Good Article
A good article worth reading from religion reporter Chris Hedges, a reporter from the New York Times who has won numerous awards for his war-time journalism.
He reports about the convention for the National Religious Broadcasters Association.
You can read it here.
Christianity Today called it "paranoid."
I'm interested to hear your reactions: good, bad and ugly.
If you don't have time, you can read thisgreat editorial from the editors of Christianity today here.
posted by David Tieche at 8:10 PM
11 Comments:
I don't know whether it's paranoid, but it's certainly disturbing on a number of fronts.
One note: Dobson was raised in a Nazarene Church, as was I. But I think his political activism is antithetical to traditional Nazarene theology and practice (at least as I understand it).
-- Kim Helliwell
10:39 PM
Hedges seems to give a pretty even-keeled report on the conference, but then again, I'm not a fan of Christian politics. So, I suppose it depends on your frame of reference. No doubt supporters of the FRC would say otherwise.
I do think that he goes over the edge when comparing Christians to Nazis. At that point he loses credibility. I guess he was pretty upset by his friend's death, but still. Nazis? Come on. That word carries too much rhetorical baggage.
But if you ignore that last part of his article, the rest is very interesting. We shouldn't pander to the world and dilute the message to suit other people, but we do need to pay close attention to the langauge that we use when talking about our faith and about non-believers.
Maybe I'm just more sensitive to it because I didn't become a Christian until later in life, so I still have fresh memories of what Christianity looked like to me "from the outside."
10:49 AM
This article was definitely good food for thought, among other cliches, and is on a topic that I feel strongly about. It's sort of sad when the only unified front the evangelical church poses is in reagards to political activism. It's also sad when this evangelical political movement begins to disregard some of the principles Christ was most adamant about - like, challenging hypocritical religious authority. This article did have a pointedness and animosity that was sometimes inappropriate, but the underlying points were well-taken and appreciated.
5:10 PM
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7:44 PM
Dave,
You know I am on the other side of this. When I look at this article I immediately get a feeling of disdain. Right away he is building a platform off of people’s dislike of George Bush and using words like rhetoric, feeling the hate and revolution to set the tempo of this article. You know anytime I am flipping channels and hear somebody like Rush Limbaugh I bet I will hear a one sided argument that show all the faults of demarcates and liberals. I’m sick of it on both sides.
Interesting yes, it’s interesting that this man obviously does not like Republicans, Conservatives and Christians. He probably dislikes Conservative Republicans who are Christians the most. I mean this guy pulled out every morsel of Bad he could find in this convention. The point about the Egyptian Lady who was harassed by some of the convention attendees was the part that affected me the most, what a horrible thing to do. But what he didn’t do is reference anything positive about this conference. That shows me he does not believe anything positive exist or does not want anybody to know anything positive exists.
You know the last time I went to a Promise Keepers convention a couple of years ago, I was amazed how excited the group of men would get when they showed a Fighter Plane going across the big screen and I also thought in retrospect what the heck is a picture of a fighter plane doing there. They tried to kind of cross reference it as a flying eagle like the scripture verses in the Bible or something. What a bad decision. That should not be the direction of the conference. But that is not what the conference was about. The overwhelming majority of that weekend was filled with singing to the Lord, being humbled and encouraged. We were being told to be better men of God by loving our neighbors more and being better Fathers, Husbands and Brothers to each other and to the world. To not depend on our wife’s to lead the church but to participate and be an active force for good and leaders in our homes, communities and churches. Not a bad way to spend a weekend.
Now I was not at this convention but I bet there was more to it than what was stated in this article. Show me a two sided version. Something I can rest on that’s honest and credible. That is not afraid to show our flaws and give us food for thought. But at the same time is not a banner of what I might call rhetoric against the church. When a person only gives one side of anything it feels like a debate to me. Now we all know debates are used to convince someone there side is right and the other side is wrong.
