By now I am sure that most savvy Christians are long since inured to the drivel that Time and Newsweek foist upon us every Easter and Christmas. It was not always thus. David van Biema (formerly of Time) and Kenneth Woodward (formerly of Newsweek) were knowledgeable, conscientious religion editors and took great care with their reporting (not to mention the estimable Peter Steinfels, late of The New York Times).
It’s very different today. Case in point: the cover story on heaven in…[2012’s] Time. Who’s the author? None other than Jon Meacham, Sewanee graduate, author of several highly praised historical works (Franklin and Winston, American Gospel, and American Lion) and former editor of Newsweek. In addition, he has been on the vestry at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue.
Unfortunately, Meacham does not know when to back off gracefully from subjects he does not understand–which includes theology….
Beware, indeed. Good advice from a reliable source.
From my experience with print journalism, there was a time when religion was treated with reverence and kid gloves, if only to maximize circulation revenue by being as inclusive as possible. Religions stories were fielded out to people of that religion, where possible. That avoided mistakes, like one draft I flagged, where white Roman Catholics in Texas were called Anglo Catholics to distinguish them from their Hispanic counterparts. Today the aim appears to be toward sensationalism, furthering a superior cynicism toward faith to draw in readers, in the way Atlantic City barkers of old would gather a boardwalk crowd and then lure them into a “showroom” for the hard sell.