The MRC releases two studies documenting how little attention religion receives in entertainment plots and in the news agenda. As a California CyberAlert reader pointed out, that's Prop 209. Prop 187 was a 1994 initiative which restricted aid and services to illegal aliens. Below is an overview of what they found. Given that Hollywood claims to reflect reality, and that we are a highly religious nation, it's appropriate to ask how realistically prime time TV portrays matters of faith.
Religion is a scarce commodity in prime time TV, appearing about once every four hours.
Even though depictions of religion last year were, overall, positive, prime time has too often presented distorted, unfair views of both clergy and laity. The total number of religious depictions jumped to 436 in 1996. There has been a near-fourfold increase in this category over four years. Simple expressions of faith, such as prayer, were dealt with positively by almost a 10 to 1 margin in 1996. Faith has been handled quite favorably all four years.