After another day of watching Pope John Paul II shake Communist Poland, American political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain and her hosts gathered at a television to see how the state\u2019s reporters would handle this spiritual drama. <\/p>\n\n
Polish viewers, in 1983, did not see and hear millions of people chanting, \u201cWe forgive you\u201d to their oppressors or the Polish pope repeatedly voicing the importance of solidarity \u2014 \u201cSo-li-dar-nosc!\u201d<\/i> \u2014 between God and his people. The TV news did not show his grief about martial law. <\/p>\n\n
The reports didn\u2019t lie. They merely edited key facts. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cWho knew? They had about 30 seconds of a visual of John Paul speaking, but you did not hear his words,\u201d said Elshtain. \u201cThere was a narrator talking. The former archbishop of Krakow \u2014 now the pope \u2014 back in Poland \u2014 end of story. Then they shifted, and it was one of those real Orwellian moments, to something about the level of coal production in Silesia. \u2026 <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t flat-out lie. They didn\u2019t say, \u2018And by the way, the pope hasn\u2019t been here today.\u2019 But was that the TRUTH of those events? Of course not.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
News reports are longer and more detailed when John Paul comes to America. There are interviews with Catholics protesting church teachings on sex. Experts dissect the church-state implications of masses on public property. Reporters ponder his impact on Hispanic voting in Florida or California. There are features on pope-soap-on-a-rope and other novelties. The pope is seen as a head of state that delivers sound bites about public policies, not sacramental mysteries. <\/p>\n\n
The reports don\u2019t lie. They may miss the spiritual facts. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThere seems to be this belief out there that religious truths cannot be examined,\u201d said Elshtain, speaking last week in Potomac, Md., to 200 journalists from 40-plus nations. \u201cThe media act as if the truth claims of religion are somehow strange and unable to be tested. As opposed to what? Political theory? Economics? Science? The arts? \u2026 <\/p>\n\n
\u201cReligion does involve leaps of faith. That is also true of other important parts of life that journalists manage to take seriously. Yet religion is always singled out as somehow being uniquely irrational and the source of bizarre behavior.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
The conference was called \u201cUncovering the Truth\u201d and organized by Gegrapha, a network of Christians in mainstream newsrooms. \u201cGegrapha\u201d is Greek for I have written. Pontius Pilate is quoted as using this term when asked why he identified Jesus as king of the Jews. Pilate said: What I have written, I have written. It was also the world-weary Pilate who asked, \u201cWhat is truth?\u201d He needed the facts. <\/p>\n\n
Elshtain said journalists insist that their news reports are rooted in facts drawn from rational observations about the real world. They gather these facts as they search for \u201ctruth.\u201d But where do journalists find their information? They focus on politics, economics and other respectable sectors of the public life. Religion is not worthy. <\/p>\n\n
Thus, journalists struggle to offer accurate, balanced, unbiased coverage of religious life. Journalists often panic when religious beliefs affect public life, as they so often do. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s true that it may be hard to write down the truth claims of religion, like facts in a ledger,\u201d said Elshtain. \u201cBut it\u2019s also true that religious truth claims set in motion real actions, by real people, in the real world. These religious words and acts and beliefs affect real life in the public square. You can report the facts about this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
Journalists must learn to accurately define religious terms and find informed, credible sources to speak for all sides in complicated controversies. It would help if more reporters received specialized training about religion, so they would have some idea what they\u2019re writing about. Believers get angry when news people mangle the facts. <\/p>\n\n
Journalists must not become cynical about religion, Elshtain said, because this will shatter public trust in the press. <\/p>\n\n
After all, a society that is \u201cskeptical of everything, except its own skepticism\u201d will struggle to maintain a healthy public life, she said. \u201cThere needs to be questioning. There needs to be debate. But a certain kind of radical skepticism that denies our capacity to know the truth \u2014 that cannot sustain democratic institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After another day of watching Pope John Paul II shake Communist Poland, American political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain and her hosts gathered at a television to see how the state\u2019s reporters would handle this spiritual drama. Polish viewers, in 1983, did not see and hear millions of people chanting, \u201cWe forgive you\u201d to their oppressors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n