As I’ve been on a three-day vacation this week, I haven’t done much but watch old episodes of Roseanne and eat junk food. But I did go to the Zion Reformed Church of Christ in Allentown, Pa.:
The church was built in 1886, and is one of the two oldest congregations in Allentown. But it also played a small, but important role in American lore. From the fall of 1777 to the summer of 1778 the patriots of the American cause hid the Liberty Bell, which had been smuggled up from Philadelphia just ahead of the British Army, under the floor. Now, there is a shrine which showcases there the bell was hidden, with a replica of the bell and an historical account of the events that passed.the shrine showcases the site where the Liberty Bell was hidden and includes an account of the real bell’s journey to Allentown.
But I was too late to see the replica or the shrine. I’ve seen the real thing, anyway. I don’t need to see the replica.
In other news, there was a thought-provoking post on GetReligion.org about religious journalism. It references a great article from the Religion News Service about a Pew report which details how religion has been covered quite often in articles about the current campaign, but never very deeply.
Here’s the nut graph from the RNS article:
“Religion trailed foreign policy issues (14%) and domestic policy issues (26%) in non-horse race campaign topics, yet it outpaced race and gender in a year when the Democratic contest was led by a woman, Hillary Clinton, and Obama, a black man.”
Outpaced gender and race? Who would have seen that coming?
I do like GetReligion.org, as it’s a rather good watchdog for when the media are skimping on their religion coverage. But, unfortunately, the site often just devolves into plaintive nagging, with little explanation of why things are they way they are.
Also, GetReligion is far from objective, pushing narrow, reductionist versions of what adherents of different faiths believe. Every time I see phrases like “the Christian stance,” I cringe. Christianity, and many other faiths, are multitudinous, and GetReligion.org seems to purposefully ignore it to push issues it endorses.
But I digress. One thing is true, though: the media are generally horrible at religion coverage. And the reason is quite simple — there aren’t enough religion journalists.
The Pew report states:
“These findings suggest a continuing discomfort among news organizations in tackling deep questions of how candidates’ personal faith may influence their public leadership.”
But it’s more than just discomfort. News organizations will hire political, economic, traffic, crime, cooking, and even pet care reporters before religion reporters. They simply don’t think it’s that difficult to cover religion.
This means that when there’s religion in politics, the political reporters cover it. When there’s religion in money, economic reporters cover it. The list goes on and on. Even when there are religion reporters at news organizations, if a story is on the fence between religion and another beat, the religion reporter often becomes secondary at best. That’s why it never goes deep.
Religion is not something you can read a Wikipedia article on and expect to translate into a meaningful news piece. It’s complex and esoteric as a tradition, and unique and individualized on the ground level.
GetReligion.org is upset that news reporting on religion is shallow. But how can it not be, when no one takes it seriously? In an environment where newspapers are dropping staff faster than Oprah drops pounds, religion is one of the first areas to suffer.
Don’t blame the reporters who cover religion perfunctorily. Often, they don’t have the time or the depth of knowledge to be better. Blame the organizations who won’t hire the people who do.
