{"id":659,"date":"2021-10-13T08:14:36","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T08:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journalistsforchrist.org\/?p=659"},"modified":"2021-10-13T08:14:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T08:14:40","slug":"what-every-christian-journalist-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalistsforchrist.org\/index.php\/2021\/10\/13\/what-every-christian-journalist-should-know\/","title":{"rendered":"What every Christian Journalist should know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Copied from Saturate The World<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we talk about Gospel Saturation we are talking about the truths of Jesus changing everything \u2013 every person and every place. As followers of Jesus this means that our places of work are saturated with the gospel through Christ in us. Marvin Olasky, Editor in Chief for World News Group shares with us what it looks like for him to engage in his profession as a Journalist, Saturated with the truth of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very Dangerous<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not easy to be a Christian journalist: Public relations is an easier pursuit.<\/strong><\/em> But one of my favorite movies, The Right Stuff<\/em>, has an official telling pilot Alan Shepard, who became the first American in space, that the work of an astronaut is \u201cdangerous. Very dangerous.\u201d Shepard\u2019s instant response: \u201cCount me in.\u201d That\u2019s what prospective Christian journalists should say. We can learn from a secular journalist, David Halberstam, who said, \u201cThe legwork of reporting is critical and most of the fun. Think of it as part of a continuing education; we\u2019re paid to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian journalists especially should have that attitude. We know human interest is important because every human is created in God\u2019s image. Over 3,000 years ago the Egyptian Ptahotep gave career advice: \u201cBe a scribe! You sit grandly in your house. \u2026 Happy is the heart of him who writes; he is young each day.\u201d Many media organizations, sadly, include journalists bored with life, which they see as purposeless, but Christians especially should relish the joy of journalism, making it part of a life\u2019s goal: As the Westminster Catechism states, our chief end is \u201cto glorify God and enjoy Him forever\u201d\u2014and forever begins right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To enjoy fully our craft, Christian journalists need to realize that the children\u2019s song \u201cIt\u2019s a Small World (After All)\u201d is dumb. It\u2019s not a small world: It\u2019s a large one, with millions of nooks and crannies and opportunities for adventure. In Robert Boynton\u2019s book, The New New Journalism<\/em>, writer Susan Orlean recalls with excitement an article she wrote about a gospel singing group: \u201cIt was astonishing for me to glimpse a world that was so fully developed\u2014with its own stars, sagas, myths, history, millions of devotees\u2014that I, in my narrow life, I had no idea existed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian journalists hate atrocities, including abortion. Still, we try to keep calm by reporting sensational facts with\u2014in most circumstances\u2014understated prose. We try to have an accurate self-image. An excellent secular reporter, Richard Ben Cramer, said of himself, \u201cI\u2019m a smith. I occupy the position in our society that a good wheelwright would have occupied in his. Making wheels is a highly specialized skill. I don\u2019t consider myself to be an artist. I consider myself to be a skilled workman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing God Glory<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s how we as Christian journalists should see ourselves. We are not saviors. We are watchmen on the walls. We are creatures in a great big world, but creatures with a great opportunity to glorify God and enjoy Him immediately.<\/strong> As John Piper notes, \u201cEvery joy that does not have God as its central gladness is a hollow joy and in the end will burst like a bubble.\u201d Christian journalists can have great joy by discovering and communicating the reasons that exist for honoring Christ in all things and above all things.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piper points out that we should aspire \u201cto study reality as a manifestation of God\u2019s glory, to speak and write about it with accuracy, and to savor the beauty of God in it.\u201d The Bible teaches us that God created this world to be His theater, so the more we report accurately what happens in it, the more we will praise Him. A Christian journalist who highlights good news is praising God: Our natural selfishness means that what is good comes from Him. A Christian journalist who reports bad news, showing the results of sin, is praising God because the bad shows how desperately we need Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zeal for God\u2019s glory should characterize all of a Christian journalist\u2019s editorial decisions. We should praise marriage and hate abortion in the realization that our natural tendencies are toward selfishness\u2014so when a mom sacrifices her freedom to care for a child, and when a dad sacrifices his freedom to provide for his family, that glorifies God. We should cover compassionate ministries because God most showed his glory when Christ lowered himself to live among us and then suffer and die for us. Since Christ so amply displayed compassion, our attempts to follow in some of His steps is another way of glorifying God.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Joy for Us<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

All journalists can have the joy of writing provocative and evocative news stories that come out of pavement-pounding rather than thumb-sucking. Christian journalists can have greater joy by standing not only for factual accuracy but also for biblical objectivity, which means trying to see the world as best we can the way the Bible depicts it\u2014we\u2019ll discuss this more shortly. Christian journalists can be humble by presenting not our own opinions but God\u2019s perspective from the Bible, distinguishing between issues on which the Bible is clear and those on which it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian journalists, in short, can have the joy of offering salt, not sugar, and not acid. We can publish what we believe to be true, not what we or someone else would like to be true. Christian journalists can have the joy of speaking up for those it\u2019s convenient to forget: the unborn, the unemployed, the uneducated victimized by poor schools, and the politically unfashionable. We can know that we are fallen sinners, but sinners who look upward and create a no-scream zone within a high-decibel society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will encounter opposition, but\u2014as the writer of Hebrews begins chapter 12,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201csince we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How could our world be different if Christians were recognized for not only speaking the truth, but also demonstrating mercy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would our lives be like if we reacted to our common culture with not just biblical facts, but also grace and compassion?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christian journalists, in short, can have the joy of offering salt, not sugar, and not acid. We can publish what we believe to be true, not what we or someone else would like to be true. Christian journalists can have the joy of speaking up for those it\u2019s convenient to forget: the unborn, the unemployed, the uneducated victimized by poor schools, and the politically unfashionable. We can know that we are fallen sinners, but sinners who look upward and create a no-scream zone within a high-decibel society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[167],"class_list":["post-659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christianjournalist"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t