ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on evangelicals and the popular culture, the health and wealth gospel, and the positive thinking movement. Television has changed America from a print to a visual society and has replaced a cerebral emphasis with one on experience. A form of Christian capitalism drives this evangelical fascination with the popular culture. The issues and trends that evangelicals confronted in the movies and television are similar to those they encountered in publishing. Christian rock took a definite shape in the 1970s. Larry Norman is regarded as the first Jesus rock artist. His album I Love You became a big hit and a major record company signed him to a contract. Praise and Worship music had a staying power and has moved well beyond the Jesus movement. It became popular in many churches, appealing to the youth but alienating more traditional worshippers. In the last half of the twentieth century, evangelicals have bought into a new religious fad-the Word-Faith movement.
