COLORADO SPRINGS \u2014 This year\u2019s national Evangelical Press Association convention theme was \u201cJustice, Mercy and the Power of the Word\u201d and much of the talk centered on hot social issues.<\/p>\n\n
This week\u2019s early sessions included questions about racism, AIDS, poverty, abortion, hunger, teen pregnancy, immigration, divorce, drug abuse, gay rights and the tax status of religious groups, to name a few topics. All of this took place amid election-year talk about culture wars and family values, in a city known as a Mecca for today\u2019s breed of aggressive Christian activists.<\/p>\n\n
Everybody had an opinion, but there was surprisingly little news to be found. While much has been written about the news media\u2019s blind spot on religion, gatherings such as this one offer ample proof that religious media struggle to handle news.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cYear after year, we come together and you can count on one hand the people who are really doing anything with news,\u201d said Joel Belz, the association\u2019s president and publisher of World, a conservative weekly that mixes news and analysis. \u201cI guess that\u2019s just the nature of the beast. \u2026 People don\u2019t want to do news.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Between sessions, writers and editors milled around tables covered with magazines, journals and newsletters from many of the association\u2019s 300-plus member publications. Most featured glossy photos and chatty, devotional stories about people whose lives have been changed by the ministry of the group that sponsors the publication. The emphasis was on emotion, more than education, and on inspiration, more than information \u2014 even when dealing with complex, controversial issues.<\/p>\n\n
Part of the problem is that most Evangelical Press Association members publish infrequently and have limited resources, said David Neff, Christianity Today\u2019s executive editor and the association\u2019s president elect. It\u2019s hard to \u201cbreak\u201d news stories in monthly or quarterly publications. Still, many who work in the Christian marketplace have backgrounds in news and it\u2019s disappointing that they don\u2019t take a more journalistic approach, he said.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI would hope that these people just wouldn\u2019t be able to help themselves and that they\u2019d find themselves doing some form of news just by instinct,\u201d said Neff. Also, the lack of news coverage \u201cis intriguing because of the political activism that everyone assumes has taken over evangelicalism. You\u2019d think that we\u2019d be seeing more news-based writing about public issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Since the majority of Christian publications are public relations tools, no one expects them to publish hard-edged reports about their leaders. However, editors often go even further and avoid subjects that might require them to make references to competing organizations.<\/p>\n\n
Recently, more Christian leaders have begun viewing their periodicals as part of their marketing efforts, said Ron Wilson, the association\u2019s executive director. Not only does this limit news coverage, it may even steer writers and editors away from practical articles about sobering issues linked to faith and ministry.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe idea is that if your writing blesses people, then they\u2019ll turn around a give more to support that ministry; if you make people feel good, then they\u2019ll continue to make donations,\u201d he said. \u201cWell, this often is interpreted to mean that you shouldn\u2019t write about anything that\u2019s too serious or has too much information in it. That isn\u2019t what people think of as `inspirational.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
Thus, editors emphasize first-person narratives, devotional meditations and question-and-answer interviews. Also, it\u2019s easier and cheaper to produce \u201cmood pieces,\u201d rather than well-researched news. On top of that, news tends to make people angry.<\/p>\n\n
The result, said Belz, is that religious groups often keep their members in the dark and, for better or for worse, leave the reporting of hard issues and harsh realities to the secular media.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe bottom line is that we\u2019re not getting the job done,\u201d he said. \u201cI also think that it\u2019s kind of scary that people who are supposed to be so committed to truth and to the word have so easily accepted a communications model that\u2019s based so much on feelings and experiences. Everything\u2019s about how people feel. It\u2019s getting harder for people to focus on what\u2019s true and what\u2019s false.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COLORADO SPRINGS \u2014 This year\u2019s national Evangelical Press Association convention theme was \u201cJustice, Mercy and the Power of the Word\u201d and much of the talk centered on hot social issues. This week\u2019s early sessions included questions about racism, AIDS, poverty, abortion, hunger, teen pregnancy, immigration, divorce, drug abuse, gay rights and the tax status of […]<\/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-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n