 Posted Saturday, September 13, 2008 6:50 PM
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Hi, friends:
The Wall Street Journal had an online-only interview with David Hill, the chief executive of Fox Sports. One answer he gave, about the NFL on Fox, made me think why Christian Science is doomed to fail. An excerpt follows. Comments, anyone?
WSJ: At this point, some 15 years in, has it become business as usual?
Mr. Hill: No single year is business as usual. The nature of the audience changes day by day, so production has to change to remain fresh. You look at the demise of the Lawrence Welk show. At one time you could hear that music coming from every living room on Saturday nights. But he never changed it, and the reason it failed was because the audience died. No one was around to watch.
Pretty much explains CS's continued demise, right? Sure, I no longer believed in CS before quitting TMC, but I found the services repetitive and boring. Even visiting
college buddies and maybe attending a service in Elsah or at Prin isn't remotely interesting anymore. I can't see how anyone church shopping can find anything attractive in Christian Science services.
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Posted Sunday, September 14, 2008 12:23 PM
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| I think that's part of the the answer. Of course, I suspect that people who think Mrs. Eddy is speaking ultimate Truth are likely to consider the services profound rahter than repetative. But you're right -- Christian Science churches might have higher attendance if they included some spontaneity, lively hymns, input from the Readers...which would certainly open the door for aggressive mental suggestion and animal magnetism in the services... Oh never mind, can't risk any spontaneity and personal input...
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Posted Monday, September 15, 2008 11:34 PM
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| I've always enjoyed Lawrence Welk--even when I was young! But I haven't gone looking for it in many years... I do remember that Welk tried to inject a bit of youth-oriented liveiness by hosting rock-n-roll combos, who usually came on in the last quarter of the show. They were okay, but they didn't attract a young audience, so they were dropped, Welk stayed with his formula, which didn't survive him. That rather reminds me of various efforts to update and upgrade the facade of CS: new formats for the periodicals, new names (and formats) for lectures, the MBE Museum, and so on. To adapt a currently contetious cliche: "You can put lipstick on a corpse, but it's still a corpse!" BTW, Public Broadcasting bought the rights to the Welk shows. They bring them out during fund-raising drives, and, I understand, those shows generate big pledge$$! "An-uh one, an-uh two, an-uh..."
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