Sensational Devotion: Evangelical Performance in Twenty-First-Century America

6/ Megachurches: Cultivating Affective Atmosphere

162 6 Megachurches Cultivating Affective Atmosphere In this final chapter I analyze the evangelical megachurch as a unique, highly visible, and incredibly persuasive performative genre. More specifically, I will demonstrate how each megachurch uses the strategies of evangelical dramaturgy to craft a synaesthetic space and worship experience that will reflect its specific “brand.” In his study of the evolutionary origins of religious thought, Pascal Boyer notes that we tend to think about the economic aspects of religion, such as markets, services, and commercial negotiations, “as consequences of religious organization rather than as its source” because “we assume that doctrine comes first, and its implementation leads to particular economic and political behavior” (original emphasis). However, Boyer maintains that “some crucial aspects of religious institutions make sense only if we understand what the market for religious services is like, what kind of commodity religious knowledge and ritual constitute.”1 In this respect, religious groups or organizations operate like specialized guilds, deriving their power and influence from the fact that they provide specific services . Yet, as Boyer argues, unlike craftsmen, who “often have no difficulty maintaining exclusive supply, either because other people would not want to perform their dangerous and polluting tasks (gathering garbage, burying the dead, butchering animals, etc.), or because these tasks require technical knowledge and a long apprenticeship,” the position of religious specialist is more “precarious” precisely because these individuals often supply services “that could very easily be provided by outsiders.”2 One way that religious specialists respond to this predicament is by putting forth a doctrine that, among other things, clearly explains the services Megachurches: Cultivating Affective Atmosphere 163 they offer. “Literate” religious guilds (to use Boyer’s term) typically explicate their doctrines by means of texts. As Boyer explains, texts help “to make religious doctrines more coherent, in the sense that all the elements that compose the descriptions of supernatural agents can be brought together for consideration much more efficiently than when they are stored in individual people’s memories, in the form of particular episodes.”3 In general, these textual accounts of doctrine are, integrated (most elements hang together and cross-reference each other), apparently deductive (you can infer the guild’s position on a whole variety of situations by considering the general principles), and stable (you get the same message from all members of the guild). This last feature is particularly important for diffusion. (original emphasis)4 This description is certainly relevant to evangelical Christianity. For many evangelical Christians, biblical scripture supplies a doctrine that they consider integrated, deductive, and stable, thereby giving these religious “consumers ” a clear idea of what specific services evangelicalism provides. However, because many Christian denominations—evangelical and otherwise—use this same text, albeit in different ways, establishing and then maintaining one’s unique position within the religious marketplace necessitates a more comprehensive form of “branding”: One solution is to turn the [religious] guild’s ministration into a brand, that is, a service that is (1) distinct from what others could provide, (2) similar regardless of what member of the guild provides it, (3) easily recognizable by its particular features and (4) exclusively provided by one particular organization . (original emphasis)5 As Boyer notes, “there is nothing intrinsically demeaning in saying that some services are offered in the form of a particular brand.”6 Indeed, the close relationship between U.S. evangelicalism and religious consumerism has been a prominent theme throughout this project. As I noted in my Introduction, as early as George Whitefield, American evangelical leaders were reshaping religious media into products that would appeal to “the marketplace.”7 Boyer is therefore one of many scholars who have analyzed religious trends, and particularly those within evangelical Christianity, through notions of a religious economy.8 As Shayne Lee and Phillip Luke write, this 164 Sensational Devotion growing body of research makes “the case for a supply-side analysis of religious vitality.”9 Many scholars now recognize that “religious suppliers carve out a niche in the spiritual marketplace and distinguish their ministries by offering an array of spiritual goods and services that match the tastes and desires of religious consumers.”10 The various genres I have analyzed in the previous chapters are examples of such “goods and services.” Therefore, rather than simply examining the phenomenon of religious branding, in this chapter I will consider how, as Boyer asserts, “the creation of recognizable brands of religious services” can directly impact “the kinds...