ABSTRACT
Most conservative Protestants see televangelism as a powerful new addition to their evangelistic armoury; Armstrong (1979), as executive director of the National Religious Broadcasters Association makes that case. Most mainstream Protestants deride its shallowness and are concerned that the conservative near-monopoly presents, not only a false gospel, but also a false picture of American religious life. Much of the argument between detractors and advocates is made with competing claims about the effects of televangelism. Those who applaud it believe that it takes the gospel to people who would not otherwise be reached. Those who abhor it believe that, by substituting passive watching for active worshiping, it undermines the local church. These and related claims are empirical and their resolution must lie in the world of evidence. We might have expected social scientists to provide such evidence and many have. Unfortunately, some commentators have sought to increase their own importance by inflating that of their subject matter; there seems no other explanation for the wildly exaggerated claims about the importance of televangelism.
