by Dominic Steele
There are lots of reasons why the secular media usually doesn’t get it right when covering Christianity. Some of those reasons are more obvious (uninformed journalists, mistakes in church public relations, etc), but there is a spiritual battle that cuts to the heart of the problem.
In chapter 8 of John’s Gospel, Jesus points to a massive dividing line in the world, and it’s not race, politics or gender. Jesus says the key issue in defining people is our spiritual paternity, and it’s this issue that ultimately affects anyone’s ability to grasp the truth – including those in the media.
Jesus is involved in a heated debate with the religious leaders of his day. He tells them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here.” But while one group has God as their father, Jesus implies that there is another group. For this group, God is not their Father, because they do not love Jesus or recognise him as Lord.
Where we stand on this issue of spiritual paternity will influence all parts of our lives, not least how we operate at work. As children, we will imitate our father. For journalists – those charged with reporting events truthfully – the question of truth comes sharply into focus. And the reality is that in newsrooms all around the world the dominant people are those who do not have God as their father.
Speaking the truth is more than just reporting accurately on what someone said or did. Speaking the truth is better defined as ‘conveying information that accurately corresponds to reality’.
For example, it isn’t enough for a report to be strictly accurate in that there are no false quotes or sentences. The whole story needs to be packaged and presented in such a way that it accurately describes reality.
The only way that we can be holistically truthful is if we grasp what lies at the base of all reality. What is this foundational truth? In John 8, it is the information that sets us free – the message that Jesus is the Son of the Father.
This doesn’t mean that the atheistic journalist can’t get it right when reporting the football scores or the result of an election. It doesn’t even mean that their analysis or perception of events will be wrong at every point. But it does mean that the foundation of their universe – their basic worldview – is faulty, and ultimately they will never portray reality accurately.
Freely available, empirical information, like election results, is easier to come to agreement on. But reporting on ‘personality’ is harder than reporting on events.
Frequently, people who speak to journalists later feel they were misrepresented. How much more will this be the case where the ‘person’ being represented is the triune God? Spiriual truth is not empirically verifiable, but is God’s self-revelation.
Jesus is the Son of the Father, you won’t recognise what the Father’s adoptive children are doing. It is misreading of motives that leads to much of the woeful reporting on ‘Christian’ news.
If we truly long to see the media coverage of Christianity change, we can’t expect non-Christian journalists to suddenly get it right. We need to be praying and acting to see them recognise God as their Father and Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.
Dominic Steele works with Christians in the Media in Sydney.
