The Encyclopedia of World Religions

444 S temples in world religions

spent 27 percent of their airtime on fundraising. Yet other televangelists, such as Mother Angelica and the programs “Days of Discovery” and “Tomorrow’s World” spent virtually no airtime raising money. Televangelists tend to support political candidates from the Republican Party, but most do not spend a significant amount of airtime discussing politics. An important exception is Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, which in 2000 devoted 34 percent of its broadcast time to discussing politics. Although people in the United States are most familiar with televangelists who are English-speak ing Protestants, the phenomenon extends more broadly. Programs in Spanish have begun to appear for the large number of Spanish-speaking people in the United States. Jewish groups ( see J UDAISM ) and ISKCON, the “Hare K RISHNA ” movement ( see H IN DUISM ), have also begun television broadcasts. Christian televangelism has also appeared out side the United States, for example, in many Afri can and Latin American countries. In these coun tries it sometimes encounters problems that it does not face in the United States. For example, laws in Great Britain do not allow religious groups to raise money through television broadcasts. They also do not allow people to broadcast claims of miracles; in the eyes of British authorities, that amounts to fraud. In 1998 Muslims in Nigeria objected to the airing of televangelistic programming. They man aged to prevent the broadcasts from airing in Mus lim regions.

emerged as well-known personalities, among them Robertson; Bakker and his wife, Tammi Faye (b. 1942); Jerry Falwell (b. 1933); Jimmy Swaggart (b. 1935); and Rex Humbard (b. 1919). According to some estimates, in the mid-1980s these televan gelists were reaching 15 million households each week and attracting 25 million viewers. After the mid-1980s, however, public interest in televangelism had begun to drop off. Then, in the late 1980s, the movement suffered tremendous shocks when it was learned that two leading tel evangelists, Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, were both guilty of sexual misconduct. People became more suspicious of people whom they knew only from television images. They also began to ask serious questions about the money-raising and money-managing practices of televangelists. Many predicted in the late 1980s and the early 1990s that televangelism was doomed. As readers with access to cable television probably know, those predictions have not come true. The audience for televangelists did drop off. Televan gelists have also found it more difficult to raise the money they need to keep their enterprises on the air. Nevertheless, televangelism has continued into the early 21st century. It also has developed new formats. Besides broadcasts of revivals, prayer meetings, Bible studies and discussions, and inter views, conservative Christian networks also have experimented with, among other formats, game shows. Such programs have drawn audiences who find the values of programming on the major secu lar networks unacceptable. According to a study done in 2000, the major televangelists in the United States tend to be white (90 percent) and male (80 percent). They also tend to be Protestant, although one prominent exception was a Roman Catholic woman, Mother Angelica (b. 1923) of the Eternal Word Television Network. Many people, at least those who do not watch tel evangelists regularly, have the idea that evangelists spend a large percentage of their time raising money. It is true that some do. The 2000 study showed that Jerry Falwell spent 22 percent of his airtime rais ing money and another 27 percent promoting prod ucts; Oral (b. 1918) and Richard (b. 1948) Roberts

temples in world religions See ARCHITECTURE , RELIGIOUS .

Ten Commandments A set of biblical precepts, recorded in Exodus 20.1–17 and Deuteronomy 5.6–21, sacred to both Jews and Christians. Jews and Christians revere many different guides to behavior, for example, “you shall love the Lord your G OD with all your heart and soul and might” (Deuteronomy 6.5 cf. Mark 12.30); “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12.31); and “do to others as you would have them do to you” (Mat