A United Methodist Insight Column
Throughout my 50 years as a journalist, some truths have remained constant. One of them is that no matter how gruesome or offensive the news may be, a publication is derelict in its public duty if it ignores the events and issues of its time.
No less than its secular colleagues, United Methodist Insight is caught in the major ethical conundrum of our profession these days: how can we appropriately present news and views without causing our readers to lose faith and hope?
Jon Allsop, The Media Today columnist for Columbia Journalism Review and one of the professional experts on whom I rely for guidance, wrote in his July 19 column about the trend of readers avoiding news these days because the news is so grim. One of his points:
"Some related debates have gone broader still, rooted in the overall grimness of the news cycles not just of recent weeks, but of recent years, with their pandemic, war, climate emergency, police killings, assaults on democracy, and so on. One, prominently, has centered the question of 'selective news avoidance,' or the fear—supercharged by a recent Reuters Institute finding that forty-two percent of US respondents actively avoid the news sometimes or often—that the news has grown so overwhelming that Americans are increasingly tuning it out. That figure, the journalist and author Amanda Ripley wrote in a widely discussed recent op-ed for the Washington Post, includes some people who themselves work in news—among them, Ripley herself. 'It’s hard to generalize about the news media,' but 'it’s fair to say that if news sites were people, most would be diagnosed as clinically depressed right now,' Ripley wrote. Extrapolate from the Reuters Institute data, she separately told The Guardian, and 'we can estimate that roughly 100 million American adults are not getting their news needs met.'"
Those needs, the debate goes on, include a question of whether it's journalism's function to preserve faith and hope. As a publication run by Jesus followers for the United Methodist community of Christians, we contend that faith and hope are crucial characteristics of civilization that merit ongoing coverage, including by secular media.
In the United Methodist context, many of our readers have told us that Insight's selection and publication of news sidelined by mainstream media gives them hope, even when the news is distressing. Their affirmation gratifies us, in part because we see ourselves in the role of the "loyal opposition," an independent publication that asks uncomfortable questions about the workings of The United Methodist Church as an institution and of the political factions tearing it apart. To hear that one's work instills hope conveys treasure beyond price.
At the same time, we pay attention to thoughtful critics who counter our contributors' views or who dispute our reporting. Negative feedback often is more instructive than affirmation. Among other things, critique tells us where we need to shift our focus to catch the variety of perceptions that help us fulfill our mission of discerning God's will for the future.
Trouble is, right now the news is so grim that we, like those Alsop mentions in his column, find it difficult to get through a week's publication cycle. If such is the case for us in deciding what news to present, what must it be like for our readers who face an unrelenting cascade of "bad" news? We've tried to temper the "bad" news by publishing potential solutions to human problem, but today's rampant partisanship and polarization can make even the mildest proposal suspect.
When we reach this point, we rely more on our faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the example of our Christian forebears than on journalism's tenets. We're experiencing an era that resembles some of the persecutions found in both Hebrew scripture and the New Testament. Tyrants rule, and truth is a casualty of the lust for power. The world that God has entrusted to us as stewards groans under the wounds our industrialized society has inflicted. The plagues of Revelation – war, famine, pestilence, and death – beset us at every turn.
To make our way through these troubled times tests our faith and undermines our hope. The blindered, distorted beliefs that have captured American Christians are being revealed as empty promises. Desperate attempts are being made to weld this false Christianity to nationalism to preserve the crumbling American empire. In contrast, Insight strives to publish the news and views that in true apocalyptic fashion "pull back the veil" on such distortions.
Facing up to the revealed truth challenges us as news purveyors, news consumers and Jesus followers. Hard as it is these days, we cannot be merely "sunshine" Christians whose faith survives only in sweetness and light because such faith is insufficient to survive the times. Both Jesus and Paul equipped the earliest disciples with the fortitude to withstand imperial practices and cultural biases. As seen in both church and society, the way of Jesus is misunderstood or misrepresented as the faith of weak, spineless losers. In reality, the Way of Jesus – standing up to oppression without using violence, forgiving our enemies, and making peace rather than war – requires far more discipline and strength than any raucous pseudo-religious patriotic rally.
Hence our mission remains to present news and views that subvert the dominant narratives of patriarchy, racism, eco-terrorism, militarism, economic oppression, and the degradation of human rights. Such topics aren't outside the realm of Christianity; they are part and parcel of our journey toward God's beloved community. It isn't the institution of the church that we champion, but the teachings of the One on whom the church is founded.
So yes, as Jesus did, there are times when we must avoid today's grim news to rest and recover. Nonetheless, as Jesus told the disciples who followed him up the mountain at the Transfiguration, we can't stay on the summit. We must return to the struggle. In doing so we strive to overcome evil with goodness tempered by clear-eyed knowledge, sober reflection, and steadfast resolve.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011. To reproduce this content elsewhere, please email Insight for permission.