The Role of the Christian Journalist
At a recent national convention[1] of the College Newspaper Editors, one of the keynote speakers[2] spoke on war and the journalist. The point of his speech was to argue, to a receptive audience of 700 college journalists and their advisers, that the role of the journalist was to combat and challenge the powerful in society. While it is my observation that this opinion is the current, mostly uncontested, professional orthodoxy, I sat in the audience thinking that there was a need to articulate a distinctly Christian (that is to say, biblical) perspective which would encompass a more responsible role for the thoughtful journalist, than just being the contrarian.Now, the World Journalism Institute has a growing series of complimentary monographs concerning the Christian and the craft of journalism so the Institute is already engaged in the practical intersection of the Christian faith and the calling of journalism. But there is no common theme or focus to the series other than a faith-based look at being a journalist. The aforementioned keynote speech prompted me to take a stab at suggesting a cogent role for the journalist of faith.
II. Regnant Roles of Journalism
With that as a rationale for this lecture, let me briefly touch on what I see as the prevailing (but overlapping) roles of journalism being advanced today, all of which are somewhat of a variation of the speech I heard at the convention, the role of which I call “The Equalizer.”[3] The first variation of this “equalizer” role is:
1) Gatekeeper
Journalists are the gatekeepers of society. If we don’t guard society against those who would destroy it (however “destroy” is defined), then no one will guard society. This is our First Amendment duty.
2) Defender/Sentinel
The role of the journalist is to be the defender of democracy and the sentinel for liberty. The journalist is to inform the people about the issues and persons of the day so that the people can make informed judgments about how they want to be politically organized. In this role we set the context for today’s events for better understanding. This is our First Amendment duty.
3) Advocate
The role of the journalist is to be the advocate for the disenfranchised. The journalist is to give voice to the voiceless, presence to the invisible, power to the powerless, and mainstream to the marginalized. For example, Tom Brokaw, in a recent (4/04) interview (CJR), advanced this role for the journalist.
4) Change agent
The role of the journalist is to advocate social and cultural change. This can also be called “civic journalism” or “advocacy journalism,” and it is agenda driven. The journalist comes to the world with certain presuppositions and worldviews and out of that mindset decides what change he/she would like to see in American society and culture, and then reports and writes to that end. Editorial pages and opinion magazines are expressions of this role. Joseph Pulitzer advocated agenda-driven journalism.[4]There are elements of all these roles in a Christian conception of the role of journalism. For now I will tell you that I believe that the overriding role for the journalist who is a Christian is as an unrelenting “Striver for truth,” regardless of where that striving takes the journalist - perhaps out of being employed as a journalist.More on that later, but first, three preparatory thoughts:
III. Preparatory Thoughts
1) Borrowing from the Egyptians (Ex. 3:22; 12:35-36)
If we Christians are to understand our role as journalists, we need to be willing to think independently from the current pieties of the profession. We cannot allow others to completely define our role.But, I want to state very plainly that while we Christians must be bold enough to think independently, we must be prepared to be informed and corrected by those outside the pale. A Christian view of the role of journalism that is so completely at odds with the prevailing view in our journalistic culture will, first, miss the benefits of God’s common grace which informs our minds and practice, and second, will miss the opportunity to influence the culture of the mainstream newsroom. Therefore, such an culturally odd view of journalism would need to be examined in light of God’s word.Let me wax theological for a moment. I want to bring to your attention a most important biblical concept and that is common grace (gratia communis). We define this concept as all that God does to restrain the influence of sin in the world, and all that He does to maintain and enrich and develop the natural life of mankind in general and individually. The existence of common grace is a result of God goodness and graciousness towards His creation. For us journalists, common grace means that the destructive power of sin is curbed, the moral order of society is maintained, creative gifts and talents are distributed among all individuals, and science and art are developed. In short, common grace generates and sustains human culture. Common grace serves the kingdom of God with the independent purpose of harnessing the forces of nature and talents of humankind to serve the human race – all the God’s joy and glory. Because of the biblical teaching of common grace, I argue that the Christian journalist glorifies the Savior by reporting and writing in an excellent manner – whether or not that journalist