About the time that I started teaching journalism in Washington, D.C., I saw a movie in which Beltway professionals (including speechwriters) played a rather cynical bar game. I think the movie was “Speechless,” with Michael Keaton and Geena Davis.
If my memory is correct, the game was called “Spot the soundbite.” The goal was to watch a long, complicated political speech and then to accurately predict the tiny, often sensational 5-10 second “bite” that would make it into television news reports.
The message, of course, was that substance and nuance didn’t mean much in public life. Emotions and feelings linked to a fleeting soundbite — which could be funny or emotional or whatever — were what mattered. All together now: “Where’s the beef!” It was also clear that it was easy for journalists to pick good, sharp soundbites from “good” candidates and bad, stupid soundbites from “bad” candidates.
This brings us to this week’s “Crossroads” podcast (click here to tune that in), in which host Todd Wilken and I discussed the latest example of a preacher getting caught, in the age of YouTube and social media, failing to understand the rules of “Spot the soundbite.”
I heard about this epic news story when a former student — who has national print and television experience — sent me a wry email that said: “It’s weird that this random preacher’s sermon merits an NBC News story, no?” Indeed. In the world of short attention spans and tiny online news reports, this sermon by an unknown preacher, in a tiny church, in the middle of nowhere, in an obscure denomination, deserved a 900-word report.
My witty former student knew, of course, why this sermon received lots of national news coverage — including staff (not wire service) coverage in The New York Times (we will get to that shortly).
Yes, this preacher said some genuinely bizarre and disturbing stuff about women and marriage, especially when viewed through a #ChurchToo lens. However, was it national news that an unknown pastor said these things? Well, it is if the sermon contains the word “Trump” and this pastor can be turned into an archetypal symbol of white evangelicals in flyover country, the rubes many journalists blame for electing Orange Man Bad in the first place.
This preacher did not understand how to play “Spot the soundbite.”
So here is the overture for this NBC News feature:
A Missouri pastor is on leave after a video emerged of him preaching that wives should strive to be thin, made up, well-dressed and satisfying in the bedroom to keep their husbands interested because "God made men to be drawn to beautiful women."
"I want you to know a need that your man has that he won’t ever tell you about, but since I’m the preacher man, I’ll say it: Your man needs an attractive wife," First General Baptist Church Pastor Stewart-Allen Clark said from the pulpit at the start of the sermon, according to a video posted to Facebook.
The date and intended audience of the sermon are unclear.
A statement posted by First General Baptist Church's deacon ministry team said that "as of March 2, 2021, Pastor Stewart-Allen Clark has taken a leave of absence and is seeking professional counseling."
Clark did not respond to multiple requests for comment from NBC News.
How did this stunning news make it into the bloodstream of elite media? That’s totally predictable. It was posted on Facebook by someone who had seen the video, etc., etc.
The Facebook person didn’t want to talk to NBC News either.
Here’s another bite from the sermon:
"You need to know this, men have a need for their women to look like women. Sweatpants don’t cut it all the time huh," Clark said. "Men want their women to look good at home and in public. Can I get an amen?"
Clark said it is up to a woman to keep her weight down, wear makeup and dress well to keep her husband from cheating.
"Don’t give him a reason to be like this distracted boyfriend," he said, showing a picture of the ubiquitous meme.
"Why is it so many times that women after they get married let themselves go," Clark asked. "Don’t give him a reason to be looking around ... I really don’t believe women understand how visual men are," he added. "I don’t think women understand how important it is for a man to have a beautiful woman on his arm."
As you would expect, the New York Times team elected to put the spotlight on a different quote in this crucial piece of national discourse. This chunk of the story begins with the story’s third paragraph, which is prime territory, of course.
The video was posted on Facebook on Feb. 28 and runs more than 22 minutes. In it, the pastor, Stewart-Allen Clark of the 1st General Baptist Church, in Malden, Mo., can be seen standing on a brightly lit stage, wearing an oversize, untucked shirt and bluejeans, and holding a book open in his left hand. “Why is it so many times that women after they get married let themselves go?” he asks.
“I’m not saying every woman can be the epic, the epic trophy wife of all time, like Melania Trump,” Mr. Clark says, adding, “Maybe you’re a participation trophy.” He went on to discourage women from wearing sweatpants, flip-flops and pajamas, saying: “That ain’t going to work. Ain’t nothing attractive about that.”
Yes, he was “holding a book open in his left hand.” Note to editors who viewed the YouTube clip — that might have been a Bible. Preachers often hold Bibles.
Then again, maybe he was holding a copy of a book from the 1980s — “Total Woman: How To Make Your Marriage Come Alive!”, written by a somewhat popular evangelical named Marabel Morgan.
How many GetReligion readers are old enough (please raise your hands) to remember the waves of news stories including this image: That Christian housewives who want to spice up their marriages should consider greeting their breadwinner husbands at the door wearing nothing but a thin, clear layer of Saran Wrap? Then again, maybe you saw that reference just the other day in a New Republic piece about Trumpian evangelicals.
Obviously, that image has legs. See how “Spot the soundbite” works?
It is also instructive to note when the rules of this game do not apply. Consider another newsmaker from about the same timeframe as Marabel Morgan’s bestseller.
The late Rev. Robert Williams — when he was ordained as the first openly gay Episcopal Church priest — was a major newsmaker. There was no doubt about it. He was a disciple of another important newsmaker — Bishop Jack Spong of Newark, a walking, breathing quote machine for the elite press.
Then Williams delivered a blunt soundbite about the importance of people being sexually active, if they wanted to be emotionally and spiritually whole.
I remember a long, long conversation that I had with an editor about how to paraphrase this controversial turn of phrase. I also remember that the editor offered several arguments about why this statement by a national figure was not, in fact, national news.
I said that this was a valid story, linked to major-church leaders addressing, on the record, a hot topic in the national news.
The editor said conservatives considered this quote news because it made a liberal religious leader look bad and, thus, made liberal Christians look bad.
It said that this might be true, but wasn’t this case — in reverse — rather similar to national-level coverage of someone like Marabel Morgan, the Rev. Bailey Smith, Pat Robertson and other crafters of edgy evangelical soundbites?
The editor didn’t see my point.
What did Williams say? Here is a Wall Street Journal report that didn’t paraphrase the killer quote:
Bishop Spong is probably best known to the wider public for sponsoring the ordination, in 1989, of one Robert Williams, the first openly gay Episcopal priest living publicly with his lover. A few months later the Rev. Williams told a reporter that "Mother Teresa would be better off if she got laid," at which point even Bishop Spong became disenchanted with his protégé and issued his severest criticism: "Robert did not know how to deal with public relations."
Obviously, Williams needed to learn the rules of “Spot the soundbite.”
Every now and then those rules apply to religious leaders on the left, as well as on the right.
Maybe.
Enjoy the podcast and, please, pass it on to others.
FIRST IMAGE: Illustration from PastorServe.net.