Joel Osteen's Theory Of Televangelism

America and the institution of religion have long complexly intertwined histories, but no religion is more intertwined, nor has played a greater role in the foundation of America and its ideals than Christianity. The relationship between American nationhood and Christianity is so strong that it continues to seep into American culture and legislation centuries after its founding. It is for this reason that the modern evangelical Christian practice of televangelism emerged and thrived for much of modern American history, and, subsequently, became a profound and concentrated embodiment of American values and ideals. No televangelist provides a more compelling or relevant example of televangelism than Joel Osteen, the millionaire pastor and figurehead

of the America’s largest megachurch and religious organization. Building his career off these intertwined histories and ideals, Osteen’s career and preachings have greater implications than simply spreading the Christian gospel to millions of eager listeners. His success says a lot about foundational American economic, political and social ideals. His career as a televangelist functions as a feedback loop of American ideals, in which he both capitalizes on and proselytizes the benefits of American capitalism, freedom of religion, diversity, tolerance, and inclusion, essentially exploiting these ideals for personal gain and promoting them in a way that ensures the future success of this business model.  
        To begin, it is necessary to define and briefly map out the origins of televangelism in the United States, and sort through the American values inherent in the medium, primarily the freedom of religion and capitalist commodification and social mobility. According to its root words, “tele” meaning “at a distance” and evangelism, the evangelical principle that the Christian gospel should be taught to others to convert them to Christianity, televangelism is the “propagation of religion over the airwaves.”1 This practice emerged in the early 20th century alongside the emergence of radio technology and spread quickly. The career of Father Charles Coughlin, an early radio televangelist in the 1930s, demonstrates the power that such religious figures have had since the very beginning. He amassed millions of listeners and was a controversial political figure of the era, so much so that by 1939 he was forced off the air for his anti-Semitic commentary.2 The power of such religious figures on a mass media platform that uses airwaves owned by the public raised important questions regarding the separation of church and state, and the freedom of religion. These worries were addressed by the 1934 Communications Act, which established the electromagnetic spectrum as a national resource. As such, the stations that received licenses were obligated to broadcast in the “public interest”, a vague mandate that many interpreted to include religious programming and which has set the precedent for all lax regulations of all future religious programming.3 This interpretation is largely a result of the American ideal and constitutional mandate: freedom of religion. The First Amendment States that “Congress shall make no law … prohibiting the free exercise of religion,” and because of this vague, yet powerful promise, radio and television stations were able to justify the broadcast of low cost, yet popular programs religious programs. By allowing Christians to exercise their religious beliefs by granting millions of Americans access to services via the airwaves, televangelism, as a medium, fulfills America’s promise of religious freedom.
        Televangelism is also a manifestation of American capitalism because it demonstrates the lucrative possibilities of capitalist commodification and the possibility of social mobility. The position of televangelism within mass communication, has led to a transformation in religious careers. In commodifying religion by placing it on the airwaves where it amasses advertising revenue, as well as donations from viewers and ancillary revenue, ministerial careers have transitioned from a place of moral prestige to a place of moral and socioeconomic prestige. No longer is theology a career with modest earnings, its commodification of religion through mass media, has turned it into a multimillion dollar industry. Because religious leaders can now capitalize on their careers in a way that was previously impossible, the profession upholds the American promise of upward social mobility, through which prominent televangelists, like Juanita Bynum, have been able to rise and achieve much more than the average middle-class aspirations to become millionaires with congregations larger than many nations.4
        While televangelism evidently has important implications for American values, Joel Osteen, and the particularities of his career and success, even more completely embodies these values and promises. Osteen’s career is founded on the social mobility that televangelism offered his father, John, who began his ministerial career preaching in a feed store converted that was into Lakewood church, and ended his career as the beloved minister of upwards of fifteen-thousand congregants.5 After John passed away in 1999, Joel was able to build off of the momentum of his father’s success to create one of the largest megachurches in America, boasting an average of thirty-thousand attendees each week, not including the millions of televisual attendees who watch or listen from home. The congregation’s growth, generated by Joel’s succession of his father’s role as head pastor, made Osteen a household name and launched him to stardom. This made his business as a minister and author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, incredibly lucrative, allowing him to surpass the success and wealth of his father, further tying televangelist and America ideals together by embodying the American ideal of social mobility.6
        Like the televangelists before him, Osteen has built his career off the commodification of religion, making it into a product and experience that can be bought and sold in the American capitalist economy.

In doing so, he utilizes two foundational American values and ideals: capitalism and the freedom of religion. Televangelism fits perfectly in the constraints of capitalism as the economic system in which trade and industry are controlled by private and corporate bodies.7 In Osteen’s case, he is the private owner and producer of Joel Osteen Ministries. The foundation of Joel Osteen Ministries is the dissemination of religious materials, whether physical products, as with his books, or experiences, as is the case with his sermons and live events. Televangelism’s history also aligns chronologically with the history of capitalism in America. As stated by Wunthrow, "in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries the market expanded and commodification correspondingly extended in ways scarcely foreseeable.”8 This expanded commodification includes religion, evident in the fact that televangelism reached its pinnacle at the very same time. Furthermore, this occurred under Ronald Reagan’s presidency, which in addition to its hands-off economic policy, helped give rise to the Moral Majority, a conservative movement originated by a televangelist, Jerry Falwell. This commodification of religion works in conjunction with the promise of the First Amendment, which leniently regulates religious entities, like televangelist organizations.  As such, Joel Osteen and Joel Osteen Ministries function as a religious figure and religious institutions, respectively, and capitalize on groups’ religious beliefs and desires with even little government interference and with the added protection of being an organization through which Americans exercise religion. It is only through the exploitation of these American conditions, capitalism and the freedom of religion, that

Osteen, has been able to so successfully capitalize on religion.