ever shares the salvation gospel with a colleague. The kingdom of God advances by you being a careful, accurate and truthful journalist, and not by you who are called to be journalists, by being evangelists. Christianity teaches that if you take care of your reporting, your testimony will take care of itself.The Scriptures are full of examples of the Egyptians and the Babylonians teaching the OT Israelites, and the Greeks teaching the NT Christians. There was much sanctified borrowing by the believers of ideas and processes from the non-believing world. To cite one example: Jethro, the pagan Midian priest, beneficially instructs Moses on how to publicly organize the Israelite nation in the wilderness (Gen. 18). There is also the biblical teaching that the sinfulness of human culture causes there to be a temporary modification of God’s perfect plan for human activity. To cite one example: God permits the divorce of the holy union of marriage (under very limited circumstances) because sinful society won’t tolerate difficult relationships (Matt. 19).The conclusion I draw from this biblical teaching is that journalists who are Christian must be prepared to learn from our non-Christian colleagues because it may please God for us to do so. We should take good clues from the world as to how to act in the world (Matt. 10:16; 2 Kings 10:29-30; 12:2; 14:3, 14-16, 20, 27; Luke 6:33-35; 2:14-15; Gen. 17:20; 39:5; Ps. 145:9, 15-16; Matt. 5:44-45; Acts 14:16-17; 1 Tim. 4:10;). Paul, the Israelite Jew, tells the European Gentile Corinthians,To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law . . . (1 Cor. 9:20-22; cf, 10:32-33). The point is that Paul accommodated himself to his surrounding culture when it was appropriate to do so.
2) A “Christian journalist” vs. “a journalist who is a Christian”
Notice that I do not call us “Christian journalists,” but rather “journalists who are Christian” or “journalists of faith.” Is this wording cumbersome? Of course, but I believe the post-Christian times in which we live require careful wording (Prov. 15:23). I think there is a perceived difference between “Christian journalist” and “journalist who is a Christian,” and the difference should be noted by us. Every Christian is a theologian. Indeed, every person is a theologian in that every person worships something, and has idols of one sort or another.[5] If Christ is the center of reality (Col. 1:15-20), then Jesus is the essential link between human society and the creator God. That being the case, the term “Christian” should never be an adjective, a modifier. Christ should never describe a function. Jesus is the noun. He stands by himself and is the object of modifiers and adjectives. Indeed, in the Bible, the adjective “Christian” (“belonging to Christ”) is used only three times: twice referring to an individual (Acts 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16) and once referring to a group of individuals (Acts 11:26), but never to a formal organization or endeavor.[6]You may ask, “Who cares about this distinction”? “Isn’t this just a quibble”? I don’t think so; because by making the distinction we are saying that we Christians do not have to fight for the crown rights of Jesus in our profession. We are simply sinners saved by the grace of Jesus, who are called by Him to be journalists. When I write as a journalist I do not speak for Christ any more than any other Christian speaks for Christ. What I write is not holy scripture. What I write is not binding on the body of Christ. What I write is simply my observations limited by time, space and sin. Journalists who are Christians are not apostles or prophets or evangelists. We are called to be scribes. We must earn the right to share our faith in Jesus and any persuading or convincing will be the work of God and not ours (John 16:8-11). God has given the world (including the world of the newsroom) the right to look at us and reject Jesus because of us. We journalists, like Jesus, will live our lives before the cultural leaders of our day (Luke 13:10-17).Our vocational calling is to be journalists, not Christians. My vocational calling may, will change during my lifetime, but my status as a Christian will not. And as my calling changes, my responsibility will be to perform each vocational calling according to the standards of that calling, but as a Christian.Now will we at times confuse this understanding? Will those watching and reading us accuse us of speaking for or representing Christianity? Absolutely.[7] Scriptures tell us we are ambassadors of the King. But our main obligation as journalists who are Christian is to write in humility as fallen persons attempting to record and give context to the world around us as accurately and carefully and fairly and compellingly as possible.In a post-Christian society, in order to fulfill my calling as a mainstream scribe I work in the world of post-Christian journalism, but I am not to be of that world of post-Christian journalism. And yet I am to learn from that post-Christian journalistic culture in which God has placed me. A difficult tension? Absolutely. Indeed, as the Apostle Paul says to the Europeans believers in Corinth who were living in a similar social environment, “Who is adequate for these things” (2 Cor. 2:16)? The answer Paul gives is that we can be adequate with the help of God.
