Religion and media

Finally.

I think someone may have had a journalistic epiphany on the whole Health and Human Services thing.

But before we go there, stop and, for a moment, join me in contemplating the following journalism puzzle.

Read more on Pod people: Birth control or religious liberty?…

Did you hear the one about the atheist doctor asked to treat Jehovah’s Witnesses who don’t believe in blood transfusions?

Well, it’s no joke, as the Los Angeles Times highlighted in a Column One story — the newspaper’s most prime real estate — this week:

Read more on LA Times fails to draw religious blood…

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What we have embedded here is one of the worst pieces of journalism I’ve ever seen. I probably shouldn’t announce this, lest tmatt tell me to pack my bags, but I rarely if ever watch broadcast or cable news. I read my news online. The last time I watched ABC News was probably in the 1980s. But I was notified that the ABC piece was bad and so I searched it out. I almost wish I hadn’t. The performance of the mainstream media over this Komen funding issue has not reflected well on journalism in general.

Read more on Media genuflect before Church of Planned Parenthood…

Eight years ago, the Rt. Rev. Douglas LeBlanc clicked a button with his mouse and GetReligion went live. I wrote the first post on Feb. 1, 2004, but the site actually kicked into gear the next day.

Read more on Eight GetReligion comments after eight years…

Earlier this week, I noted the surprisingly restrained coverage of the Obama Administration’s mandate that religious institutions provide health insurance that includes subsidized contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if that coverage would violate their religious beliefs and consciences. Even when Catholic bishops came out en masse against the Health and Human Service’s regulation, the coverage was pretty subdued, if it was even found.

Read more on Media discover Planned Parenthood is controversial…

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If an Muslim radical makes death threats against a university audience in London, and the BBC does not report it, did it really happen?

Read more on See no evil, report no evil…

by Brie Loskota

At the beginning of Black History month we were greeted with tragic news: Don Cornelius, the founder of "Soul Train," committed suicide. While this event has little to do with religion on its face, a story on CNN (aptly titled "How Don Cornelius Became the Pope of Soul") offered a powerful reminder of the role of culture, art and music in bridging racial divides and in the civil rights movement itself. "The civil rights movement changed the legal structure," the authors wrote, "Cornelius changed the cultural structure. Changing the culture can change hearts in a way that protests can't."

As we remember the ways Don Cornelius brought racial groups together through music, we may also reflect upon how, almost a century ago, Pentecostalism once brought blacks and whites together through religion. Blending ecstatic musical celebration and crossing racial divides, the beginning of Pentecostalism in the United States is a fascinating story of spiritual and cultural innovations that upended the racial barriers of the time. It is a history that seems to have been forgotten, however, as Pentecostal began to splinter into different black and white denominations. In the wake of Don Cornelius' death, the history of Pentcostalism should be a reminder that we cannot take social change for granted--progress requires vigilance.
 
Early Pentecostalism was seen as a potentially subversive movement that worried the FBI enough to work with local law enforcement and the Justice Department to place Charles Mason, an African-American Pentecostal leader and part of the 1906 Azusa Street revival, under close surveillance. Federal officials were concerned not only about Mason's interracial following but also his pacifist views in the context of World War I. The racial and political overtones of the fear sparked by this upstart religious group arguably foreshadowed the current surveillance of American Muslims throughout the United States.
 
Yet Islam is hardly an upstart religion in this county. Reporters could illuminate the early stories of African Muslims who were brought to the United States as slaves, and how African-American Muslims continue to shape expressions of Islam in the U.S. for themselves, for the children of immigrants and for countless converts in every shade and color.
 
Other items worth pursuing are the ways in which black churches are operating in and responding to a globalized environment. Potential stories range from the challenges of creating multiracial churches, to what it means for African-Americans to own church property in neighborhoods that are no longer predominantly black but increasingly Latino and Asian, to the "remissionizing" of the United States by African immigrants in ways that are reshaping American Christianity, just as Pentecostalism did at the beginning of the last century.
 
Changes happening in larger society are echoed and reflected in the Black Church and in other congregational settings--and vice versa. The housing bubble was no doubt caused by predatory lending practices, but it also happened at the height of the prosperity gospel. How are these two phenomena linked, or not, in the context of contemporary African-American culture?
 
There is no better time than Black History month to dig deeper into the rich, religiously-infused history of African-Americans--and to remember that religion and other aspects of culture are in constant dialogue with each other. Uncovering the influences that shape one subculture, you may just reveal some profound truths about the rest of society.

