Mass Media: Threats and Opportunities

About the Author

Iain Morris

Iain Morris is a television producer/writer/director with independent film and television company Kharis Productions Ltd. He began his TV career in the 1980s with ITV and, subsequently, as an independent producer created programmes for the BBC and overseas networks. He has also produced films internationally for many Christian ministries including the BIlly Graham Evangelistic Association and the Lausanne Movement.

As part of the “Media Messages Matter” multiplex session during the Cape Town Congress in 2010, Iain Morris talked about the threats posed to Christian evangelism by the mass media, and also about the enormous opportunities which the mass media present to us.

Iain started by reflecting on the fact that the church has the massive task of communicating truth about God, but the mass media is full of confused and confusing messages about God. In particular, the media in the west frequently present a number of specific challenges:

Faith is irrational and anti science
A natural process, understood, needs no further explanation
God is synonymous with ‘magic’ and micro-management
A plethora of chance processes is sufficient to explain complex life
Religion is dangerous
There is no reliable evidence for supernatural claims about Jesus Christ
Morality does not depend on God
God, if he exists, would prevent suffering

Iain then outlined the opportunity to openly and even-handedly explore such big questions. He introduced his television series, The God Question, which is a multimedia production inviting an open exploration of the truth about God in relation to:

The Cosmos and the God Question: does the universe need a creator?
Life, Evolution, and the God Question: was Darwin God’s undertaker?
Mind, Consciousness and the God Question: is belief in god a no-brainer?
Sacred Texts and the God Question: are the holy truths a lie?
Suffering and the God Question: is pain the final nail?