Category Archives: Types of Religious Organization

Protestant Spirit: USA

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Film Info:  Part of “The Long Search”, a BBC series hosted by Ronald Eyre – 52 minutes

Distributor:  Ambrose Videos has the entire series on DVD for $99

Summary:  In the 1100 churches of Indianapolis, we see bewildering multiplicity of Protestantism. Churches with the seating and styling of deluxe first-run theaters. Services conducted with the professionalism of television spectaculars. And congregations that occupy every seat at four staggered services every Sunday. All are features of the US church-going boom. We discover that religion is not in a state of apathy in America; in some quarters it is decidedly big business.

Lubavitch

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Film Info: WGBH TV “Religion in America” series, 1974 – 28 minutes

Distributor: ???????????

Summary:  Brief documentary about Brooklyn’s Hassidic Jews.

Film notice taken (with permission) from the “Teaching Resources” list in Meredith McGuire’s Religion: The Social Context, third edition. Her 5th edition (available from Waveland Press: see www.religionthesocialcontext.com) does not contain the resource list. I have only traced some of these films to current distributors. Please post updated information about them, if you have it. – JS

Separate Realities

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Film Info: “Separate Realities” (1979) – Part of the”Profiles of Rural Religion” series produced by P.J. O’Connell for the Rural Documentary Project and Penn State Broadcasting – 58 minutes

Distributor:   Pennsylvania State University Media Sales DVD – $25

Summary: Suzie Anderson attends St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lock Haven, PA. Glenn Stover attends First Baptist, just across a 25-foot alleyway. But their religious beliefs and practices are separated by a far greater distance. Suzie is a “seeker”; she is exploring her religious commitment, asking questions, questioning the answers. Glenn is “born again.” There are no questions in his settled and serene religious faith. This film develops the religious viewpoints of two very different–but strongly committed–individuals and offers the opportunity to compare these two variations on the ages-old question of “proper” religious behavior.