Trying to bridge gap

Trying to bridge gap

News coverage of religion is 'a great failure' in Canada By Tom Froese, Special to the Toronto Star, April 20, 1997 When Johannes Gutenburg printed the first Latin Bible in 1455, he had no way of knowing mass production of God's word would lead to the Protestant Reformation and change the Western world. In fact, his printing press has made the publisher a new class of social and cultural authority. And five centuries later, the church is still asking: "What do we do about the media?"  At worst, the church views the media as sensationalist and prejudiced adversaries who can't be trusted. At best, as uniformed and indifferent to hope.

Canadian journalists "wear their disaffiliation with any religious institution like a badge of honour," when, in fact, an interest in faith is what qualifies writers to analyze complex religious issues, he says, adding that this interest should not preclude a personal religious commitment.

Brian Stiller, president of the Ontario bible College and Theological Seminary, agrees.

"Modern liberalism as defined by the Canadian media has regulated faith out of public discourse," says Stiller, author of From the Tower of Babel to Parliament Hill, a new Harper-Collins release.

Roman Catholics lost their national presence during the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, Stiller says. Churches have lost their moral authority, and evangelicals have largely walked away from the press.

When do evangelicals get the most news coverage? "When some wing-nut is humiliating us," Stiller says.

Similar concerns are expressed in a 1993 U.S. study, Bridging The Gap: Religion And The News Media, which found a serious lack of knowledge about religion in electronic and print newsrooms.

There are few full-time religion beat reporters, it found. And, despite a public interest in faith issues, editors would rather fill pages with more palpable news.

But the report defies the prevailing myth that journalists are more irreligious than the general public. They're simply reporting on a highly secularized society where faith is increasingly complex, it says.

The media is not totally at fault for the state of affairs," says John Longhurst, media liaison for Mennonite Economic Development Associates and author of Making the News, a media relations manual.

The stories are often told in denominational publications, says Longhurst, an organizer of Canada's first national faith and media conference, planned for June 7-9, 1998 in Ottawa.

Still, church adherents get their values from the mainstream media, studies show. And while that may make some clerics uneasy, it's moving others to recognize that separating from the world is detrimental."

Building relationships with journalists is key to telling the story, says Jim Wallace, pastor of South Calgary Community church. But he doesn't "Think pastors are interested in making friends with the media."

If the church desires to renew its culture's values, it has to express what it stands for, not just what it is against, adds Wallace, also a Calgary Herald columnist. "we've made tolerance the highest good, and it's not. Love is."

"Jesus got in the secular arena and stood his ground, with love and grace and compassion. I think Jesus had a lot say that people wanted to hear."

Tim Foley, a priest at All Saints' Kingsway Anglican Church in Toronto, says the church is showing a lack of faith in its own message if it fears the media. "We've lost the identity of the gospel. We've lost our place of privilege in society."

Quoting Northrop Frye, he refers to "the language of love" needed by a church seizing opportunities and speaking boldly, newspaper in one hand, bible in the other.

God is to be encountered outside the ecclesiastical community , adds Foley, a former journalist. "My contention is that, however imperfectly, the media helps us do this."

Bob Harvey, one of only a handful of full-time religion writers in Canada, says the public would respond to that kind of approach because Canadians have "an enormous appetite" for stories relating to spirituality and ethics, "as long as someone's not trying to force their point of view down their throat."

But Peter Johansen, former director of Carleton University's School of Journalism, says there will always be a healthy distance between journalists and any situation they cover.

The problem exists when it's too wide," he adds, but with tight newsroom budgets, specialty beats may be difficult.

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