This is another article written for the News and Religion course I am taking at the Religious Freedom Center at the Newseum. I will be participating in the classes DC Immersion Experience Monday through Wednesday of this coming week. This will include a Open House which I encourage friends in the DC area to attend.

Now, on with the article:

This week in News and Religion, we are grappling with the question, “What is the role of Religion and its value in today’s news media environment?” It makes me think of the quote attributed to Karl Barth, “We must hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” Underlying this is the age-old question of the relationship between culture and media. To what extent does media shape culture and to what extent does media reflect culture? They are inter-related.

This becomes all the more complicated within a pluralistic culture. What happens when people from one culture, or religion, report on people from another culture or religion? What happens when one culture adopts actions, symbols, or beliefs from another culture? What is the relationship between trans-cultural diffusion, cultural appropriation, and the remix culture?

Let’s start by looking at the role of today’s news media on religion. News media provides us information. It may be simple information about when an event is happening, what happened at an event, or what was preached about from a given pulpit on a given Sunday. It may be more complicated stories about ecclesiastical struggles related to moral issues and the culture wars of today.

A good example of this is the article, Anglican leaders head to the Communion’s “Mother Church” for 2017 Primates’ Meeting. While much of the focus on this event in the secular press has been around issues of human sexuality, the article by the Anglican Communion News Service focuses on other issues of perhaps even greater importance, such as climate change, human trafficking, and mission strategy.

Human sexuality is a titillating subject that a lot of people have a lot of opinions about. The articles in the secular news media about how a faith tradition understands human sexuality draws a lot of attention, although it is questionable how much such articles help shape our views. The Anglican Primates meeting in early October provided a great example of this. Much of the secular press prior to the meeting focused on possible sanctions against the Scottish Episcopal Church for their decision to allow same-sex marriage. The reports from the meeting, however, ended up with a very different focus: “The sense of common purpose underpinned by God’s love in Christ and expressed through mutual fellowship was profound.”

Climate change is an interesting topic that is discussed a lot in the secular media, usually with a political focus. Yet many people of faith feel they are called to respond to issues of climate change from a religious perspective. Coverage of climate change from a religious perspective in the secular media has the potential to further shape the political discourse around climate change.

The news media helps the broaden community understand know what is going on in religious communities and helps shape opinions and cultural history around important issues.

This leads us to “the role of Religion and its value in today’s news media environment”. First, we need to consider the role of Religion, in and of itself. While it is important to differentiate between religion and ecclesiastical organizations, it might be helpful to look at how the Episcopal Church describes its mission in its Book of Common Prayer.

The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.

Religion is the context within which news happens. It is the way people relate with one another and with the divine, especially as it relates to current events. News happens within a context; within a cultural context, a political context, and a religious context. Good reporting contextualizes the stories being reported on. So the role and value of religion in today’s news environment is to provide a key context so that the readers may more fully understand the stories being reported upon.

The problem that this raises is that we live in a pluralistic society. There are many different religious viewpoints. This can become even more complicated when one culture appropriates ideas, symbols, or beliefs from another culture.

Cultural appropriation has become a major topic in American discourse these days. Jenni Avins article in The Atlantic, The Dos and Don’ts of Cultural Appropriation provides a valuable exploration of this topic, including discussing the adoption of “sacred artifacts as accessories”.

How do we differentiate between trans-cultural diffusion and cultural misappropriation? Avins article provides some useful guidelines, and it is something reporters need to be especially conscious of. Are they simply reporting trends in trans-cultural diffusion or are they contributing to cultural misappropriation?

Religion, culture, news, and entertainment are all delicately interwoven in the fabric of our society. They each influence one another and are influenced by one another. We should all seek to be culturally aware in our discourse lest we tear at the fabric of our society.