ANALYSIS:
Media no longer abstains from religious discussion
Written by Sherri Deatherage Green
Published in PRWeek, Nov. 17, 2003
Recent scandals and
social changes have prompted heightened media scrutiny of religious
institutions. As Sherri Deatherage Green discovers, top representatives of many
denominations are answering the increased attention by engaging the press much
more openly.
Ministers preparing for upcoming Thanksgiving services may quietly give thanks for anonymity at a time when fellow clergy members seem to make headlines every day.
Yet the spate of recent news
stories dealing with religious issues –
such as the Catholic Church’s pedophilia scandal, the controversial decision of
the U.S. Episcopal Church to appoint an openly gay bishop, and Muslim
Americans’ continued attempt for appreciation of their religion at a time when
Islam remains closely associated with terrorist threats against the U.S. – is
sure to have a lasting effect on how the media now reports on all things
religious. Some see this recent coverage, beginning with the Catholic sex
scandal, as the end of an era. The end of sacred cows.
“The Catholic Church scandal has
opened things up for discussions that have in the past seemed unassailable,”
said Dan Cohen, principal of Full Court Press in Oakland, Calif. Cohen
volunteered to help with crisis communication when someone tried to burn down
his synagogue.
The Catholic Church symbolizes the secrecy (or at least the standoffishness) that has marked many religions’ attitudes toward the press, and now it also represents the openness that many seek. The National Review Board, a lay commission appointed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to advise its Office of Child and Youth Protection, will release two research studies in February at the National Press Club. One will report statistics on sexual abuse among Catholic clergy since the 1950s, and the other will analyze causes and context, said Bill Burleigh, a review board member and chairman of E.W. Scripps.
Some observers also think blurring
lines between church and state may be heightening media and public interest in
religion. President Bush’s faith-based initiatives would shift federal funding
to church-sponsored programs, and other examples of religious issues in the political
and judicial realms pop up regularly.
“Before these kinds of issues
became so prominent, if you wanted to ignore religions, you could just tune out
the TV stories that were done on them,” said Craig McDaniel, VP and management
supervisor at Michael A. Burns & Associates in Dallas. “It’s hard to ignore
the effect on anyone’s daily life any more.”
Cultural changes push religion to the forefront
Societal changes also may be
pushing religion to the front page.
“I think the media is rightly
sensing that there is a shift in American culture about this issue, and we are
the first denomination to deal with it head on,” said Rev. Daniel England,
director of communications for the Episcopal Church. England’s comments came a
week after Rev. Gene Robinson was consecrated as the world’s first openly gay
bishop.
England doesn’t view the situation
as a crisis. “People may disagree about the particular issue of the place of
gay and lesbian people in the church, but the church is big enough to
accommodate all of those opinions,” he explained.
At the other end of the protestant
theological spectrum, the often-outspoken Southern Baptists agree society is
changing.
“The culture is treading down that
path of accepting homosexual behavior,” said John Revell, a spokesman for the
Southern Baptist Convention. “Whenever a culture becomes increasingly distanced
from the biblical standard and a group holds to the biblical standard, they are
going to stand out.”
Representatives of various faiths
also concede that adding religion to any scandalous story gives it extra
sizzle. “When an individual in the church sins, you not only have a sin and a
crime, you have hypocrisy, and that certainly evokes very strong media
interest,” says Sister Mary Ann Walsh, deputy media relations director for the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Unfortunately, many religious
organizations don’t have the resources to respond effectively.
“I think for a long time, we’ve
had a shortage of spokespeople who can address issues in a way that is
acceptable to the media and larger society,” said Ibrahim Hooper,
communications director for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Theology’s intellectual nature
also poses challenges. Preachers build sermons toward logical conclusions, but
that approach doesn’t always work with impatient reporters.
Former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating, the
former chairman of the Catholic’s review board, was known for controversial
sound bites that didn’t always sit well with internal audiences, Burleigh
notes. “I think journalism has a peculiar vocabulary, and the transcendent
nature of religion and theology does not translate well into that vocabulary,”
he said.
Fear and mistrust on both sides
often hinder church-press relationships. A summer survey by the Pew Research
Center showed that 34 percent of respondents ranked the media as unfriendly
toward religion, while only 16 percent felt it was friendly.
“In general, I think conservatives
are distrustful of the media and would prefer not to deal with them at all,”
said Rev. Chris Underation, media relations manager for an evangelical
Christian school in New Hampshire. “They believe that the media caricatures and
ridicules their views. As a result, they aren’t really forthcoming with
information.” Underation recalls a seminary professor instructing him to say
“No comment” when reporters called.
Such reticence can feed a cycle in
which inadequate information breeds inaccurate coverage, while nuance and
sensitivities often cause reporters to avoid religion like a hot potato.
“You might say the Eucharist
represents the body and blood of Christ. To a Catholic, the Eucharist is the
body and blood of Christ. Big difference,” Walsh said. “When you offend people
in something religious, they get very upset.”
More general-news coverage
Despite what seems like a jump in
coverage of religion-related news, religious communicators report increasing
coverage by general assignment reporters. The Religion Newswriters Association
reported in September that when its president, Jeff Sheler, lost his job at US
News and World Report, Time became the only remaining weekly news
magazine with a full-time religion writer.
Those with complex messages to
communicate once turned to the print media, but Larry Brumley, associate VP for
external relations at Baylor University, laments that increased competition
pushes print toward more immediacy and less depth. “It just feels like there
are more crises because there are more channels to distribute information,”
Brumley said, adding that mainstream media are more likely to pick up a story
when a niche outlet has reported it.
At Cathedral of Hope, a huge
liberal and predominantly gay and lesbian church in Dallas, a few disgruntled
members alleged financial improprieties and mounted an aggressive media
relations campaign. The gay press first covered the dispute, which spilled over
into the mainstream media.
Cathedral of Hope took a few hits
in the press, but PR manager Kris Martin believes strong existing media
relationships helped mitigate damage. The church has long provided photo ops
for community services projects, like the upcoming distribution of Thanksgiving
baskets. “We knew we could change the way the world felt about gay people by
just doing service,” Martin said.
Ministers also have been
positioned as national media sources on pertinent issues, but the crisis forced
the church to focus more on its internal audience. Hundreds of members attended
congregational forums and board meetings, Martin said.
Other religious organizations have
made great PR strides in recent years as well. For example, United Methodist
Communications formed in 1998 to support spokespeople throughout the
denomination. Its website includes a crisis communication guide. Both the
Conference of Catholic Bishops and CAIR offer media training, and a few
denominations have begun brand advertising.
“It’s no mystery that younger
people are very brand-conscious,” England said. “I suspect that many of the
denominations have recognized that, and they see the need to have their brand
and message out there.” He believes consecration of the gay bishop drives home
his denomination's brand message: “The Episcopal church welcomes you.”
Communicators trying to nudge
their churches toward media relations can use evangelical directives to their
favor.
Evangelist Billy Graham recognizes
the advantage of having conversations, not confrontations, with the press, says
A. Larry Ross, whose eponymous Dallas agency has represented Graham’s ministry
for decades. “He has enjoyed a good relationship with the media because he has
had a policy of engagement,” Ross said.
But some religious leaders aren’t
as subtle about conveying their theological positions to a secular world, and
they look to a higher power to guide communications.
Bill Merrill, the Southern Baptist
Convention’s VP for convention relations, suffered a stroke several weeks ago.
He’s the only person experienced in handling media crises for the denomination,
but its leaders haven’t yet considered replacing him. “We are praying for his
full recovery,” Revell said. “The future is in God’s hands.”
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