I know I am not being very clear on what I am trying to say. I guess this kind of reminds me of an old friend of mine. I once went to this person because I could tell something was wrong between us and wanted to work it out. I trusted this person valued their opinions of me and was willing to listen. So I asked what’s wrong. I then received a detailed list of 5 or 6 reason why they didn’t like me anymore, or at least not near as much as they use to. You know saying it as simple as that it does not sound too bad, but it was. I was delivered blow after blow of criticisms that were mostly correct. But the manor they were given was tasteless. No tact, care or concern for me was shown. It was as if I possessed no good qualities at all. Like in this persons eyes I only equaled the negatives they could see in me. How can I trust that? I can’t. I Know I am more than those points argued against me. If that person can only see the bad in me then I can not trust or respect them.
That’s how I feel to what Chris Hedges is doing. It seems here he feels our sums rest on only the negative he sees in us as Christians. This causes me to not trust him and discredit him all at the same time. His one sided blindness show he can not be used as a truly accurate barometer of what was really going on at this convention or really any thing that has to do with “Soldiers Of Christ”. I know I am being pretty one sided in my opinion of his article but when Mr. Hedges uses the “Hitler Argument” against the Christians it shows that he is trying completely discredit us.
Dave some of his point are defiantly note worthy but I can’t receive them. Show me a man of God that is concerned with our flaws as a Christian Culture. Someone I can trust. I too am against a lot of the angry, get even, eye for an eye attitude that is becoming more influential in our nation. I am willing to be taught but not by that man.
Also as credible and as much as I respect you it’s hard for me to take what your saying because your using his article as the talking points. Don’t get me wrong. I totally respect your opinions and almost always agree with you. I am just saying use men I can respect to teach me to not fall in to the traps of this world. Not men that will always see us only for the wrong we do. I can not receive that.
7:49 PM
Russell,
Your points are valid. Your personal experience is even more valid - it's painful when someone wholly dismisses someone else. People have done that to me and it pisses me off something fierce.
However, you kind of did the same thing to Hedges by refusing to accept his writings as a valid source.
I posted the article not because it was an editorial, but because it was written by a man with mountains of credibility in the journalistic community. Chris Hedges is a former war correspondent with fifteen years of experience in places such as El Salvador, Kosovo, and the Persian Gulf. He's worked at the Christian Science Monitor, the Dallas Morning News, and most recently The New York Times, where he shared in a 2001 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of global terrorism.
He's also a regular correspondent for PBS for their religion and ethics pages, and the son of a Presbyterian minister.
He's not a hack - and although I don't have any information about his ideological background - you have to accept that he's earned the right to be listened to.
He has earned the right - through years of hard service - for people to believe that he is going to report what's going on. I trust that if he wrote the piece from a certain point of view, that certain point of view was actually present - probably overwhelmingly present. He quoted pieces of speeches from main headline speakers.
Granted, I wasn't there. But Hedge's in-depth look revealed some really troubling things. And I used the piece as a talking point because Hedges is a respected journalist.
I tend to respect journalists. Part of that is because I used to be one. Part of it is because I know quite a few.
And they're some of the best people I know.
And so if they say, "Hey something weird is happening over here," it's probably good not to discount them.
Now granted - on your side - I don't like people criticizing anything they aren't personally vested in improving. I do believe, as you pointed out, that the most legitimate critics are those who love something enough to skewer it. As Martin Luther King, Jr once said, "It is because I love America that I criticize her." Critics of the church who don't love her are not as valid. You're 100 percent right about that.
But I'm not sure that's what we're dealing with here with Hedges. And your Promise Keeper example is probably not what's going on here. Hedges offered rows and rows of examples in his piece from main-speaker, featured speakers. He reported what the speakers wanted people to hear.
As they say around these parts, "Even a blind man can find a manure pile."
You don't have to be Christian to know when something's going on that just ain't good.
