My first full-time journalism job was working as a copy editor (and music columnist) for The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette. Thus, I spent most of my time editing stories, designing pages and, of course, writing headlines.
Sometimes reporters liked my headlines and sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes readers liked my headlines and sometimes they didn’t. When readers hated my headlines, they usually called the reporter who wrote the story and yelled at them. Why? Because, like most news consumers, they didn’t realize that reporters rarely write the headlines that run with their stories.
As someone who went on to spend years as a reporter and columnist, I really wish more readers understood this basic fact about the news business.
This brings us — once again — to a question about a headline. If you read The Washington Post online, or follow Twitter, you saw this blunt headline:
Prominent Virginia pastor who said ‘God is larger than this dreaded virus’ dies of covid-19
However, if you read the dead-tree-pulp edition of the Post, you saw this:
Pastor preached about virus that took his life
As you would expect, some people — including former GetReligionista Mark Hemingway — raised questions about that first headline. I thought that it was accurate, but rather cruel. It could be read as an attempt to mock (a) this preacher, (b) God or (c) both. The second headline offered a mild statement of the facts.
If the goal is to evaluate work in the Post, which matters most — a click-bait headline or the contents of the actual news story?
The story is much more important than the headline (although I think that its fair to criticize headlines, because they influence many readers).
So what did this story — a combination of news reporting and clearly identified material from other news reports — have to say? Here is the overture:
A prominent Richmond-area evangelical pastor died on the eve of Easter after contracting the novel coronavirus.
Bishop Gerald Glenn, 66, founder and leader since 1995 of the New Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Chesterfield, was the first black chaplain of that community’s police department and was a police officer before becoming a pastor, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Sunday.
He was a friend and a pillar of the region’s faith community, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) tweeted Sunday.
“My heart sinks as I learn this morning that Bishop Gerald Glenn, pastor of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church, died yesterday from COVID-19,” Kaine said. “May all do as much for so many.”
Glenn preached in church about the virus in March, before he became sick, encouraging people not to be afraid. On March 22, five days after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) had urged people to “avoid non-essential gatherings of more than 10 people,” Glenn told his congregation that “I firmly believe that God is larger than this dreaded virus,” according to a video played April 6 by Richmond station WTVR.
I have no problems with that copy, other than the fact that Glenn was a Pentecostal pastor, rather than an evangelical. The clue was the title “bishop,” in the context of an African-American congregation.
That may seem like a picky theological distinction — but it matters to evangelicals and Pentecostal believers. Trust me on that.
The New York Times report got that detail right, noting:
The pastor, Gerald O. Glenn, 66, the bishop and founder of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Chesterfield, Va., died on Saturday night, according to Bryan Nevers, a church elder.
Mr. Nevers announced the death of Bishop Glenn during an Easter sermon, which was posted on the Facebook page of the Richmond-area Pentecostal congregation. He said that Bishop Glenn had transitioned from labor to reward.
Does this fact matter, other than as a mere question of accuracy in one reference in a story’s lede? It might.
Pentecostal preachers — as opposed to evangelicals — are more likely to claim that they have received a “prophetic word from the Lord” that often leads to bold public pronouncements.
But back to the main body of the Post story, which did note — further down in the text — that this congregation is “part of the Church of God in Christ, a Pentecostal denomination hit hard by covid-19.”
The key, journalistically speaking, is that this Post story is built on direct quotes from leaders of this church, including quotes from videos of sermons by Glenn that had been posted online. Here is another crucial passage:
Glenn’s wife, Mother Marcietia Glenn, was also diagnosed with covid-19, according to a YouTube post on Easter by Bryan Nevers, a church elder who also announced Glenn’s death Saturday night. All sermons were removed from the church’s YouTube channel Monday evening.
The New Deliverance community was left to wrestle with his death. …
“We still believe in God for healing right now,” Nevers said on the Sunday video, his voice wavering, the rows of purple seats behind him empty in the church. “Our bishop always told us, even as they wheeled him into the operating room, he proclaimed that God is still a healer. … I don’t know how, but I have to say: God will get the glory from this.”
It’s hard to argue against a news story built on the contents of this sermon video. In this case, readers have to wrestle with the preacher’s own words.
In a since-removed video on the church’s site, Glenn led the March 15 service, telling people in a lighthearted way not to shake hands. …
In the video, he said 185 people had come to the morning service. He also noted that the virus had captivated the world and terrified people.
“You may never say this aloud, but you have to wonder: ‘Why did God let this happen?’ I’ve heard other questions by theologians, and I think it’s valid. Is this virus a sign of the end times? … It makes us look at our own immediate mortality.”
Earlier in the sermon, he said: “If I had to deliver my own eulogy, I’d say, ‘God is greater than any challenge you and I face.’ That would be my epitaph.”
Can you say “theodicy”? This is a classic case in which the preacher at the heart of this story openly stated the Big Question — in a sermon that was originally posted online.
The story should stand on its own. If readers want to criticize the pushy headline, then they need to stress that it’s the headline that is worthy of criticism.