I'm beginning to see a pattern: To get attention in mass media, faith-based events and/or culture have to be tied, however tenuously, to U.S. President Donald J. Trump or his administration.
I get it: Sex sells, and few things, it seems, are more "sexy," news-wise, than the 45th President of the United States and his team.
But sometimes, this desire for a political connection dents an otherwise good and thoughtful piece on culture, faith, and people -- you know, stuff that sometimes exists apart from politics.
For an example, let's turn again to one of Britain's top progressive newspapers,The Guardian. It should be noted that this paper began life as the Manchester Guardian and was once home to Malcolm Muggeridge, a once-socialist reporter whose Christian conversion was one of the great biographical stories of the last century, if you are talking about interesting lives in journalism.
"St. Mugg," as he was known after his radical conversion at age 60, probably wouldn't find a home at The Guardiantoday. But there are some good writers contributing to its pages, however much they may be caught up in the frenzy of "Must-include-a-Trump-reference" that has overtaken us.
Say hello, then, to Jemayel Khawaja, a freelancer in Los Angeles who knows music and culture quite well. The Pakistani-born Khawaja authored one of the better analyses of contemporary Christian music that I've seen in the media, once you get past the obligatory, almost tortured,Trumpiana:
Let's stipulate that Pence is a conservative, perhaps too much so for some folks' tastes. We can also grant he isn't liked by many on the left. But, really, "Christian Supremacist"? In the context of writing about largely evangelical music festivals?
The journalistic issue is not only might this be a tenuous connection at best (I'm guessing it's been a number of years since Pence was at a similar event), but it also obscures the greater issue being reported, and that's a shame.
Khawaja, after all, provides some rather trenchant cultural analysis here. Noting that there is now a crossover between those who love "Jesus music" as well as the content generated by a Lady Gaga or a Beyonc, the author explains some of the consequences:
These are interesting, even demanding, sentences.Khawaja has identified the tensions within evangelicalism, tied them to culture, and suggested things are moving a tad leftward among the millennial evangelical set and those following behind.That, more than what happened to Mike Pence in 1978, is likely of greater import.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, Pence will have at most eight years as Vice President to influence American politics. The teens and young adults who "want to be known for what we love, not what we reject" might well be active for much longer.
I can imagine, however,Khawaja either believing or being told by an editor, that the story won't fly without the necessary political bits, and that's how they got there. After all, one of the things editors often do is suggest (or even demand) an insert in a story that may or may not jibe with the reporter's vision. It happens.
In this story, which raises valid questions about the Christian music festival scene and the evolution of the culture, however, it would have been helpful to see more of the millennials and a little less of the VPOTUS. The times, after all, may well be a-changing.
FIRST IMAGE: Photo of then-Governor Mike Pence speaking with supporters at a 2016 campaign rally and church service at the Living Word Bible Church in Mesa, Arizona by Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons.
Read more:
Guardian drags Mike Pence into Christian music festival story, blunting crucial points - GetReligion (blog)