09:58 AM CDT on Sunday, September 11, 2005

Lucinda Breeding

The last presidential election made history when masses of voters declared that religious faith and values drove them to the ballot box.

It was largely Christian pundits who said the turnout was the cumulative consequence for the country’s increasing disregard for morality, for integrity and for faith in general.

In Denton County, clergy of all faiths have told me that the mass media doesn’t seem to understand just how central religion is to a good number of Americans. A local rabbi said journalists are unfortunately uneducated about religious philosophies, and the impact they have on followers. I agreed with him, and still do.

The media bears some responsibility for the cultural ignorance about religion and religious people, especially broadcast companies.

Reporters are by and large generalists, and often ill-equipped to understand the subtleties of religion. Islam, Christianity and Judaism are big tents, each claiming a subset of sects and denominations. Each religion comes with thousands of years of history, philosophy, scriptural study and criticism. News agencies have enough trouble decoding the language of city hall. Demystifying religions takes much more work. And misreporting the facts carries tougher consequences, namely the mistrust of believers. Perhaps that’s why so many news outlets choose to do so little religion reporting.

CNN is making a move to remedy what so many new agencies are struggling to do. The network announced Wednesday that it has hired Delia Gallagher, a longtime Vatican analyst for CNN.

“Delia’s contributions about religion and religious leaders, particularly during the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, stood out for their intelligence, sensitivity and depth,” said John Klein, president of CNN/U.S., in a press release. “Her hire as a full-time correspondent represents a major commitment by CNN to covering the religious revival in the United States, where tens of millions of people cite faith as a central part of their lives.”

Gallagher will examine news stories through a religious perspective, including, Klein said, the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for John Roberts.

Gallagher said in the release that she’s ready to expand her coverage of religion.

For a lot of Americans, news like this could be a signal that their influence and identity matters, culturally and politically.

The Kansas City Star recently reported that there are lingering hard feelings among the faithful, even though they are enjoying a higher profile.

“Books by evangelical pastors Rick Warren and Joel Osteen are multimillion best-sellers, megachurches are building satellite congregations to meet demand, conservatives control Congress and, most importantly, religious activists helped put a Bible-believer in the White House,” the newspaper said recently. “Yet, many evangelicals still consider themselves a persecuted majority, hounded by ‘secular fundamentalists’ intent on driving religion from public life. Opponents find this view baffling.”

One correspondent hired by CNN is hardly a revolution.

The larger culture does seem to be, on its face, antagonistic to religion in general. Janeane Garofalo, an anchor on the liberal talk radio syndicate Air America, chose to scream at a religious caller who took her to task for joining mainstream America and labeling Scientologists as freaks, or something like that.

What could have been an opportunity to have a calm, rational discussion about the fact that religion has hurt a lot of people devolved into a bombastic tirade against faith in general. Garofalo is a smart, capable woman with a bully pulpit and hard left leanings. She could have used the moment to have a real conversation about religion. All the things she deplores about religion could be part of a discussion. She could have told the truth: that religion has hurt her, and a lot of other people. Instead, name-calling and shrieking prevailed.

Perhaps Delia Gallagher might set a tone, giving religious authorities a chance to speak, civilly. Perhaps she’ll ask them hard questions, and give them room to answer.

Playwright Tony Kushner, who won Tony and Pulitzer awards for Angels in America, is mercilessly and unapologetically political. He’s a liberal who believes in government, he says, because he believes it is a necessary part of civilization. Yet he finds his world alarmingly apathetic, and slow to accept the idea that morality doesn’t have to be the principle weapon of oppressors. In an afterword published in an edition of A Bright Room Called Day, Kushner laments that what passes for political and ethical maturity in Americans is for them to reach the point where they don’t believe in anything very strongly at all.

The “values voters” would agree. The difference is that values voters — Christian, Jewish and Muslim — are through lamenting. They are acting, demanding change in their schools and in their halls of government.

Delia Gallagher has her work cut out for her.

LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877. Her e-mail address is cbreeding@ dentonrc.com.