out. And she's not even Christian!

I think she just finds it all highly hilarious.

 

[L&Lfan]

I know quite a few parishioners who watch EWTN in their homes or in our local Catholic nursing home. Especially for the Mass, Rosary and Divine Mercy devotions. I don't watch it myself but I'm kind of glad that "it's there" should I ever need spiritual comfort and couldn't get to my parish. I have no interest in any other denomination's or religion's programming. I kind of lump all that stuff in with all the sports, shopping, lifestyle, do it yourself, children's, foreign language, etc. channels I have no use for

 

[L&Lfan]

Nope. Closest I know of is a dear friend who enthusiastically watches Left Behind movies, and similar stuff. She also collects those tracts the door-to-door proselytizers hand out. And she's not even Christian!

I think she just finds it all highly hilarious.

I used to do that with all the Watchtowers and Jack Chick tracts I used to find.

 

[Klayfish]

No, definitely not.

Not to get too far off topic, but I'm a DirecTV customer too. It's amazing the number of channels that are out there...there's something for pretty much every taste, style, whatever. Sad part is that we're paying for all those channels, and I doubt we use more than 10 of them regularly. Pretty much it's all the sports channels, HGTV, Boomerang, Teen Nick, Velocity and not much else (maybe the local affiliate that carries Jeopardy). We almost never use any other channels.

 

[amberpi]

I'm an ATT client and weeded out the religious, home shopping and sports channels when it was set up to just get to the basic stuff I might actually care about when channel surfing.

 

[piccolopat]

We watch Mass during the summer when we are on break from our music ministry. We have Comcast and we never watch any of the sports, shopping or Spanish language stations and we would really like to remove them from the online guide. It's frustrating to have to scroll through so many stations that we have no interest in, even if they are a part of our subscription.

 

[Magpie]

I used to do that with all the Watchtowers and Jack Chick tracts I used to find.

OMG, I LOVED Chick tracts!

Did you ever read the one where the D&D player's character gets killed off, so she commits suicide? "Dark Dungeons," I believe. That one was apparently made into a (suitably terrible) movie, according to my friend.

I always thought Chick tracts had rather the opposite effect than was intended, though. Instead of making me want to be more godly, they just made me want to ridicule anyone who actually believed any of the nonsense they were promoting.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I don't watch them personally, but have aunts that watch EWTN, and know other people who are pretty housebound that watch the channel.

 

[rastahomie]

I kind of lump all that stuff in with all the sports, shopping, lifestyle, do it yourself, children's, foreign language, etc. channels I have no use for

I will be SO glad when a la carte satellite programming becomes a thing.

What really grinds my gears about DirecTV is that my sports package consists mainly of about 250-300 sports channels that don't even carry anything most of the week (Fox Sports Mid-Tennessee? Seriously?), and when they do it's something like women's college lacrosse.

But when I want to watch an MLS game of the MLS team that's actually near me, well, too bad. It's either blacked out or on a subscription-only channel.

 

[wenrob]

My extended family are all Mormon (I am not), "jack" on dad's side, pretty devout on mom's side. The all watch the general conferences, woman's conferences etc. Whether that's a dedicated channel or not I'm not sure. I remember them being on (all flippin' day!) when I was a kid before there were 6 billion channels the choose from.

I have gone through and deleted all the bilingual channels, religious channels, public channel and music channels off of mine. I read an explanation of why those channels are tacked on and how it would actually cost more if they weren't and it made sense at the time. I'm just glad I can remove them from the guide and don't have scroll through them anymore.

For the record INSP has some good stuff on it like Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, Highway to Heaven, Bonanza, Matlock etc.

 

[rastahomie]

My extended family are all Mormon (I am not), "jack" on dad's side, pretty devout on mom's side.

What does "jack" mean in this context? I"m not familiar with the usage.

 

[Magpie]

What does "jack" mean in this context? I"m not familiar with the usage.

It just means he's not very observant.

Similar to being a "lapsed Catholic". Or that Jewish guy who really loves his bacon cheeseburgers. With a side of lobster sauce.

 

[rastahomie]

It just means he's not very observant.

Similar to being a "lapsed Catholic". Or that Jewish guy who really loves his bacon cheeseburgers. With a side of lobster sauce.

So a "jack" Mormon drinks coffee?

 

[rastahomie]

I read an explanation of why those channels are tacked on and how it would actually cost more if they weren't and it made sense at the time.

I imagine that, in the case of the shopping channels, the satellite/cable provider either gets a cut or a flat fee. Not sure about the religion channels.

 

[Magpie]

So a "jack" Mormon drinks coffee?

Heck, he might even put a shot of whiskey in it!

Wikipedia actually has a pretty interesting write up on the history of the term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Mormon

I love this quote: "Born by chance into membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Smith was on lifetime sabbatical from his religion. He was a jack Mormon. A jack Mormon is to a decent Mormon what a jackrabbit is to a cottontail."

 

[wenrob]

So a "jack" Mormon drinks coffee?

And beer, lol. My Dad doesn't consider himself Mormon in any context anymore. His side while they are they're very, very loose about it.

 

[snoodledoo]

When we had DirecTV, I sometimes watched BYU TV for the volleyball games (and I'm not mormon).

 

[Klayfish]

I will be SO glad when a la carte satellite programming becomes a thing.

What really grinds my gears about DirecTV is that my sports package consists mainly of about 250-300 sports channels that don't even carry anything most of the week (Fox Sports Mid-Tennessee? Seriously?), and when they do it's something like women's college lacrosse.

But when I want to watch an MLS game of the MLS team that's actually near me, well, too bad. It's either blacked out or on a subscription-only channel.

Yes, I would love a la carte programming too.

But if I had to guess why they do this...besides money...it's for the example you gave. Since there is such a wide variety of sports, they lump together all kinds of channels that show a large number of different things. I totally get that women's college lacrosse is obscure for most, but DD9 is a lacrosse player and actually gets very excited when those games are on. My boys look for mens' lacrosse games. To say it mildly, soccer isn't my thing, but I know that its' fan base is pretty loyal. When we scroll through those odd sports channels surfing for lacrosse games, we see they're broadcasting things like college bowling, mens downhill curling, mixed doubles cross country ballroom dancing, underwater basket weaving, and I'm thinking , but somewhere, someone is watching...I guess. But I totally agree the sports channels with Dish can be frustrating. I can watch college bowling, but can't watch my Philadelphia Phillies, unless I pay a kings' ransom...and even then I'm not guaranteed to see all the games.