b. Christian cable television networks
Evangelical Protestantism enjoyed a rebirth in the 1970s, comparable in some ways to the great religious revivals and awakenings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Evangelical denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention grew quickly over the decade, whereas more liberal mainstream churches declined in membership. Some of the most spectacular growth took place among Pentecostals, both white and Black, and other evangelical churches not affiliated with larger ecclesiastical bodies. By 1976-"the year of the evangelical," according to Newsweek magazine more than one in three Americans identified themselves to pollsters as "born again or "evangelical" Christians. The same year, the United States elected Jimmy Carter, its first born-again president.
Personal evangelical faith often fit into a larger conservative world view, nurtured in an older network of institutions that included churches, Bible colleges, Christian booksellers, and campus groups. Evangelicalism in the 1970s also spread through new avenues, however. Among them were FM radio stations that catered specifically to born-again listeners and new cable television channels and satellite technology through which evangelical preachers reached ever-wider audiences. Reverend Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, founded in 1961, launched its own cable network in 1977. By the end of the decade, Jerry Falwell's Old Time Gospel Hour was drawing more than 1.4 million viewers nationwide. Evangelical consumer goods also flourished, including contemporary Christian music and a booming publishing industry that sold over a billion dollars a year in Christian self-help books, fiction, theology, greeting cards, and other printed goods. Men and women uncomfortable with the secular values and sexual content of mainstream popular entertainment and literature flocked to a burgeoning alternative culture.