How Does Media Cover Religion? A Conversation with Freelance Reporter Jeff MacDonald (part one)

Jeff MacDonald is our guest. Jeff’s award-winning reporting on religion has appeared in Time, Conde Nast Traveler, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, and other publications. He is the author of Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul. His new book, Part Time Is Plenty: Thriving Without Full-Time Clergy will be released in April.

 

Part One of our conversation focuses on the coverage of religion in mainstream media.

 

As we begin the new year, we re-emphasize part of the What In God’s Name mission: we want to create a cohort or community of people who see, as we do, the need to renew certain habits of feeling and being together in community, and ways of thinking about and understanding the fullness of human life and flourishing, that are grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical traditions. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, economies, and polities.

 

In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.

 

Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.

 

Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.

 

Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.

 

Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:

 

03:17     Chris introduces Jeff MacDonald

 

05:35     Jeff gives his take on the state of religion reporting today. How do you experience religion reporting today? Is it similar to how politics is reported on? If so, what’s missing? What should the coverage of religion include? Is it just about institutions, or are there “religious” questions that are alive in our society that should be included?

 

10:25     If you had no idea about religion except for what you heard or read in the media, what would your impression of religion be?

 

12:33     Is it true that theological language and categories, and/or moral language and categories broadly understood, give us a way to understand human flourishing that we can’t get any other way? What are some facets of the human experience, both individually and collectively, that theology and philosophy help us come to terms with?

 

17:33     Jeff describes what counts as news today: either something is unexpected (that counts as news), or something causes change (that counts as news). How do those two ways of separating out what is newsworthy verses what is not newsworthy, work against covering religion? Should something that remains steady and unchanging count as news too?

 

20:55 Chris and Shayna review Part One of the Jeff MacDonald interview.