. . . (The) Christian worldview's truth claims include an admonition for Christians to be "salt, light, and leaven," individually and collectively, on their spheres of influence. That truth claim presupposes that their spheres of influence would benefit from a collective and intentional Christian influence, and also presupposes such intentional and collective influence is possible. My perception is that the "Get Religion" blog does not want "to go there" -- whether/to what degree Christian journalists should collectively and intentionally influence their profession. I suggest Jay Rosen's most thoughtful insights, linked to the blog item, on the "religion of journalism," allude to this -- they do not mention how, if at all, Christian journalists (or journalists of other faiths) should collectively and intentionally influence their profession, as an appropriate outworking of that faith and its truth claims.

Posted by Joe at 9:56 am on August 17, 2005

This topic is linked to questions that we hear, from time to time, about the role of religious faith in journalism and, thus, in the work at this blog. This is natural, since faith tends to give journalists sweaty palms and journalism has the same effect on far too many religious leaders. I've been working in this particular minefield for decades.

So let me very briefly respond to Joe's comment that GetReligion does not "want to go there" on the God and journalism issue.

If Christians in the field of journalism influence our field, I hope it is in the same way that religious believers influence the fields of law, art, sports, academia, etc. In other words, that influence is expressed through the quality of their work and in open debates about ethical issues that affect everyone on the job.

In other words, GetReligion is not a site about "Christian journalism." We are pretty open about our faith around here, but the purpose of the blog is to talk about how to improve MSM coverage of religion news. The goal is diversity. We are pro-journalism. Click here and here for some of foundational essays about that.

Now, I freely admit that any study of media-bias literature tends to point toward conflicts between the press and traditional forms of religion. There's no way to avoid that. But I am convinced there is more to that topic than some simplistic left vs. right divide. Religious conservatives who claim the MSM is "liberal," in some traditional meaning of that word, and is out to nail them are not seeing the whole picture. That's another topic that keeps coming up in this space, from time to time.

The Christians I know who thrive in mainstream journalism (I am active in Gegrapha, for example) are those who want to work in journalism -- period. To get theological about it, they see journalism as a part of God's (glorious and fallen) creation. No more, no less.

To paraphrase that noted theologian James Carville: It's journalism, stupid.