No doubt about it: There are people who show up in religion-beat news who are hard to quote accurately and fairly.
It’s hard, for example, to find a punchy, bite-sized quotation in your typical papal encyclical, even when you’re dealing with the work of Pope Francis. It’s possible, of course, to rip something out of context that sounds like commentary on this or that political issue that’s already in the headline. Most of the time, that context-free approach sheds more heat than light.
Then there are the charismatic and Pentecostal preachers whose words are drenched in metaphors and images mixing biblical language with their own vivid (they would say “Holy Spirit inspired”) imaginations.
This brings me that Twitter storm the other day (sorry to be late on this) about a colorful (to say the least) sermon by the Rev. Paula White, the charismatic leader best known as a spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump. She has been known to unleash storm clouds of rhetoric that sound more like rock-music lyrics more than the traditional exegesis of scripture.
For example, what — precisely — is a “satanic pregnancy”? Come to think of it, what is a “satanic womb”?
If you yanked her words out of context, as legions of her critics did, it sounded like this sermon contained some inconsistent language about abortion.
Thus, I was glad when veterans Bob Smietana and Adelle Banks of Religion News Service quickly produced a short explainer that found some context to White’s wild words. In this case, that was a really big challenge. Here’s some key material at the top of that report (“Paula White’s sermon comment about ‘satanic pregnancies’ goes viral”).
In the video clip, White, who was named special adviser to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative in November, leads a prayer of protection against spiritual attacks targeting Christians, President Trump and the United States.
"We interrupt that which has been deployed to hurt the church in this season. That which has been deployed to hurt this nation, in the name of Jesus," White prays in a video clip posted on Twitter by the activist group Right Wing Watch. She goes on to pray against "any strange winds that have been sent against the church, sent against this nation, sent against our president, sent against myself" and other spiritual threats.
One line late in the prayer went viral on social media. "We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now," she said.
I have to admit that, when I first read those words, I said to myself: “What is the blazes is she talking about?”
However, reporters with the patience to listen to the surrounding verbiage — instead of firing back Twitter-style — could quickly discern that White was not talking about literal “pregnancies.”
Alas, there were cases in which people — even theologically literate people — got lost in this verbal maze. Here’s another key chunk of the RNS piece:
The remarks, which were posted online a few days after the annual March for Life, led to questions of whether White was promoting harm against pregnant women.
"No pregnancies are satanic," wrote author and Catholic priest James Martin on Twitter, in replying to the video.
So what’s the solution to this journalism problem?
The answer, logically enough, is religion-beat journalism. But everything starts with the recognition that White is using images drawn from Pentecostal discussions of “spiritual warfare.” This language is common in many churches around the world, but not in newsrooms.
Smietana and Banks found a great source on Twitter, of all places:
André Gagné, who teaches religion at Concordia University in Montreal, said White's sermon clip featured terms commonly used by charismatic Christians to talk about spiritual warfare. Gagné posted a thread on Twitter explaining White's remarks. Her prayer about "satanic pregnancies" was not about miscarriages, he wrote.
"White is commanding that Satan's plans be aborted," he wrote on Twitter.
That Gagné thread is worth further examination and some journalists may want to file this. Pentecostal Christianity is a growing force in the modern world, after all.