Brie Loskota is Managing Director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She also serves as the program officer for the CRCC Pentecostal and Charismatic Research Initiative, a project that seeks to spur new research on one of the world's fastest growing religious movements.

Daisy Bates in Memphis, 1958. Courtesy of The Commercial Appeal.Bored by Black History Month?
Remind you of high school homework assignments?
You’re thinking: It’s just about saints whose stories we already know by heart?
Well, sorry, you’re wrong. Thank goodness a lot of creative people are shining spotlights on forgotten chapters of black history that are packed with drama and suspense. These new stories can be heart breaking, but they’re also downright inspiring. The history we should have known years ago finally is being written—and filmed. At ReadTheSpirit, we’ve published Blessed Are the Peacemakers, a book that includes inspiring profiles of black activists we’re sure you haven’t discovered until now.
All this month, PBS is bringing Americans three provocative documentaries, which we will tell you about week after week. Stay tuned!

UPDATE ON FUTURE SHOWINGS: Daisy Bates was shown nationally on many PBS stations on Feb 2.
Check out upcoming PBS Black History Month specials on this Independent Lens webpage.
Plus, many local stations are repeating Daisy Bates over the coming week: Check out regional listings.

Debuting on PBS, February 2, 2012:
‘Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock’

The National Park Service’s offiicial historical site for Little Rock Central High School, and the supporting pages for educators, never even mention Daisy Bates. Click this image, above, to visit the NPS portal page to this historic site.We are not alone in praising the PBS lineup. The New York Daily News describes the debut film on Daisy Bates this way: “Powerful show on a woman who was both an integrationist and a feminist in a town that was highly suspicious of both in the 1950s.” In San Francisco, the SF Weekly says that filmmaker Sharon La Cruise “uncovers a personality as complex as the era.” And, if you’ve already decided to tune in:
Here’s the PBS webpage for the film that lets you check airtimes on your local PBS affiliate.

“In 1957, Little Rock a became the battleground for one of the most notorious school desgregation fights in America. At its center stood one woman: Daisy Bates.” So opens the hour-long film by journalist and documentary filmmaker Sharon La Cruise. First, we go way back to Bates’ tragic childhood as the daughter of a woman who was beaten, raped and murdered by several white men who were never charged with the brutal killing.

Eventually, though, we reach the 1950s when Daisy becomes a journalist herself and competes to become the head of the Arkansas NAACP. How did a woman reach such a top post in an era of sexism as well as racism? The film explains her political savvy. Her ascent to statewide office in the NAACP was a feminist milestone. One of the film’s narrators explains: “Most women in the civil rights movement … were usually assistants to men. Rosa Parks was a secretary in the NAACP. … But, here is Daisy Bates not being an assistant, but being the leader—and it was revolutionary in many ways.”

Violent racist groups targeted Little Rock in the mid 1950s. Daisy Bates marched into school offices and demanded integration. The whole matter wound up in court. Eventually, as you will discover, Bates forced the issue and changed American history.

Here is the dramatic backdrop to this film and the reason we all should watch it: Like so many other major figures in the civil rights movement—and especially like so many women who played catalytic roles—Daisy Bates is all but invisible in our official histories. ABOVE, today, you’ll see the far more famous imagery of the 1957 confrontation that integrated Central High School in Little Rock. Click on that image, above, and visit the National Park Service historical site. Dig deep. Look at the various civil rights overviews linked by NPS. Read the supplemental materials for educators. You will find Elizabeth Eckford (shown in the photo above carrying her book), and the other teens who became known as the famous Little Rock Nine.
But Daisy Bates? She’s invisible to this day.

The truth is: The Nine would never have made history without Bates’ courage and tireless activism. In this film, Bates finally is made visible to us. And, she doesn’t come across as a two-dimensional saint. She comes across as an articulate, brave, courageous woman—and a woman deeply scarred by racism in the South throughout her life. We see her talking to reporters in vintage footage with tape strapped across the windows in her home so that rocks wouldn’t send lethal shards across her living room.

This is a full-fleshed profile of a complex woman. We should learn about her life. But, more than the “should” in this case—Bates’ story is every bit as exciting as the fictional women we’ve all discovered in the hit novel and movie The Help. Tune in!

COMING LATER THIS MONTH: Two more compelling films in this series air February 9 and 16. Stay tuned to ReadTheSpirit for more on those documentaries.

Please help us to reach a wider audience

We welcome your Emails at ReadTheSpirit@Gmail.com
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Plus, there’s a free Monday morning Planner newsletter you may enjoy.

