Why do reporters seem to misrepresent Christians when it comes to politics and news?
According to Michael Cromartie, Vice President of Ethics & Public Policy Center, many reporters are simply uneducated about the faith perspective; he wants to change that.
Michael has founded The Faith Angle Forum with the goal to:
“Strengthen reporting and commentary on how religious believers, religious convictions, and religiously grounded moral arguments affect American politics and public life.”
Popular evangelical leaders such as Jim Daly, Tim Keller, and Rick Warren are taking part in these forums and they’re having a huge impact on the reporting and the lives of the reporters as well.
“The result is that they are disarmed. They have a newfound respect for someone like Jim Daly, Russell Moore, or Tim Keller, they find them winsome.”
Michael recounts a story of one reporter who was writing and book and went with her colleague to visit and speak with Tim Keller.
“She was a non-believer and immediately Googled in Washington D.C., the name of Tim Keller type churches in Washington D.C. She happens to be a producer at NPR and for the last year she has been going to that church.”
Michael asked that reporter why she started going to church after meeting with Pastor Keller. She said,
“I never heard the phrase, grace and forgiveness, and its real meaning, ever in my life. I did not know what those words meant and he talked about them a lot.”
When she looked at evangelical Christianity, it conjured up images of right-wing, high-strung people who were angry at the state of culture. However, what she found in Tim Keller was far from her preconceived notion of what an evangelical was. The same is true of the church she now attends regularly.
Leaders are answering the call to provide a powerful witness to the person of Jesus Christ.
“I’m just grateful for the new leaders that we’ve mentioned that the first thing out of their mouth is the message of the Gospel, the amazing grace of the Gospel, before they make any political statements about anything.”
