A reporting nightmare: Hellish tragedy linked to one of those 'nondenominational' flocks

If you have followed GetReligion for nearly two decades and, of course, the omnipresent Ryan Burge’s Twitter feed, you know the rise of nondenominational Christianity is one of the most important trends in the religion marketplace — in America and around the world.

Ancient churches and Protestant denominations are very, very complicated and require journalists to sweat lots of details about doctrine, traditions, polity, etc. But, with a nod to Gertrude Stein, we can note that there IS a there there when journalists dig into “organized religion.”

With nondenominational flocks, it is often impossible to find the kinds of structures and shared, on-the-record beliefs, policies and laws that bring some coherence to the wild world of religion news.

With that in mind, let’s look at a tragic USA TODAY story — “California megachurch leader, grandparents charged with murder, torture in death of 11-year-old daughter” — that demonstrates some of these challenges. Let me stress that I am not trying to poke holes in it. After all, reporter Natalie Neysa Alund was one of my Milligan College reporting students in the late 1990s. I’m trying to note some of the challenges in this kind of short story about life in nondenominational churches.

Note, for example, the problematic word “leader” in that headline. I kept looking for some specifics there and I have NO IDEA what short, accurate, “better” word I would have used to improve that headline or the lede. Hold that thought.

The bottom line: At some point, editors need to give reporters a few extra inches of space to include the kinds of details that help readers understand just how independent most of these churches are, in terms of supervision and accountability. Here is the overture:

A California megachurch leader and her parents have been arrested on charges including murder and torture in the death of the woman's 11-year-old daughter.
Leticia McCormack, a leader at Rock Church in San Diego, founded and led by former NFL player Miles McPherson, was booked in jail … on a charge of murder, three counts of torture, and three counts of willful cruelty to a child in the death of Arabella McCormack, the San Diego County Sheriff's Office reported.

What do we know about this church?

I spent three full days in Houston and other parts of Texas last week reporting on the faith-based response to Hurricane Harvey.

I’m writing a package of stories for The Christian Chronicle. My first piece, focusing on churches that opened their doors to evacuees, was published today. I also did a Religion News Service profile of Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, a Houston furniture icon whose compassionate response to flooding victims made him a hero to many.

But here’s my confession: I found the massive nature of Harvey — involving tens of thousands of flooded homes and at least 60 deaths — a bit overwhelming.

Covering Harvey's aftermath reminded me of how I felt when I traveled to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast to report on Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

On Twitter, I noted:

Similarity between #Katrina and #Harvey: my inability to even begin to scratch the surface of all the faith-based relief work. #reporterlife

But then I came across a lovely USA Today feature packed with revealing details about just one flooding victim. Understanding hit me like the realization “I could’ve had a V8.” (That V8 reference will make sense to GetReligion readers of a certain age.)