The press continues to stumble when they attempt to cover the reaction of evangelical Christians to Mitt Romney and that’s not coming from me, that’s coming from a reporter.
Somehow in my blog reading, I have missed GetReligion. I have no idea how I missed it, since it deals with religion (particularly Christianity) and the media.
The bloggers are Christians and religion writers in the media. With a degree in journalism from a Christian school and one who has constantly been interested in the intersections of the two fields, you would have thought I would have bookmarked this blog from the beginning.
Nevertheless, I am glad I found it now and appreciate the depth of knowledge they bring to issues of media and religion.
Terry Mattingly deals with a recent headline by the Dallas Morning News: “Dallas minister: Vote for a Christian, not Mitt Romney.”
Of course that’s not what the pastor said, but reporters do not understand the dynamics between the Mormon Church and evangelical Christians. The pastor said that Mitt Romney and any other Mormon are not Christians, they are members of a cult, no matter what Romney or any evangelical leader supporting him says.
That is neither an endorsement or a rejection of Romney’s candidacy. I can both accept that statement as fact – Romney is not a Christian – and still vote for him as the best available presidential candidate. The two are not mutually exclusive.
If Romney continues to be in the headlines and especially if he is the GOP nominee, I hope political reporters will do their homework in order to understand the distinctions and the differences between the two faiths, how they interact and how a rejection of Romney’s Mormonism is not automatically a rejection of Romney’s candidacy.
Hi Aaron:
From the article you linked: “Jeffress is clearly attempting to discourage his congregation from voting for Romney, but those aren’t the precise words he used. The headline attempts to take the reader the extra step and read into what the minister intended to convey.
So it was clear (according to the link) what Jeffress was trying to do but it criticizes the Dallas Morning news for saying that in the headlines? Obviously the minister isn’t going to come out and say who his flock should vote for because that could create IRS trouble; that he didn’t precisely say “don’t vote for Romney because he’s not a Christian” doesn’t really seem that significant.
your friend
keith
The article is written by journalist criticizing them because the DMN “attempts to take the reader the extra step and read into what the minister intended to convey.”
Maybe and more than likely Jeffress was attempting to discourage his congregation from voting for Romney, but he didn’t say that and the journalist should infer it. That’s journalism 101 and basic decency. You report on what you hear and what they said, not what you think you heard and what you think they meant.
It is very significant when talking about journalistic integrity.
Hi Aaron:
All I’m saying is that the link said it was clear what he was doing, so at least according to them the DMN got the story right. The sire seemed sympathetic to conservative Christian involvement in politics, they weren’t critical of what they saw as an attempt by the pastor to tell his parishoners who to vote, but they were upset when a newpaper accurately described what was going on. I’m not about to defend a Texas newspaper:-) but when the site you linked to criticized the DMN it reminded me of that scene in Crash where the young car jacker complained that white people were afraid of him and his partner in crime because they were black. While a complaint might have been justified, they weren’t the right ones to make it.
your friend
keith