Originally published at www.ReadTheSpirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Back in the Stone Age, when student journalists still cut out headlines with X-Acto knives and pasted chemically drenched text to layout sheets with hot wax, I edited my campus newspaper.

In my early 20s at the time, I felt reasonably confident that I knew everything there was to know about journalism.

Read more on College newspaper in the rough…

It is with a certain sense of fear and trembling that I note that The New Yorker has published a long, detailed and emotionally devastating feature story on the Rutgers University case involving Dharun Ravi and the late Tyler Clementi. The double-deck headline on this “Reporter At Large” feature by Ian Parker is simple and eloquent:

Read more on A disconnect, a webcam, suicide and ink…

Earlier this week, we looked at a rather confused article about one man’s quest to get his baptism annulled. Well, the New York Daily News decided to do a baptism article that is even more confused:

Read more on One baptism, for the remission of sins…

We don’t usually deal with columns here at GetReligion, but every once in a while, one touches at the core of why we exist, the reason why we advocate so much for religion in the daily newspaper.

Read more on Parading atheistic ignorance…

Sometimes it’s easy to spot those stories where you think, “Wow, you should not try to tackle that subject in 5,000 words.” Or 500 words. Or three minutes.

A local Houston television station has taken on the bold task of answering the following question: “What does it mean to be a Christian?” Here’s the reporter’s intro:

Read more on Local TV tries to explain Christianity in 3 minutes…

This weekend, Catholics all over the country heard from their bishops. Why? Well, it hasn’t been major news in the secular media (although it certainly has been news), but the bishops of the Catholic Church told congregants that the church’s teachings and practice are under serious threat from the Obama Administration’s Health and Human Services Department. At Masses throughout the country, bishops’ words were read to congregants warning them about the threat. The American Papist has been keeping track of which bishops have spoken out and which have had their statements read at Masses. The list keeps growing but as I write this, it’s at 93 of 195 dioceses.

Read more on Catholics outraged, media unimpressed (UPDATED)…

An Ontario jury has convicted three members of the Shafia family — father, mother and son of an Afghan family living in Quebec — of murder in what has become Canada’s most notorious “honor killings” case. There has been some great crime and court reporting in the Shafia case, and the articles in the major newspapers are really quite good.

Read more on Canadian honor killings and Islam…

As faithful readers of this weblog will know, your GetReligionistas are convinced that it is stunningly simplistic for journalists to talk about the “Catholic vote,” as if there was one mass of Catholics who agree on how they should apply centuries of Catholic doctrine to their actions in voting booths.

Read more on The Times, the White House & “Catholic colleges”…

Last week, I critiqued a Sacramento Bee story tied to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon tithing.

The top of the Bee’s report:

Mitt Romney’s tax returns reveal that the Republican presidential candidate does something fewer Americans do these days: He tithes.

Read more on Pod people: More on Romney’s tithing…

NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday had a story about a 71-year-old atheist’s rather curious legal battle against the Catholic Church in France. Rene LeBouvier has taken the church to court over its refusal to let him “nullify” his baptism:

Read more on Wash away your affiliation…

by Dan Carino

I recently had the opportunity to participate in Les Rencontres Internationales du Dessin de Presse (RIDEP: International Meeting of Press Cartoonists). The annual conference, now in its 13th year, is designed to bring together international and French political cartoonists to engage the French public in addressing topics and issues that are in the forefront of today's global discourse.

This year's theme, Internet et Libertés (The Internet and Freedom) brought together the gamut of works and opinions covering the Arab Spring, the web and social media, social issues, freedom, democracy and religion. As a part of the program, participating cartoonists were asked to submit some of their work to be included in an ongoing cartoon exhibition. Included in the exhibition is a cartoon about France's burqa ban that I drew for Cartoon Movement last year.

While it has been almost a year since the passage of the French ban on face covering (Loi interdisant la dissimulation du visage dans l'espace public), better known as the "burqa ban," the cartoon became a popular point of discussion regarding the role and impact of mainstream news media coverage of the issue.

"I was a bit shocked of women wearing burqas. I'm not used to it, so I was supportive of the bill but did it really change anything—change the quality of (Muslim) women's lives?" asked Lisa Selivanova, a 23-year-old law intern from Paris.

Selivanova admits to being swayed, perhaps too much, by the way news media framed the issue. The case for the ban was depicted as unquestionably reasonable by most French outlets,  shaping a broad narrative that traded on contemporary laïcité (French secularism), gender inequality and religious fundamentalism. In the end, the burqa ban became enormously popular with the public.