9:32 PM
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9:32 PM
Dave,
To say I did the same to Hedges is questionable. At the bottom of my post, I said his points are note worthy. And I also said “I know I am being pretty one sided in my opinion of his article but when Mr. Hedges uses the “Hitler Argument” against the Christians it shows that he is trying completely discredit us. “ No matter how acclaimed he is as a writer that statement shows where his heart lies.
You know I jumped on to Google and looked him up. I found this interview with him and it really show his point of view against Christians I don’t know how to do the cool links you do but here is the site
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/05/1429230
Here are some quotes of his from that link. Now understand Chris was the son of a pastor and has a master’s degree in theology from Harvard University but he was never ordained.
“For me, this is not a religious movement. It's a political movement.”
“dominionists believe that they have been tasked by God to create the Christian society through violence”
“And this is an America where people like you and me have no place. And you don't have to take my word for it, turn on Christian broadcasting, listen to Christian radio. Listen to what they say about people like us”
Hear is a list of some of the article Titles and web sites I could find that either were written by Chris or featured him as qualified guest to speculate on the wrong doings of Christians
THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE RISE OF AMERICAN FASCISM
The Christian Right and the Rising Power of the Evangelical Political Movement
Crooks and Liars
Feeling the hate with the National Religious Broadcasters
The religious right: An anti-American terrorist movement
This person does not like Christians 1 bit and I do not think I am wrong in that analysis. Therefore, unlike you I do not trust his perspective on Christianity and that conference. Yes, he is a very accomplished journalist and that’s great. However, his views towards Christians have been developing since he was a child. The amount of distrust and anger that seems evident is to strong for me to believe he has much objectiveness on the convention or just about anything that has to do Christianity.
Setting all that aside, we do need to be aware of how we come across to the world especially if we are trying to show the world that God loves it. Like I said, I do desire to be more Christ like. I do appreciate the reminder. Again, I just think it would be better received if the reminder came from someone I could trust.
12:23 AM
Nice research.
Good points all around. You're turning into a regular blogger, with all your posts. You're single-handedly making this interesting.
When does the world get "Russellspeaks?"
8:13 AM
Based on what Russell says, its pretty obvious that the guy is not a fan of Christians, and makes it a rather personal agenda to atack them as much as possible. This should neither shock nor surprise anyone, as Jesus made it clear that the world will hate his followers. What should however concern us are the world's attacks when we provide the ammunition.
Whether the guys is right or wrong is nearly besides the point. The lure of political power is undeniably strong within the Evangelicals these days. Though we are called to be salt and light for the world, I dont think politics is the vehicle God had in mind to spread his message. There is a passage in the Gospels where Jesus says that if he actually wanted, the Father would send legions of angels to defend him and establish his kingdom. What he is saying ( the way I read this ) is that the Gospel will not 'muscle' its way into the world. He will not use political, military or any other human means to conquer the world. He needs hearts not votes.
It puzzles me how hard we push to make sure we have all the freedoms and comfort to practice our faith, while in most of the rest of the world the Church thrives in a hostile enviroment. Are we afraid of not being able to continue to follow Jesus if there is no more TBN, or NRB, or 700 Club? We better make sure that our faith is build on something more real than the 'status quo'. We put so much effort into making our beliefs mainstream to ensure that no one frowns on our convictions, but how much effort do we put into actually showing a genuine love, care and compassion for the world? Mixing politics with religion is a sure recipe for disaster. And even though it might definately get the world's attention to what we have to say, the message will be powerless, compromised by selling out to this or that political power or agenda. At least that's how I see it.
11:03 AM
If anyone has access to a copy of the magazine Relevant, check out the piece by John Fischer titled "Demagnetizing Christianity", on p.24. It addresses some of these issues. His conclusion "Christianity has gotten a lot of things stuck to it from 20 years of magnetic culture wars that don't necessarily engage the Gospel. Time to demagnetize it." I can't quote the rest here, and it's not available online yet, but if you're at a Christian bookstore or something check it out. The magazine is interesting also. (I'm reading the July_August 2005 issue). They have a website here: Relevantmagazine.com
2:41 PM
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