3) Metaphysical bias vs. methodological bias
What do I mean by that? Just this: There is no epistemological objectivity possible for the journalist. All humans are subjective and biased in their thinking. Due to our finiteness we can only know what’s in front of us; what our senses or intuition or rationality tell us. Due to our sinfulness, our thinking has become corrupted and cloudy (noetic effect of sin, Rom. 1:21-23; 2 Cor. 4:4). So the only way we can know “total truth” (as Nancy Pearcey says) is if we have access to uncontaminated knowledge outside of our finiteness and outside of our sinfulness. And we do have access to such knowledge in God’s word. But still our rational process is smoky and confused because of our personal sin. So we must hold to our notions of reality with a bit of humility. The Apostle Paul tells me that as a journalist of faith I look at the world as if I were looking through a foggy glass (1 Cor. 13:12). It is no shame to admit we report contingently, for that is what we do (Prov. 25:27).
Journalistically, does that mean that since we can only be biased and subjective in our thinking that we are constrained to report then from only a biased and subjective, a predisposed point of view? That is, since epistemological bias is our only option, then journalistic bias is our only option? To a certain extent, I think so. But methodologically we can approach journalistic fairness, accuracy, veracity and, yes, objectivity to a large and reliable measure. The Lord of the Universe has so structured reality and the human mind that we can observe in reality and report on what we observe, in such a manner that enough truth will emerge from multiple human reports that we can claim that journalistic fairness, accuracy, veracity and objectivity can be largely achieved (Deut. 19:15; Matt. 18:16; John 8:17; 2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19). Absolute objectivity achieved – no; there are simply too many subjective decisions made in any story by the journalist and the editors. But there can be enough objectivity that we can, in humility, claim to present an approximation of the verifiable truth of a situation. Gen. 2:15-20 teaches that God has given humans the ability to use language to accurately define reality. We cannot know reality fully, but we can know reality sufficiently to enhance our flourishing as human beings (2 Tim. 3:16-17). I can think of nothing more gallant or valiant than attempting to get at the facts of a given situation – attempting to tell things are they really are. We will fail time and time again to get it right, but the honest attempt to get the facts right is at the core of a Christian view of journalism. Reality, thought never full understood because of our finiteness and fallenness can be described. After all, reality is that which, even when you don’t believe in it, doesn’t go away.Furthermore, for the journalist who is a Christian there is the sixth sense – the illumination of the Holy Spirit to guide the journalistic process.Having offered these three general thoughts, let me tie these thoughts together as we return to an appropriate role for the journalist who is a Christian.
IV. The Role of the Journalist who is a Christian:
“Striver for truth”
The role of the journalist of faith is to strive to understand and communicate the verifiable truth and the context of the truth in a given situation (Prov. 4:24). That is to say, we are strive to understand and communicate the facts so that a given report can be verified. I am not telling you anything new, but it does need restating at this particular time in our profession when examples and charges of bias are evident in our media culture. The mainstream journalist is the stenographer, the scribe of society – fair, accurate, honest, careful, contextual, objective to a certain degree, agenda-free to a certain degree, and always courageous in “chasing after verifiable truth,” as McCandlish Phillips would say. The journalist of faith is a rational, reasonable journalist. By that I mean the journalist reports and writes that which accords with reason. There are certain set patterns of thought in our minds which enable us to determine the rightness or wrongness of propositions. What determines the shape of pattern of the internal thought standards cannot be explained by us because we are using these thought standards to elucidate the explanation. Our internal standards are simply part of our humanity of being made in the image of God. For instance, when I say “A circle is square,” you automatically object that circles cannot be square. If I said “I am speaking in Spanish right now,” you would retort, “That is not true.” You are speaking in English.” Any proposition which claims to be true rests on reason, human rationality. Our reason tests a proposition in two ways: first by examining the self-consistency of the proposition, and second by seeing whether the proposition agrees with other knowledge of reality. Self consistency requires that ideas not contradict each other and external agreement requires that a proposition not contradict verifiable historical and scientific knowledge.In some respects, being a journalist who is a Christian is no different than just being a Christian. There is no private/public split in living a Christian life. However, as journalists, we do project to a public audience what our private worldview is, and so we must be self-conscious about our worldview. (*)If it is true that journalists write the first, rough draft of history then it is critical for us Christians to be epistemologically self-conscious. Why is that? The reason is that historians have an advantage over journalists because historians select an event or person to investigate, after the fact. This historical selection is possible because writing history starts with a known goal. The historian then looks back from that goal to see how the goal was reached through world events. So the historical investigation always has