TheFactIs: "How God is a Dilemma for CNN and a Consolation for Almost Everyone Else"

From TheFactIs.org:

... Here in America, such a large majority profess some kind of traditional religious belief that even the unbelieving would not think of calling for religion's elimination. However, the unbelieving or minimally believing members of the media can (and do) try to ghettoize religious opinions they don't like. So editorial writers and op-ed writers worry that John Roberts' religious beliefs might influence his jurisprudence; they condemn the "private religious opinion" of many traditional Christians that it is wrong to sacrifice young embryos to obtain stem cells for treating "real" human beings. And they sound the alarm when they see religion sneaking through science's back door in the debate between Darwin and Intelligent Design.

But just how a functionally agnostic press should react gets trickier when the story they are covering is a large-scale tragedy like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina. Most of the victims – and their families, friends, and attempted rescuers – are Christians. When these people fear for their lives, they implore God's aid. When rescued, they give thanks. When mourning another's death, they beg God's help in their present distress, and comfort themselves by anticipating future reunion with the departed.

The arc of the standard human interest story during times of disaster fits religious protagonists to a tee: Anxiety and distress give way to joy and gratitude or pain leavened by religiously expressed solace. This story line makes for moving copy, but it can pose a dilemma for liberal American journalists (even those who sort of believe in a not-very-interfering God), because it may not resemble how the journalist would react under similar divine provocation...

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So journalists deliver that classic disaster story arc, complete with their protagonists' profoundly moving acknowledgement of dependence upon God. But these stories, with their slightly alien (to network news or CNN ears) language of being "blessed" or accepting God's will, are often reported from a sort of respectful distance on the part of the journalist. From across the divide of religious belief or religious commitment, the secular media view religious people caught up in national news events with a certain incomprehension, but sometimes also with a note of yearning and wonder. Not a bad picture frame through which to view the difference that God makes.

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