It's a challenge, in the print context of GetReligion, to do much reporting about the content of broadcast media. We can, of course, look forward to the day of expanded websites in which networks offer interactive print versions of the features that they broadcast in audio and video forms. We are seeing this happen more and more.
Nevertheless, religion-beat reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty at National Public Radio just served up a report that offered a totally new (at least to me) take on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. To hear it, click here and fire up the RealAudio player. Here is the brief description of the report from the NPR homepage:
All Things Considered, September 19, 2005 -- For African Americans watching Hurricane Katrina unfold on TV, the need to help was especially pressing. But anger has often accompanied that desire to help, and many black churches are struggling to both provide immediate aid and to help black Americans confront the bigger issues the storm raises.
That's one way to put it, and the key word is "anger," because the MSM's storyline post-Katrina has been built on that emotion. But Hagerty's reporting digs into a not-so-subtle split within the African-American church.
She starts in a logical place -- the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church here in Washington, D.C., which calls itself "The Cathedral of African Methodism." The church responded to the TV coverage of Katrina by quickly rounding up $20,000 in donations and 45,000 pounds of goods and shipping them off to Mississippi in an 18-wheeler.
This is not a big surprise, notes Haggerty, because studies show that black believers regularly give 25 percent more of their discretionary income to charities -- especially church causes -- than whites. The church aid flowed straight to needy people, while many other agencies were briefly stalled by forms and interview procedures.
This is where the anger comes in.
Many of the church people making these donations were, of course, moved by the images of black people suffering in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. They got mad and this motivated them. As the Rev. Ronald E. Braxton said of the storm's fallout: "I hope that it keeps us angry, that it keeps us on alert against forces that dismantle people."
But is prophetic -- even political -- anger the best, or the most constructive, stance for the black church to take today?
The word "today" is key, because right now that anger would be focused on President George W. Bush. Thus, the issue looming in Haggerty's report is black church anger at other black church leaders who focus on a more positive, conciliatory approach to working with, and correcting, this White House. The big, and I mean big, example of this is Bishop T.D. Jakes at The Potter's House in Dallas. He recently drew a big spotlight speaking at the National Cathedral service to remember those lost in Katrina. This meant he shared a spotlight, by default, with Bush.
As Haggerty notes, all of this raises a big question: "Who speaks for the black church and what kind of message will it have?"
Oh, and will those voters stay angry and solidly Democratic?
P.S. There might be a link between this story and another lurking just over the horizon (and I don't mean Hurricane Rita). Click here and let me know what you think.