guidelines and an intellectual gyroscope directing the content and interpretation of the historian’s narrative. That historical intellectual gyroscope, cognitive guideline, is missing for the journalist because the journalist is writing contemporary, instant narrative. So the journalist is excluded from using a historical event or personage to guide the narrative.Both the historian and the journalist deal with facts, but the historian can wait for hindsight before fact selections are made. The journalist cannot wait because fact selections are made daily, under the pressure of deadlines and competition. Since the journalist cannot see the final consequences of a reported event, story selection, framing and content must be guided by the journalist’s interpretive framework (i.e., worldview). It is the journalist’s worldview which not only selects some stories and ignores others, but also guides the reporter in which facts and sources to pursue and how to pursue them. This is why a journalist’s presuppositions (or worldview or interpretive framework) are critical to a story. Worldview governs the journalistic process.[8]That’s why the Institute has Nancy Pearcey on its faculty - to teach a Christian worldview to our journalism students - because an understanding of one’s worldview is foundational for an honest performance of one’s calling as a journalist.To return to chasing after the truth, because of God’s common grace, Christians are not the only truth-tellers in the profession. Non-Christians can also speak the truth (Acts 17:28-29) and Christians can lie (Joshua 2:1-6). That’s not the point. The point is: It is our obligation, our duty as Christians to always strive to write the truth, even when it contradicts our own presuppositions (Prov. 25:28; 2 Cor. 10:5).There are at least three reasons why journalists of faith are to be irrepressible strivers after truth:
1) We have an obligation to Jesus Christ our Lord to be strivers for truth
The glory of God is that He is the God of truth; the glory of humankind is that we are the image bearers of God, and so we too are to be of truth. Jesus said before Pilate:I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me (John 18:37). Did the triune God practice the truth as He inspired the Biblical writers? Was Jesus of the truth even when it caused confusion and problems about who He was, His very person? Yes, indeed. There are statements in the Bible that have caused the Church problems for 2000 years. Statements that I wish were not in the Bible but God determined that these statements would be reported. Two brief NT examples:Jesus in Gethsemane,Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me (Luke 22:42),and,Jesus on Golgotha,My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matt. 27:46).[9]Is Jesus not wanting to go to the cross for my sins? Do we have an explanation or interpretation for these troublesome reported statements? Of course – Christ’s perfect humanity was being expressed as He absorbed the sins of you and me. But they are still difficult words and I wish they had not been reported because they continue to be a stumbling block to understanding the perfect deity of Jesus. God killing God? What is this all about? But the God of truth proclaimed that His troublesome utterances be made known to the world, fully realizing they would be stumbling blocks to many. We too are to report the troublesome truth, even when it causes problems (Matt. 5:48).
2) We have an obligation to each other to be strivers for truth
The prophet Zechariah records the words of God,These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other and render true and sound judgment in your courts; … and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all these things (Zech. 8:16-17). The Apostle Paul picks up on this passage when he writes to the Ephesians, speak the truth in love, (4:15)and then later,Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor… (4:25; cf, Ex. 20:16; 23:1, 7). Why is speaking the truth to our neighbor so important for us? Why can’t we improve on or soften reality with a little white lie? Because the God of truth will use the truth in any given situation to eventually bless our neighbor. It is part of the way God created human society – truth always leads to blessing (John 8:32). We must never be afraid of reporting the truth of a given situation, even when the truth is ugly and unpleasant, because ultimately, God will use the truth to work His good and perfect will for our neighbor. If falsehood is permitted by our failure to report or deliberately twist the truth (Prov. 24:11-12; 1 Peter 4:15-16), human society will break down and the blessings of human culture will be lost. God created us humans to live in peace and tranquility and harmony with each other, and with the created world. But because of the lies of Satan in the Garden of Eden, all this was lost. To respectfully speak and write the truth in whatever situation (1 Peter 3:15; Col 4:5-6; 2 Tim. 2:23-25; Titus. 3:2), is to take part in the cosmic struggle to redeem human culture. (*)Admittedly, the Bible is complex in how it teaches the sanctity of truth, but suffice it to state for our purposes here, the consequences of reporting the truth are to be left to our sovereign creator God. Our obligation as journalists of faith is to stand truthfully against the “father of lies” for the sake of our neighbor. As image bearers, we have an obligation as “salt,” “light” and “leaven” to preserve the society in which we live, and we journalists who are Christians do that through the promulgation of the truth (Jer. 29:4-9; cf. Gen. 18:23f; Is. 65:8; Jer. 8:1; Ezek. 3:17f; 22:30; Ezra 6:10; 1 Tim. 2:1-2)But perhaps most importantly, to be truthful with our neighbor is to love our neighbor, including our enemies, as ourselves, as is commanded by the one who loved us when we were still enemies of His (Matt. 5:44; John 13:34). Our neighbors deserve the truth because truth is the power of Christian friendship.
