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The BBC’s Heaven & Earth show found in a recent poll that one third of all Christians in the United Kingdom think that the media portray them in a way that amounts to discrimination.
Like any journalist who has worked for an opinion journal, Andrew Sullivan is entitled to some favorite themes. One of his favorites for the past few years is the insidious threat of what he calls Christianism, or theoconservatism. In his 7,400-word New Republic takedown of Dinesh D’Souza’s latest book, The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, that theme is so prevalent that it calls to mind one of those outrageously large American flags favored by car dealerships (at least in the Deep South), popping defiantly in the wind.
All together now, let’s repeat the central refrain in the ongoing Anglican Communion wars: “The Africans pray, the Americans pay and the British write the resolutions.”
Recently we’ve discussed the penchant of reporters to talk politics in religion stories. A good example of that reliance comes the New York Times‘ Linda “I am the Alpha and Omega of all things factual” Greenhouse. Published in Sunday’s paper, she anticipated Monday’s Supreme Court hearing on a free speech case.
My hometown newspaper, The Indianapolis Star, did just about everything wrong in a recent article on the local FBI office’s decision to bring in an author to talk to its anti-terrorism task force.
By now, it should be pretty clear that the word “evangelical” is so vague that it is almost meaningless — unless a careful reporter places it in context and gives the reader some clue as to its application in a particular story.
Like many other apartment renters in the world, I spend a great deal of time coveting other people’s houses. Or homeownership in general. So this local religion story out of Detroit caught my eye. Reporter Doug Guthrie of The Detroit News wrote about a $3.65 million parsonage bought for a pastor, Ben Gibert, by his church.
While working at the Rocky Mountain News, I was able to visit a private facility on the western side of Colorado that specializes in counseling pastors and their spouses whose marriages have hit the rocks. I had a chance to profile the counselors and to talk with some of the people who were there for counseling. A few alumni of the program went on the record.
David Segal’s nice feature in Thursday’s Washington Post on edgy Christian morning radio shows falls into the same trap that a lot of journalists trip into. A feature story can be as well reported as a Bob Woodward book, but if the writer fails to vigorously challenge the thesis that his subject is putting forth, what you have is a bunch of fluff.