This past week, the Netherlands announced that it will soon adopt and implement a similar law, and as was the case in France, the emerging media narrative appeals to Dutch values and traditions. Most, if not all, media reports hew to the government's message: "Having to wear a burqa or niqab in public goes against equality of men and women, and is a rejection of Western values."

What has been deficient or altogether absent in European and international media
coverage of this issue is the kind of nuance that is vital to open and even-handed public discourse: demographics and the complexities of assimilation and national identity as well as a willingness to probe the intentions of people who profess to champion the cause of minorities, the underrepresented and the oppressed. Instead, the principal aim in news media coverage seems to be to link arms and "join the growing chorus" across Europe.

When journalists simplify the discourse—in this instance, framing the burqa as an impediment to a minority group's assimilation into French or Dutch society while pandering to mainstream values and traditions—we miss the essential point(s) of tolerance and hinder the true growth of a nation. In liberté, égalité and fraternité, sometimes the nuances are most easily seen between the lines of political cartoons.

Dan Carino is a political cartoonist, visual journalist, and multimedia producer based in Los Angeles, California. He is currently pursuing an M.A. in Specialized Journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Iona Abbey, heart of the worldwide Iona Community on the isle of Iona off Scotland’s western coast. Photograph by John Hile.John Bell is a hot ticket for congregations, clergy conferences and Christian communities around the world, but the truth is:
He’s a tough guy to track down!
On Sunday, Bell talked with ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm about the start of his current U.S. (and Latin American) tour. He is sought after by Protestant, Catholic and non-denominational churches around the world. But, Bell started our interview by quickly dismissing interest in the online realm.

“I am happy to talk to you,” Bell told Crumm on Sunday, “because you know the Iona Community and the work that I am doing—but I don’t have much use for online media. The things written online aren’t all that accurate. Sometimes I am sitting at a conference, waiting to be introduced, and I realize that the person who is introducing me must have gone to Wikipedia for the details. I don’t ever to go Wikipedia or anywhere else online to read about myself. But I can tell you: There must be things online that aren’t very accurate about my life and work, because they do keep popping up as I travel.”

One problem is that Bell shares a name with nearly 50 other John Bells listed in Wikipedia, including athletes, artists, politicians, scientists—and other musicians. It takes some savvy online searching even to locate John Bell’s current American schedule. He doesn’t have his own website or blog.
So, to help John Bell accurately kick off his 2012 American tour …

IONA HYMN WRITER JOHN BELL’S
AMERICAN SCHEDULE FOR EARLY 2012

John Bell in one of the few online photographs available for republication.John Bell draws a crowd! Not only is he personally responsible for a long list of hymns and anthems sung in churches around the world, but he also is a popular teacher on Iona-Celtic-Christian approaches to prayer, worship and work with the world’s most needy communities. (ReadTheSpirit has published many stories about Iona’s important Christian influences. Here’s a 2011 interview with John Philip Newell, another influential Iona writer. And, from 2009, here’s an earlier interview with John Bell about his book on reviving Christianity. NOTE: All ReadTheSpirit stories can be republished, as long as you link back to our website. See our Creative Commons sharing license below.)

Coming soon: February 1-4, Bell is in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at a Presbyterian educational conference. Then, February 3-5, he is in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at First United Methodist Church for a global music weekend. From February 13-15, he is in Phoenix, Arizona, for a clergy conference. And, February 23-25, he is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for a clergy conference. In March, Bell is in Atlanta. He also is visiting two countries in South America. In May, he is in Atlanta, Tulsa and Bangor, Pennsylvania. By June, he is in North Carolina.

Best place to find details about his U.S. tours? Iona Community New World Foundation keeps track of his plans and posts updated event information—and some links for further information. The Foundation also posts a helpful index to a wide range of Iona-related links, including the Wild Goose organizaton that is John Bell’s professional home base in Scotland. Want to go right to the source in the UK realm of the Internet? The Wild Goose Resource Group also maintains a short profile of John Bell.

Interview: Iona hymn writer John Bell

Iona Abbey and cross. Photograph by John Hile.DAVID: Let’s start with biographical details. You’re John L. Bell—to distinguish you from the other famous John Bells out there. And, I believe you’re 62 right now.

JOHN: Yes, that’s right.

DAVID: Where do you live these days? That’s not clear to me from some of your online biographies.

JOHN: Glasgow, Scotland, is home, but I’m on the road between eight and nine months of most years. Right now, I’m over here in the U.S. for eight weeks doing different events. I’m also taking care of some business with my publishers and I plan to visit a small community in Paraguay. So, I’m doing some public events, some private events and some personal visiting.

