Anyway, I heard about the article because Hugh Hewitt interviewed Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason about how he felt being mentioned in the New Yorker article.
The paragraph:
Gadahn wrote of a yawning emptiness, and he sought ways “to fill that void.” He began scrolling through AOL’s religion folders on the Internet and tuning to Christian programming on the radio. That summer, he attended several Christian lectures and events, including one led by Gregory Koukl, an evangelical talk-show host who argues against religious pluralism. But Gadahn found evangelical Christianity’s “apocalyptic ramblings” to be “paranoid” and hollow. As he later recalled, “I began to look for something else to hold onto.”In the interview, Koukl and Hewitt felt the writer was a bit sloppy in how they wrote that paragraph and I'd have to agree with them.
I don't doubt that Gadahn heard some lectures where there was apocalyptic rambling and paranoia but he probably also heard some watered down Christianity in some places and thoughtful Christianity (from Koukl) in others. But the fusion of Koukl in one sentence with paranoia in another creates the impression, Koukl is one of them! And anyone who has ever heard him on the radio or read his writings knows he is definitely not one of them!
Also, the phrase "argues against religious pluralism" can be kind of loaded. It can suggest mean-spirited, intolerant and argumentative. Again, anyone who has heard Koukl knows those are the last words one would use to describe him. When Koukl speaks and writes about religious pluralism what he means is that you treat everyone well and respectfully but you honestly point out that not all religious truth claims can be true.
Anyway, I thought this was an interesting story on how religion is communicated in the media. Since many in the media are non-religious they probably don't recognize there are differences within the religious community. Thus, when they write about it, they aren't always very careful.
1 comment:
Thus, when they write about it, they aren't always very careful.
You're very gracious in the way you described the media's writing about Christians and our faith. They seem so antagonistic toward Christians that when they try to be objective, their antagonism only slides halfway toward neutral, leaving their writing still on the negative side. Sigh!
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