3) We have an obligation to ourselves to be strivers for truth
John 8:32 tells us what the truth will do for us:Then you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.What does Jesus mean here? He tells us in the next verse. The truth will set us free from slavery to sin. For every person, including journalists, that is exceedingly good news. By knowing the truth about the world in which we live, by knowing the truth about other people with whom we associate, and by knowing the truth about ourselves - we can bring what we know before our Lord to gain understanding of the world, reconciliation with others, and change in ourselves.It is important for us as journalists to know ourselves: our strengths, our weaknesses, our habits of thought and action, our sins – in order that we might become more conformed to the image of Christ (John 13:15; Rom. 12:2; Phil. 2:5), and therefore better journalists.The pressure for the Christian to conform to the culture of today’s secularized mainstream newsroom will be enormous and unrelenting (Prov. 24:1-2). And the only way we can be faithful to our calling as journalists who are Christian in a post-Christian society will be if we are willing to pursue and report the truth whatever the temporal consequences, for we know the eternal consequences of truth will always be blessed.
Conclusion:
36 years ago, Kathy and I spent our first wedding anniversary with Francis and Edith Schaeffer at their home in L’Abri, Switzerland. During our stay at L’Abri, Schaeffer taught us something that changed my life. He told us that because Jesus said, “I am the truth” (John 14:6), whenever and wherever we stumble upon the truth, we stumble upon Jesus. It doesn’t make any difference if it is scientific truth, political truth, social truth, moral truth, or whatever kind of truth; all truth leads to Jesus because Jesus is the truth.We as journalists who follow Jesus do not have to be afraid of the world, afraid of knowledge, afraid of new discoveries, afraid of truth - even when the truth contradicts our most cherished and tightly held convictions because ultimately the truth will lead to the Savior of the world. For the faithful journalist, there will be rocky times for a season but if we are bold and steadfast to chase the truth in our stories and treat our colleagues and sources with integrity and respect, we will end up, by definition, pleasing Jesus. That is a promise from the Savior, Himself.
[1] 3/04, Las Vegas ,NV
[2] Chris Hedges, NYT
[3] Society’s Equalizer: The role of the journalist is to afflict the powerful and wealthy, and to question the decisions of the decision makers. The journalist is to be a cynic. Not just skeptical, but irrepressibly cynical. The journalist should not believe anything the powerful and privileged tell us. We are to bring down the high and raise the low. “According to Mark [Halperin] his father [Morton Halperin] taught him that the role of the media was a simple one: ‘to hold powerful interests accountable to the public interest.’” (The New Yorker, 10/25/04)
[4] This directed reporting is appropriate for directed publications but may not be for general publications with pluralistic audiences.
[5] If the scheme of reality is: creation – fall – redemption – glory (and I believe this is the basic story line of human history, and of all human story telling, and of every article a journalists will write), then we Christians are convinced that Christ is the focal point of history’s story line.
[6] In the same manner, you can’t refer to an organization as a “Christian organization” unless it is a physical manifestation of the gospel mandate, and that is exclusively the church, the body of Christ. This is a distinction I learned in graduate school at Fuller Theological Seminary.
[7] Look at the Jack Kelley affair. The fall of Jack Kelley, as arguably one of the most prominent journalist of faith in the elite media, has tainted all prominent journalists of faith in the mainstream media.
[8] I am indebted to Robert Drake for this insight.
[9] See also the OT: Elisha and the Arameans (2 Kings 6:19), Rahab and the Jericho spies (Joshua 3; Heb. 11:31; James 2:25)
