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Big news is bad news
As voted by the Religion Newswriters Association's members, among the year's most consequential religion newsmakers were Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Pope Benedict XVI, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, and the U.S. bishops.
How would you have ranked them? Has their influence been harmful or constructive? What issue or person do you expect to have the biggest impact in the year to come?
If outer space aliens saw the Religion Newswriters Association's list of top religious newsmakers, they could only conclude that Earth has a pretty miserable spiritual landscape.
Incidents cited on the 2010 list include: a Florida pastor's bizarre threat to burn a Koran, Southern Baptists kidnapping Haitian orphans, Roman Catholics covering up pedophilia, Glenn Beck (really, should he have a TV show or simply be allowed to rant in the corner of Boston Common?), a homophobic backlash against gay clergy by some Presbyterians, Lutherans and Episcopalians, and a Supreme Court case about a church that gleefully pickets the funerals of service members.
It is hard to quibble with the association's conclusions. These were indeed the events that made headlines--and they were overwhelmingly negative. You have to get to story 12 to learn that some Christian groups worked to preserve the environment, story 13 to find a Southern Baptist supporting a road to citizenship for undocumented workers, and story 18 to recall President Obama's speech about religious tolerance.
There is a whole other layer of "stories," though, that are about people whose faith or reason makes them operate with noble purpose. These stories talk about the church members who put up "Torture Is A Moral Issue" posters in their sanctuaries; the inner city pastors who rely on donations, not on American taxpayers through the White House "faith-based" initiative, to shelter the homeless and feed the hungry; and the secular humanists who are equally involved in performing charitable acts. Someday, perhaps in a kinder and gentler time, these are the tales that will top the religion lists.
By
Barry Lynn
|
December 28, 2010; 12:24 PM ET
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Posted by: david6 | January 4, 2011 8:53 AM
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“Barber Cuts Man’s Hair, Charges Small Fee, Receives Tip!” Is never going to be a headline. Being as most churches are and have been in the charity and goodwill business for a long time, that sort of information won’t either.
In fact it should be refreshing to the Christian community that “Church feeds, provides aid to the unfortunate.’ Is NOT headline news. That means that Christianity and the good things it can and does do are NOT unusual, earth-shaking or rare.
News is, and nearly always has been, about the big, the sensational, the tawdry and the bad behaviors and aspects of life. That is not new at all.
More good news… 57% of all Americans watch TV news. 76% claim to be Christian… Who’s winning that popularity contest? (Glen Beck only reaches 2.x million viewers, less than 1% of the U.S. population. Proving once again that the noisiest dog ain’t necessarily the most dangerous one.)
Don’t take this sort of thing too seriously, The fact that the news media tends to broadcast more bad stuff than good says nothing at all about good people and good behaviors, it only clarifies the actual nature of the news media.
Posted by: gladerunner | December 29, 2010 4:46 PM
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The headline in far too many churches is that the church members are quite proud of the work their church does, yet they vote for politicians who make that work necessary. Churches are a small stopgap, nothing more. I have no idea how anyone who says they are Christian can vote for a politician who doesn't support a strong social safety net.