Chaput – secular media biased against religion, lazy, inaccurate

Archbishop Charles Chaput, soon to be ordinary for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, spoke at World Youth Day, where he stated that Catholics should not rely on the secular media for news regarding the Faith, due to the great bias, laziness, and ignorance possessed by many reporters on matters of religion:

The news outlets CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and MSNBC do not “provide trustworthy information about religious faith,” said Philadelphia’s incoming Archbishop, Charles Chaput, at the Catholic World Youth Day ongoing this week in Madrid, Spain. [Archbishop Fulton Sheen once famously said that there aren’t 100 people in America who hate what the Catholic Church believes, but there are millions who hate what they think the Church believes.  Most people in this country have their views of the Catholic Faith formed by the secular media and some by hostile forms of protestantism.  Both badly misrepresent the Faith in furtherance of their own agendas]

Chaput, the former Archbishop of Denver, made his remarks in an address on religious freedom to a group of more than 10,000 young pilgrims in Madrid on Wednesday. As initially reported in First Things, Chaput told the audience that, “In the United States, our battles over abortion, family life, same-sex ‘marriage,’ and other sensitive issues have led to ferocious public smears and legal threats not only against Catholics, but also against Mormons, evangelicals, and other religious believers.”

“And with relatively few exceptions,” he said, “the mass media tend to cover these disputed issues with a combination of ignorance, laziness, and bias against traditional Christian belief.” [That’s certainly true, especially regarding the ignorance and bias.  Unfortunately, it is a received ‘truth’ in some segments of our culture that faithful Christians are ignorant, bizarre, and dangerous.  And those in the media with a particularly socialist or marxist ideology feel the Church is a great threat to their aims, a further source of hostility (there is a well known Professor of Journalism at UT that only supports ‘Christians’ when they are of the social justice, liberation theology types – all others are to be discredited and opposed.  How many journalists has he formed?)]

The Archbishop continued: “We make a very serious mistake if we rely on media like the New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, or MSNBC for reliable news about religion. [faithful Catholic blogs are a much better source!!] These news media simply don’t provide trustworthy information about religious faith — and sometimes they can’t provide it, either because of limited resources or because of their own editorial prejudices.” [We are all limited by our pre-conceived notions.  It is possible that even reporters trying to be fair simply can’t think outside of their own preferences and world-views]

“These are secular operations focused on making a profit,” he said.  “They have very little sympathy for the Catholic faith, and quite a lot of aggressive skepticism toward any religious community that claims to preach and teach God’s truth.”

It is interesting to read the comments at the CNS news link.  CNS is a evangelical protestant news source.  They are also rather conservative, socially and politically.  The commenters express great surprise that a Catholic bishop would hold such critical views of secular media, since ‘aggiornamiento’ has too often come to mean in practice a seeming acquiescence to the dominant cultural memes and a surrender to (or acceptance of) the progressive agenda in so many areas.  That’s interesting, because to some extent it’s true.  While those with hostile views of the Church and some of Her notable leaders have undoubtably been formed by the same hostile media and cultural environment Chaput describes, there has been a tendency, at least publicly, for many bishops and the USCCB to accept, at face value, many dominant cultural memes.  We haven’t had too many prelates who will stand and face the culture and call it to account for all the evil it accomodates or outright embraces.  Yes, some leaders have taken stands on given issues (unfortunately, all too frequently, ‘social justice’ and other issues in thrall of progressives), but many are quite silent.  The most important role of a bishop is to teach the Faith, not only to the faithful of his Diocese but also the broader world.  It is vital for bishops to always proclaim the Truth Christ has revealed, in spite of the potential ‘political’ or other cost. 

There are many problems in the Church.  Many stem from the faithful failing to lead lives of a distinctive Catholic character, lives of virtue and Grace.  But the faithful have also been let down by the Church leadership in many cases.  We all need to do a much better job.  We all need to strive to life fully in union with all Christ has revealed through His Church, and not a life where the Truth is subordinated to our vices or personal desires and whims.