A response to: Misreporting Religion
This is an excellent article on religion in the media, and I see this type of misreporting quite a lot in California, but it’s not just ignorance or biased news reporters; there’s also the problem of liberalism.
TIME magazine, every year, amazes me on how anti-Catholic and liberal its articles are. I remember one article that tried to show as fact that Saint Augustine of Hippo had invented original sin and changed the Church. The article, however, relied on biased sources, a skewed understanding of Church history, and just flat-out lies and misconceptions.
FOX News, reporting on the death of Pope John Paul II, had selected liberal callers to call in and say who they believed would be the next Pope. All of them said the next Pope would change the Church for the better, one caller even going so far as to declare that the next Pope would allow abortions.
The liberalism in the media is not just caused by biased views of the religions, ignorance, and «frameworks» with how to report on religion, but is also caused by pride and poor education; pride in that the individual believes his understanding of a religion is the truth and will not seek out the truth, or at least not recognize the truth; poor education in that the individual has received, whether from teachers, parents, entertainers, authoritative figures, or bad examples of believers, a misconception of religion.
Entertainment and the media is pushing, with humor and «facts» a false notion of the world’s religions. Eddie Izzard, a well-known comedian, jokes about how Saint Paul wrote a letter to the entire City of Corinth, and then, in another stand-up routine, he says Pope Pius approved of Nazism and did nothing to stop the Holocaust. And that’s just one example of one entertainer!
If we want to help the media, though, we have to show good example, pray for the conversion of sinners, preach the Gospel, and defend the faith when it is attacked or misconceived. It is no easy task, to be sure, but with God nothing is impossible; through him, with him, and in him we can do all things, bear all things, believe all things, and hope for all things.
Nick Childers
