InkTank

Taking The Bible Out Of The Bible Belt

At the buckle of the Bible belt, Bob Jones University brings shame to Christians and shows us what not to do when it comes to dealing with activist groups.

Last Thursday, my classmates and I attended a workshop the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (which owns the Washington Journalism Center) held for college and university administrators who may have a visit from this year's Soulforce Equality Ride.

Soulforce's objective is "freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance."

The point of the panel discussion: do not let the media coverage of your school's encounter with Equality Ride activists appear as religiously oppressive.

Equality Ride has met its match in BJU though. This university sees its actions as pious and unerring. But the bigger question is what will the world see?

The Soulforce Equality Ride started last year at the CCCU headquarters and to many Christians' horror, the CCCU initiated its proceedings with Equality Ride. Michelle Boorstein recorded the event in her article, "A Drive for Understanding."

The meeting was a bit awkward. One side brought the other chocolates. People wore big name tags and fussed over one another, saying "Hi" effusively and smiling broadly. Clumsy jokes were made -- but everyone laughed. There were long silences.

The discomfort was understandable. Eight officials from the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, which represents 133 "Christ-centered" schools that forbid homosexual behavior, were mingling with 35 young gay men and lesbians in the sunny conference room of a Northwest Washington church -- to plan, of all things, a road trip.

So, a Christian organization helped a homosexual activist group plan a road trip that the group intends to further their own extremists causes? Yes, that's correct.

I can see how many would be confused by this, but my short involvement in the media world has helped me to understand how the story is presented when groups like these are prevented from entering the private property of some conservative Christian colleges.

Here's how it breaks down: activists are victims because of their lifestyle choice (not let into private schools or led off in handcuffs) and students are locked inside and afraid.

Let's see if the story proves itself true. The following excerpts are from my hometown newspaper, The Greenville News, which put its own version of the story, and the AP report.

Mary Wilson, a freshman at Bob Jones, said university officials told students not to interact with the gay rights group, but if they should encounter any members to act kindly and call school officials.

"It's a little bit intimidating to think people want to get on our campus," said Wilson, whose mother, Barbara, stood among the protesters outside the gate.

and

Protesters shouted and read Bible passages as about 30 members of the group Soulforce stood silently near the main gate of Bob Jones University.

About a half dozen police looked on while the protesters waved signs, including one that read "Sodomy is sin."

So, the protesters are silent while they are ridiculed by the counter-protesters. In a way Christian zeal sometimes goes, they hated others while the mandate is to love.

In some of the reports, the following small paragraph is given as well:

Following the arrests, university officials provided the Soulforce members with boxed lunches. 

That's really the only fair thing we've seen them do to the activist group. 

I was ashamed and appalled by the reports. Even though I am a Christian, I would have stood with Soulforce - not as an activist but as a person.

How can we call ourselves Christians, ones who believe God has impressed into every human life since Adam's creation while we refrain from giving other humans their "unalienable rights"?

So, Soulforce leaves another Christian college with its mission accomplished, the sterotype of conservative Christians hating homosexuals is reinforced.

At least, that's what the world will see.

Final Score: 1 Soulforce, BJU 0 - Game Over

Billionaire businessmen becoming journalism experts?

We all have heard numerous warnings and stories and rumors about where the newspaper industry is going and how the small papers are being bought out by the big corporations.  We've now learned about the horror stories of papers focusing on profits rather than products and the focus of the news drifting.

Well, it's not going away.

According to an Associated Press article by Seth Sutel, "Moguls still want big papers," big-city newspapers are still attracting buyers, aka billionaire businessmen looking for profit.

"There are banks waiting in line to back these guys," said Larry Grimes, president of W.B. Grimes & Co., a newspaper broker based in Gaithersburg, Md. "There's a perception on the part of the financing groups that we're at the bottom of this trend, and that this is a good time to strike while valuations are depressed."

The article asks the same questions we would when hearing this news.  What do these people find attractive about the market?  Is there really money there even with the declining newspaper readership?

Along with statistics about the decline in the newspaper industry and a scary outlook on the advertising revenue for the next year - no growth at all according to Lauren Rich Fine, a newspaper industry analyst with Merrill Lynch - the article mentions that newspapers are still a very profitable business, with revenue ahead of most American companies.

"Generally speaking, newspapers still are very profitable businesses, with metro dailies earning between 12 and 25 cents for every dollar of revenue, which is still way ahead of most American companies, Grimes said."

Two opposing journalism related trends stuck out to me.  First, it's interesting to see who is wanting to buy these papers.  People like the former CEO of General Electric, Los Angeles billionaires and an ex-CEO of John Hancock Financial Services.  To me, this smells like trouble.

"This is not a private equity play where you're going to be able to double the value in five years," David D'Alessandro (ex-CEO of John Hancock) says. "The question is, can you stop the bleeding and increase the advertising and circulation, and I happen to be one of these people who believe you can — if you invest in it, and stop trying to carry as much of the national news and make it more of a regional player."

Sounds like they're in it for the money, with goals of increasing advertising and circulation and changing the papers' goals.  While this isn't always bad, I've heard enough stories out of The News About the News, The Elements of Journalism and in my journalism classes to know that this often leads to staff cuts, smaller papers and unhappy reporters.

But at the same time there is a little hope, leading to the opposing trend.  It seems that some buyers do have journalism in mind and want to better the industry.

"We felt that the model of conglomerate ownership of these newspapers wasn't working," Theodore Venetoulis (former county executive and Baltimore native who is interested in buying the Baltimore Sun) said. "We felt that local ownership could be not only more profitable but also put a great deal more resources in the production of news and the journalism product."

But does he really? He did say right before the quote that the undertaking is "part civic enterprise, part investment."

And now Gannett might buy Tribune Company.  Check it out here.

What does this mean for the future of journalism? What do these men even know about journalism?  Are these "billionaire businessmen" qualified to run our country's newspapers?

Integrative is, well, integrative

So about this integrative-essay assignment.   I hope our discussion made the requirement clearer for you, but here's another attempt just in case it didn't. 

A key to doing a good integrative essay is to embrace this idea of a seamless curriculum.  In a normal semester, your classes kind of each live in their own ghetto without a lot of interaction.  No one would probably expect you to take ideas from your World Civ class and critique them in your Biology Lab. 

But that is exactly what we're hoping you'll do here.

We're pushing to get to a place where all of the elements of the program "inform" all of the others, and none of them really work all by themselves.   Foundations should blend with Reporting in DC, which should blend with your internship, which will in turn blend with Washington, News & Public Discourse. 

So even though the classes and experiences are divided up into different syllabi, the concepts can and should be popping up all semester long.

The integrative essay will hopefully get you to:

1. Look back on your service opportunity with a critical eye;
2. Evaluate the experience and the organization you worked with against the problems they're addressing and their own mission;
3. Revisit concepts introduced in Foundations I and find connections between service, internship and class;
4. Set the stage for a richer service opportunity in Foundations II.

And you can approach this paper in just about whatever way you want (traditional essay, a letter, memo).  It should not be a news story, but it should be organized.  You should develop a coherent idea in the essay, but I encourage you to write in first person, and to editorialize often.   

Grades will depend on how well you show that have been reflecting on what you're learning both inside the classroom and outside in the city.  So YOUR thoughts are much more important and interesting to us at this stage of the game than other people's thoughts.  Feel free to reference other people, but no credit unless you analyze what they've said. 

I definitely don't want to beat a dead horse here, but I know that integrative essays are new to some of you.