The Study of Religion and the Education of Journalists

Religion is now, as it virtually always has been, an integral part of American life. Nine in 10 Americans claim belief in a higher power, 8 in 10 say prayer is a part of daily life, seven in 10 identify with a religious group, better than 4 in 10 attend religious services in any given week, and the faithful give nearly $40 billion a year to support their beliefs (Dart and Allen, 1993). Religion's influence extends into the public realm, as well - explicitly or implicitly, and in increasingly diverse manifestations, religion plays an influential role in social, cultural, and political trends in this country, and emerges as an underlying constant in public discourse (Bellah, et. al, 1985; Roof, 1993; Wuthnow, 1988). Indeed, much of America's political and social system is based on religious views. Benson (1986) found that political decisions can be correlated, by and large, with the religious views of the lawmakers. Religious events have made a major impact on the history of the secular as well as religious worlds. When asked to list the major events of all time, members of the Overseas Press Club honed their list to 23; eight were religious (Cornell, 1990). As Buddenbaum (1998) puts it, religion shapes people, and through them, their culture. Religion editor Rebekah Scott says that religion is the "thread woven through all discourse and motivation of action, public and private" (Buddenbaum, 1998, p. 14). Helen Parmley, a religion reporter, declares that religion is the most powerful force in people's lives (Hubbard, 1990), a statement supported by a 1981 study that found people believed there was no more decisive element in life than religion (Pollack, 1981). Most who study culture, in fact, see religion and culture as inextricably interwoven. Media scholar James Carey maintains that the very basis of culture is religion, that religion is not peripheral to culture but central (Willey,1996). Religion is a potent cultural force that affects behavior and imparts moral views and values into the public realm, and as such affects everyone whether a believer or not. Religion frequently intersects with or shapes politics, the arts, medicine, law, education, crime and even sports. Religion determines belief systems, the ways people orient themselves to the world, how one perceives his or her place and how one interacts with others (Buddenbaum, 1998). Because religion makes such an enormous difference to national culture, the journalist has an obligation to report religion and its role in society - as Briggs (1990) puts it, to make the implicit role of religion more explicit. The challenge for the journalist is figuring out how. Many stories are done poorly or missed altogether simply because the reporter was untrained in the most basic aspects of religion. The events at Mount Carmel, Texas outside of Waco constitute a perfect example. National Public Radio reporter John Burnett, who has covered a range of areas that include religion, describes a scene of utter confusion as a religious scholar tried to explain to a mass of reporters the rationale cult leader David Koresh was giving for his actions. Scholar: They would often refer to Revelation, and sometimes to the books of Daniel and Ezekiel, which share a lot in common with Revelation, to justify this position. Reporter: Where do we find this book of Revelation? I'm not very knowledgeable. Scholar: Okay, it's the last book in the Bible, in the New Testament. Reporter: So it's in the Bible? In the New Testament? Scholar: Right. (Hoover, Venturelli and Wagner, 1994, p. 3) Even a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible would have enabled the reporter involved to avoid that embarrassment and dramatically improve his coverage. But the advantages need not accrue only to stories with an obvious religion angle. Because of the way religion intertwines with so many aspects of life, religion reporting can span an almost endless range of story possibilities. …