Yet another preying Presbyterian?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Once again, shocked onlookers painted from familiar palettes as they described the latest young man to march into the public square with his guns blazing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/yet-another-preying-presbyterian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yet another preying Presbyterian?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once again, shocked onlookers painted from familiar palettes as they described the latest young man to march into the public square with his guns blazing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/yet-another-preying-presbyterian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-30T11:04:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/yet-another-preying-presbyterian\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/yet-another-preying-presbyterian\/\",\"name\":\"Yet another preying Presbyterian?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-30T11:04:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-07-30T11:04:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"Once again, shocked onlookers painted from familiar palettes as they described the latest young man to march into the public square with his guns blazing.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/yet-another-preying-presbyterian\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/yet-another-preying-presbyterian\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/yet-another-preying-presbyterian\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Yet another preying Presbyterian?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":2610,"date":"2012-07-30T07:04:18","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T11:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=2610"},"modified":"2012-07-30T07:04:18","modified_gmt":"2012-07-30T11:04:18","slug":"yet-another-preying-presbyterian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2012\/07\/yet-another-preying-presbyterian\/","title":{"rendered":"Yet another preying Presbyterian?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Once again, shocked onlookers painted from familiar palettes as they described the latest young man to march into the public square with his guns blazing.<\/p>\n

The alleged killer was a moody, quiet loner who excelled at school. He was a normal guy who loved movies and super-hero tales, only he cheered for the villains. When seen in bars, he was usually sitting alone.<\/p>\n

Journalists also quoted people who knew the family and said that James Holmes was once, as The Los Angeles Times noted, \u201cheavily involved in their local Presbyterian church\u201d in San Diego.<\/p>\n

You see, even a kid from a normal church can evolve into someone who dyes his hair red, buys 6,000 rounds of ammo, girds himself in a full body-armor suit and, when surrendering to Aurora, Colo., police, identifies himself as The Joker, the incarnation of postmodern evil.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does \u2018Presbyterian\u2019 mean in this context? \u2026 It\u2019s like no one really stopped to ask if there was there something about this particular label \u2014 the actual content of this word \u2014 that connected in any way to this event,\u201d said Aly Colon, a nationally known journalism ethics consultant.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes this kind of label give readers anything to stand on? \u2026 It\u2019s like these words are hovering up in the sky, with no connection to the facts on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Truth is, in Southern California \u201cPresbyterian\u201d can describe everything from evangelical megachurches to oldline Protestant congregations on the religious left.<\/p>\n

So was the Holmes family active in the liberal Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or the conservative Presbyterian Church in America? How about the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, the Bible Presbyterian Synod, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America or the American Presbyterian Church?<\/p>\n

Then again, journalists were soon reporting that this family has been active \u2014 for nearly a decade \u2014 in some brand of Lutheran congregation.<\/p>\n

The problem, explained Colon, is that journalists assigned to cover these media storms in the digital age are trying to report as much information as they can, as fast as they can, as easily as they can, while competing against legions of websites, Twitter feeds, 24-hour cable news and, often, smartphone videos uploaded to YouTube by eyewitnesses. Reporters are tempted to use as many easy labels and stereotypes as possible, simply to save time and space.<\/p>\n

Almost a decade ago, Colon wrote a Poynter.org essay entitled \u201cPreying Presbyterians?\u201d<\/a> about a similar media blitz in which a gunman who killed an abortion-clinic doctor was constantly identified as a \u201cformer Presbyterian minister.\u201d As it turned out, Paul Hill had become so radical that he had already been ejected from a small Presbyterian flock that was very conservative, but also opposed to any use of violence during protests.<\/p>\n

None of the mainstream news reports he read, wrote Colon, explained why it mattered that this man had once been some kind of Presbyterian. It was just a religious label with no real content.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs journalists, we choose words carefully and conscientiously. We select nouns and adjectives to advance the story. We connect dots. We make points. We clarify. We explain,\u201d wrote Colon. \u201cSo when I see the word \u2018Presbyterian,\u2019 I expect an explanation somewhere in the story that tells me why I need to know that. I would expect the same if other terms were used, such as \u2018Catholic,\u2019 \u2018Episcopalian,\u2019 \u2018Christian,\u2019 \u2018Hindu,\u2019 \u2018Jew,\u2019 \u2018Mormon,\u2019 \u2018Hindu,\u2019 \u2018Buddhist,\u2019 \u2018Muslim\u2019 or \u2018Pagan.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

What he wrote then remains true today, as journalists try to find and assemble the pieces of the bloody Aurora puzzle. If religion is going to be included in the coverage, stressed Colon, reporters must work to \u201cconnect faith to facts.\u201d <\/p>\n

In other words, it will be crucial to learn the details of Holmes\u2019 real life, in the here and now. Journalists must learn how he spent his time, spent his money and made the decisions that appear to have ended and altered so many lives. If faith \u2014 or some other worldview \u2014 is part of that equation, then so be it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our duty to drill down and to find facts that add clarity,\u201d said Colon. \u201cMaybe this young man once had a membership in a particular Presbyterian church with a particular theology. So what? How is that faith connected to the facts of what happened in Aurora? There must be a connection or what\u2019s the point?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"