"At some level, the media survives by giving people what they want"

Brad Wright:

In general the public’s appetite for the news focuses on the novel. We want to hear about planes crashing, not landing safely, about CEOs defrauding companies, not those running companies well, about parents endangering their children, not those raising their children well. Applied to religion, what’s often most novel is when religious people violate their own beliefs, such as pastor sex scandals or people acting hypocritically. I realize that at some level, the media survives by giving people what they want, but I think that both journalists and their audience would benefit by being aware of this dynamic that highlights the problems of religion.

True. But I would take it a step further. There's something unique to religion reporting as opposed to reporting on plane crashes, corrupt CEOs, and dysfunctional parenting. Most people are familiar enough with planes landing normally, companies functioning normally, and parents acting normally. They live in that world, and they know what ought not to be.

People don't finish stories of perverse parenting convinced they should never be parents. And those of us who are familiar with religious faith can read stories of religious scandal as something tragic and out-of-the-ordinary. We know that, just as planes take off and land safely thousands of times a day, so religious organizations faithfully serve and teach and challenge and develop.

But it's different when those who know little about religion are exposed exclusively and relentlessly to the tragic and controversial stories reported in the media. They aren't reading the story inside the fuller context of familiarity to faith communities, and so with each story they end up with an increasingly warped view of the faith that is so important to their own co-workers and neighbors. And that can't possibly lead to more informed--and therefore more neighborly--communities. Brad Wright is correct: "Both journalists and their audience would benefit by being aware of this dynamic that highlights the problems of religion."

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Joshunda Sanders of our Austin American-Statesman gets a shout-out in the post I've linked to!