The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1912-12-07
THE CHURCH AND THE NEWS
PAPER.
Bernard Gruenstein in Masonic Voice
Review:

The attitude of the newspaper TO
the church is indeed gratifying to
thoughtful students of the times. 1t
is often remarked that religion in
America is declining. But where and
how is it declining? The statement
is a superficial one. Religion is not
declining: it is changing its empha-
sis. No one thinks an ocean de-
clines when the tides change. No
one thinks of child as declining
because it will not play with it's play
pretties in it's adolescent years. Then
why think religion is declining when
its activities are becoming more so
cial and humane, rather than theo-
logical and ecclesiastical? Religion
has a hold on the American public
as never before. The American pub
lie has hold on religion, as never
before. The attitude of>the neWspa-
per to the church proves it beyond
a reasonable doubt. Do declining
things and forces crowd newspaper
columns? Do things lacking popular
interest find their way on metropoli-
tan front pages every day? Are pub
fishers and editors throwing away ex-
ceedingly valuable space on matters
OF little concern to their circulations?
Newspapers are true Weathervanes
of public interest, and often, too, Of
public opinion. The newspaper man
has Cyrano de Bergeracs enlarged
nose for news. He is the keenest
man living when it comes to knowing
what the people are supremacy intre-
ested in. No wonder a president of
the United States must have news
paper cabinet" just as he must have
a Weathervane on the White House,
II he wants to know the state of pub
Tic interest or the state of the wealth
er. A city editor is themost delicate
human barometer on the face of the
globe. No man is keener to sense
news value than he. His reporters
are his sensitized mercury. 1t is a
matter Of bread and butter that it
should be so. mo man is watching
religion more than the metropolitan
city editor and the telegraph editor.
Why? Religion, from the editorial
standpoint, has supreme human or
news value. By this token, then, re-
llgion Is deepening, not declining.
When has the American newspaper
reader ever read half as much of re-
ligious news? That it is read is al
most automatic, or it would not be
there to read. Space is too nego-
table. Is there not throbbing rea-
son? Is it not because religion is
making news every day, big enough,
human enough, vital enough to affect
the living barometer of public inter-
est, sitting so nervously near the tel
ephone receiver at the city editors
desk?
Religion has news value, most
distinctly so, to the newspaper man
as never before. He sees in the
modern preacher a real news,source,
if not a news,craetor, live as charg-
ed wire, potential as blasting-powder.
Has some cyclonic change happened
in The editorial office? Rather has
not the change come over preach
ers and churches?
A few years ago, preachers were
homiletical sign-boards to a Celestial
City; now they are makers of hu.
man betterment on this terraQuaeOus
Globe. Creeds make poor newspaper
material; deeds make topliners on
'front.' pages. The newspaper man
necessarily was, is, and ever shall be,
Interested in what is going on in this
ample world of ours. When the
preacher was too exclusively inter
ested in what will go on through in
definite eternities, there was little
or no point Of contact between him
and The journalist. Newspapers can
not get accurate news-stories out of
post-mortem existences. 1t might
have beeL very well to preach on
how iniquities and inequalities here
below would ultimately become
Strengthened out at the Final Assizes,
but the newspaper man could hardly
be expected to get line on that. He
saw around him no attempt at social
justice and even less attempt at hui
man pity. But the day when the
preacher changed his emphasis, his
line Of attack, his appeal to human
attachment and achievement, that
was the day Of beginnings Of the
modern newspaper attitude toward
the church.
In decades past, the churches We're
organizations; now they are forces.