Satellite Ministries: The Rise of Christian Television in the Middle East
Satellite Ministries: The Rise of Christian Television in the Middle East
The writing of this book was supported by the Pentecostal Charismatic Research Initiative.
In 1981, Star of Hope (later Middle East Television, or METV) began broadcasting from Israeli-occupied South Lebanon, backed by American missionaries, Israeli politicians, and Lebanese Catholic leaders. From offices in Metula, Israel, with transmitters in Lebanon, the channel aired Western entertainment and Christian content using a repurposed ABC Monday Night Football truck situated on the Israel–Lebanon border. METV’s programming included American soap operas, sports, and evangelical content alongside innovative Arabic Christian televangelism. Criticized for its foreign, imperialist, and proselytizing approach, the channel nevertheless spurred the growth of competing Christian broadcasters and reshaped the Middle East’s media and religious landscape over the next four decades. Through extensive fieldwork and archival research, Satellite Ministries explores how Western evangelicals and indigenous Christians harnessed terrestrial and satellite technologies to promote Christian television in the region. The fifteen channels analyzed in this study fall into three main categories: Western-backed conservative outlets with a charismatic and apocalyptic outlook, middle-ground channels that sought to balance their international sponsors’ expectations with local interests, and grassroots initiatives rooted in ancient church traditions. The institutional histories and program strategies of primarily Arabic, but also Turkish and Persian, Christian channels reveal how—to achieve their mission—media producers forged unexpected political alliances, pursued sectarian objectives, and navigated various transnational influences. Ultimately, Satellite Ministries reveals how modern expressions of faith, technology, and political power intersected and conflicted across the Global South and beyond.