DAVID: Why is Paraguay on this trip?

JOHN: We have a relationship with a small community there. Every year, volunteers come to us in Scotland from Paraguay. I want to visit their home, see where they come from, and experience some of their culture. This year, I’m also traveling in mainland Europe and in parts of England and Ireland.

DAVID: You’re an ordained minister in the Church of Scotland and you’re famous for composing music used in churches around the world. But, how do you prefer to introduce yourself before a group?

JOHN: I say that I’m a resource worker in areas of worship and spirituality. That’s really what I do. Sometimes, I work in universities and seminaries. Sometimes I work at conferences. Sometimes I work at local churches. I focus on different things in different places. I may work with congregational music and show ways that music can be improved; or I may talk about scripture and help people lose their fear of engaging with scripture; or I might help to prepare men and women getting ready for ministry in seminary; or I might work with people trying to deepen their individual spirituality.

DAVID: You have a unique perspective as an outsider, traveling widely across the  U.S. Can you tell us anything about trends you’re seeing in American Christianity?

JOHN: Oh, America is such a huge country that if I make any comments, I can immediately be contradicted by people with contrary examples. So, I would not want to make any specific comments. But, I can say this generally: I see a lot of what we might call non-liturgical churches that now are interested in styles of music and worship that have a much more ordered sequence. They are reaching out for more traditional forms. And, at the same time, I’m seeing some more liturgical churches that are trying to open up.  I see conferences organized by more traditional churches inviting people from nondenominational churches or megachurches to address them. And I’m seeing some nondenominational churches inviting people from more historical churches to speak at conferences.

DAVID: So, you’re seeing something of a crossover in Christian culture. Do you think American churches are looking for some kind of new middle ground?

JOHN: I don’t know if they’re trying to find a middle ground. But, I can say this: I would hate to see the church become so intermixed in traditions that we wind up with a sort of morass of grayness. For example, if your gift in the church is lively song and a strong emphasis on social justice like the Mennonites, then that’s an important and distinctive gift to share with others. Orthodox and Catholic churches have gifts for exploring the mystery of God and those are true gifts. Some traditions have gifts in their welcoming nature and in showing hospitality. I would say: Major in your gifts! A failure of ecumenism would be to merge everything into a sort of shapeless mass of sameness. God made us different to represent the full spectrum of all colors within Christianity.

DAVID: At ReadTheSpirit, we have covered some of these movements back and forth through Christian tradition. For example, Shane Claiborne—a very popular American speaker and author among innovative Christian leaders—now is heavily promoting Common Prayer. There’s a new edition coming out this week of his book called Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals.

JOHN: Yes, I have friends in Britain who already are using his Common Prayer book and appreciate that, because it’s rooted both in traditional practices and in contemporary language. He draws on the spirit and wisdom of a whole lot of people in his Common Prayer book. I think that approach is much more attractive to people in this postmodern society—rather than telling people that they have to spend endless hours wrestling with tangles of archaic religious language in some prayer book from an earlier era.

DAVID: You and John Philip Newell and other Iona writers are now known around the world. Do you think of yourself as a global voice?

JOHN: No. I don’t think about it that way at all. I believe that for my work to have any authenticity, it has to be rooted in the place from which I come. All my own writing and composing is done in Scotland. I don’t write anything while I’m traveling—with one exception. I do believe that it’s important for me to engage with and learn form people in the developing world.

But, I never write something with the thought that I expect it to be translated into other languages. I never stop to think whether someone in a distant country—Finland or Argentina or some other country—will want me to come talk about what I’ve just written. If I thought like that, then I would have taken my eye off the ball. Spirituality must be localized and nurtured in the soil from which it has grown.

And I don’t think of what I write as coming directly from me to the world. That’s not how I work at all. I would never write a book where the material hadn’t gone through friends and colleagues and people I trust in our community. My work is developed in conversation with other people. I have a very strong feeling that God has blessed me and given me gifts that come out of a particular geographical and historical situation. As long as I’m true to that—then what I do may have value elsewhere. But if I were to think of myself as some kind of global writer, then I would lose the spiritual plot of my life. That may not be true for everyone, but it’s true for me. I live in Scotland; I’m a person who is Scottish; my heritage draws on the experience of the Celtic church; and our faith has been formed by living and working among impoverished communities. These are my spiritual roots. These are what give me energy.

Please help us to reach a wider audience

We welcome your Emails at ReadTheSpirit@Gmail.com
We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed.
Plus, there’s a free Monday morning Planner newsletter you may enjoy.

Originally published at www.ReadTheSpirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.