Colored Television

The presence of women and African Americans not simply as viewers, but also as televangelists and station owners in their own right has dramatically changed the face of American religious broadcasting in recent decades. Colored Television looks at the influence of these ministries beyond the United States, where complex gospels of prosperity and gospels of sexual redemption mutually inform one another while offering hopeful yet socially contested narratives of personal uplift. As an ethnography, Colored Television illuminates the phenomenal international success of American TV preachers like T.D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, and Juanita Bynum. Focusing particularly on Jamaica and the Caribbean, it also explores why the genre has resonated so powerfully around the world. Investigating the roles of producers, consumers, and distributors, Marla Frederick takes a unique look at the ministries, the communities they enter, and the global markets of competition that buffer them.

"Frederick has identified an important topic in the global flows of black religion through the work of influential television broadcasters. Her book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of religion in the African diaspora, religion and the American media, and Pentecostalism.", "No other work in black religious studies so well documents the history of television media in black Christianity in the U.S. and how it manifests itself and morphs in a global context, in this case, the Caribbean.", "Marla Frederick who teaches African American Studies at Harvard University has quickly emerged as one of the notable ethnographers in the United States. Her latest book Colored Television is a continuation of her excellent scholarship...[This book] offers a fresh and challenging articulation of the character of the global charismatic renewal of Christianity within the framework of cities, the socio-economic situation of poor urban residents, and urban spaces.", "Using historical trajectory and precedent, Colored Television: American Religion Gone Global anticipates a movement within mediated religious broadcasting.America, the once dominate force behind religion gone global, will not reign forever."

Marla F. Frederick is Professor of African and African American Studies and of the Study of Religion at Harvard University.