Mark Dawes,
Staff Reporter
FOR A long time the area of religion was neglected by most
local media houses. For the most part, religion figured on the
menu for reportage when there was wrong-doing in the pulpit and/or
the pews. That kind of reportage was and is necessary, but not
sufficient.
Religion reporting got a boost in recent years with the coming
of the National Religious Media Company which gave the nation
LOVE-FM in 1993 and LOVE-TV in 1998. One noteworthy programmes
in this genre is Vantage Point which is broadcast on Mondays and
repeated on Thursdays on LOVE-TV.
In the last two years Radio Jamaica has been airing on Sundays
in the early afternoon the discussion programme Religious Hardtalk
by Ian Boyne, pastor of a local branch of the Church of God International
(founded by Garner Ted Armstrong).
Despite these commendable developments in the electronic media,
there was nothing comparable in the print media. Religion
especially in the print media has been under-rated, under-reported
or misreported. This is somewhat unfortunate, as it is religion
that is a major shaper of values and attitudes.
"Often, religion provides the 'why' in the equation of a story.
Faith motivates people, groups and, at times, nations. Religion
plays a significant role in world events from war in the Middle
East to tension in Northern Ireland to terrorism in the United
States," says Gayle White of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
writing on the web site www.religionwriters.com.
But religion reporting is no easy task. In the words of religion
writer, Billy Hall, in an article published on The Gleaner's
Letters page in 1995, "Writing on religion for a wide public is
an art by itself and so very few writers fail to bury readers
in turgid prose and heavy jargon, or to come across more as propagandists,
or philologists than as reporters or reviewers."
The Observer for a number of months sought to do regular
reporting on religion but eventually that effort fizzled.
The Love Herald,which no doubt targets the Christian community
veers too wide within that market. For example, its coverage of
church sports (e.g. football competition) is unnecessary
that is something that can be included on the pages of
its bigger sibling the Sunday Herald.
But beginning on March 4, 2003, The Gleaner through a
new two-page weekly product called Mind & Spirit decided
to target seriously what is perhaps the single biggest niche in
Jamaica the church-going public. This market is still a
huge untapped niche in Jamaica as the main consumer items
that are sold in that market seems to be Bibles, hymn books and
music CDs.
The feature has earned plaudits from both the churched and the
unchurched.
Mind & Spirit has thrived not just because of Mark
Dawes, its editor, but also because of the contribution of various
writers, including Billy Hall, Lloyd Cooke and Martin Schade,"
says Ian Boyne, host of Religious Hardtalk heard on RJR
94 FM on Sundays at 12.15 p.m.
The first edition hit the market with a bang as it carried a
story on the talk-show host Wilmot Perkins' two-year sojourn in
the now defunct St Peter's College in Kingston; and also on the
journey of faith taken by broadcaster Easton Lee and life insurance
executive R.M. 'Jim' Parkes to both become Anglican priests.
CRITICISM
It sometimes receives criticisms from some quarters for not regularly
highlighting the various non-Christian religions and sects. Perhaps
there is some validity in that criticism. But then, how many Muslim
mosques or Hindu temples are to be seen in Jamaica? Mind &
Spirit is a market-driven feature and in Jamaica the
biggest market on the religious landscape is the church-going
public. By church-going is meant those congregations that are
members of, or sympathetic to the Jamaica Pentecostal Union, the
Jamaica Council of Churches, the Jamaica Association of Full Gospel
Churches, the Jamaica Association of Evangelicals and West Indies
Union of Seventh-Day Adventists. By my 'guesstimate' 90
per cent of the churches in Jamaica fall in this category.
FOUR-PRONGED APPROACH
Mind & Spirit has a four-pronged approach to reportage
biography, history, missiology, and surveys/ trends. Where
feasible more than one of these elements are included in a story.
Mind & Spirit is not a notice board. Hence church conventions,
crusades, seminars will not normally find a spot on those pages.
Nevertheless, there is a place for such announcements but
not on the pages of Mind & Spirit. Admittedly, there
were not many survey-related stories in year one, but this is
poised to change in year two. Also, in year two there will be
a greater attempt to reflect more of what is happening in the
church world globally.
One of the most intriguing things for this reporter in the past
year has been the stories carried about singers/deejays who have
embraced the Christian faith and are actively seeking to share
Christ (Oops that rules out Ninja Man). While it is true
that only God knows who is saved to the extent that I can
tell, I would say every one of those deejays/ singers are very
saved and deserving of the support of the wide Christian community.
They all experienced severe loss of income when they decided to
embrace gospel music. The idea that they took to gospel because
there is more money there is at best fictitious.
I deliberately sought to interview persons not known to have
a Christian worldview largely because some Christians have been
saved so long that they forget how unsaved people think. Invariably
these interviewees had a church upbringing but for some reason
their church failed to effectively minister to them, a lot of
time they left the church because they had to encounter insecure
church leaders.
DISAPPOINTMENTS
It is amazing how various church folk have screamed over the
years for more wholesome reporting, especially about the religious
landscape. But when The Gleaner sought at times to get
interviews, they were most reluctant or they flatly said 'no'.
They preferred to do their thing in a corner thereby operating
under the philosophy of 'not letting the right hand know what
the left hand is doing.' Or, as one famed preacher in turning
me down for an interview said: "That kind of publicity runs counter
to my personal understanding of my place in the purpose of the
Lord. I live on the margins of where Christ is the Centre."
A big disappointment has to be the Christian business community
which has been painfully slow to recognise and support a worthwhile
product. Their attitude reflects why the few worthwhile Christian
publications over the years have flopped. In short, the Christian
business community has dropped the ball. Indeed, they have failed
to recognise the extent of the market that is the church-going
public.
This newspaper entered uncharted waters with its foray into serious
religion reporting. Every newsroom ought to have at least one
person who is a religion reporter. One can only hope that other
media houses, especially those in print, will catch the vision.
They might need to scout the theological seminaries for such talent.
But at the end of the day many will benefit the Church,
journalism and Jamaica.
Send feedback to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com
