New York Times Executive Editor: “We Don’t Get Religion”
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Comments | Return to Story
ViolaJuly 10, 2018
John K: No one expects or has asked the NYT to promote religion. They merely asked for a fair report of the news. An obituary should include a summary of a person’s life, perhaps including things the person accomplished or valued. Pres. Monson’s NYT obituary focused on his failure to enact progressive agendas. Have you ever read another obituary that focuses on what someone did NOT do rather than what he did do? All people want is to be treated fairly and with respect.
Bob MayesJuly 9, 2018
John K. It's not the NYT job to promote religion, but they are supposed to be unbiased in there reporting. You can be sure religion is under attack and the NYT is on the front lines against It.
Peggy SJuly 9, 2018
Many fair points are made in this article. However, the writer makes the same mistake by generalizing "journalists" as being "progressive". There are large numbers of journalists who write articles from a very conservative point of view also, and denigrate those with other opinions. I agree that understanding of religions is grossly inadequate by writers of all stripes. Let's encourage journalism that minimizes opinions and condescension toward any religion.
PopsJuly 8, 2018
As Dr. Jordan Peterson eloquently explains, it is not only religious freedom that is at stake, but the whole of western civilization. The Judeo-Christian tradition forms the bedrock upon which freedom has flourished. Attacking that bedrock is an attack on every freedom, not just freedom of religion. The sovereignty of the individual is being replaced with tribalism. This bodes ill for the future. My impression is that journalism was once a lofty profession that attracted the best and brightest. Today it seems to be the refuge for those unable or unwilling to master difficult subjects. Of course we read the following in Revelation 13, which also paints a dour picture of our future: 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
RitaJuly 7, 2018
john k, it's not 'promoting religion' that is required of the NYT; it's acknowledging the fact that religion is a motive force in many peoples' lives, and ignoring or dismissing that fact is bad journalism. To exclude this important aspect of reality in a quest for a totally secular agenda is to fail to tell the whole, unbiased story. Journalists should know better, as it's their job to do just that.
LeahJuly 7, 2018
Excellent, informative article. I printed it and will reread, underline and study. Thank you.
Stefanie EskanderJuly 7, 2018
Recently, an old childhood friend of mine posted a very offensive cartoon on Facebook. I generally ignore inappropriate posts, comments and videos, but this one was about Jesus Christ, and really offended me. So, I commented on it, in a mild way, that it bothered me, and why. Rather than apologize or say something conciliatory, she doubled down, and then denigrated religion in general, calling it a fairy tale and implying that believers were ignorant idiots. She was a news photographer and journalist all of her life. Her father was a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the Los Angeles Times back in the day. I didn't connect what she did with her journalistic background until I read your article. Although there are lots of people who believe like she does who are NOT journalists, I do think that there is an attitude among the news media that THEIR opinions are sacrosanct, and others' feelings and opinions don't really matter.
Larry D. SmithJuly 7, 2018
@ John.K. You obviously missed the whole point of the article. Reporting the news includes giving all the facts and underlying context, not just the ones that support the reporter's agenda or beliefs. I recommend that you reread the article with an open mind while trying to understand what the author was saying. To just write "dog bites man viciously" without context conveys the image of a ferocious dog attacking an innocent person. But when you dig a little deeper and see that the dog had been abused by its owner and was defending itself, it paints a very different picture. Hopefully you can understand the difference.
Sasha KwapinskiJuly 7, 2018
On the issue of religion in the public square, the real "crunch" will come when (and if) religious people are called upon to practice civil disobedience in order to defend their rights. This, of course, is not something which the church would officially sponsor or endorse. Nonetheless, if matters continue in their present direction and if religious people are marginalized, then it is something which LDS as well as other faiths may give some serious consideration to.
BradJuly 6, 2018
Maurine Proctor you nailed it. I've had these feelings about the state of affairs in our media for quite some time, but have never had the eloquent words that you have wrote to describe it. Thank you for a great article!
John Nicholson, Ph.D.July 6, 2018
Dear Maurine, I used to write to and for news papers, until I realised how they loved in their 'glass houses!' Se I stopped! So my comment to you: I couldn't have said it better!!!
John kJuly 6, 2018
The raison-d’être of the New York Times is not to promote religion, it’s a news organisation.
Carol G.July 6, 2018
We should not wonder why it was so critical in the early days of the Church for printing presses to be set up, and why these were always targets for the enemies of the Church. The printed word, which today is mostly online, is a powerful force for good or evil.
WillieJuly 6, 2018
While this article is correct about Trinity Western College in Canada, it is incomplete. The decision by the courts in June 2016 was against the college upholding their morality standards, the college appealed the decision and the appeals court ruled in the College's favor in July 2016. The cities who originally brought the suite against the college have appealed that and a decision is expected in 2019.
Buffie BarkdullJuly 6, 2018
Thank you for the informative and eye opening article. It was very well organized as you laid out your points in a logical and well researched fashion. People of faith everywhere need to take note and not stand idly by as their deeply held beliefs are being defined by the media as “the effects of a frenzied mind.” It can be done as all faiths come together, and with respect, join as one voice in intelligently defending their Constitutional rights and bringing to light these falsehoods as you have so eloquently described.
Hugh M ChristensenJuly 6, 2018
Abraham Lincoln speaking about the Framers of the Declaration of Independence: "These communities, by their representatives in old Independence Hall, said to the whole world of men: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. [Applause.] . . . Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants, and so they established these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men . . . were entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers began -- so that truth, and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land; so that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles on which the temple of liberty was being built." -- Speech at Lewistown, Illinois, on August 17, 1858 (CWAL II:546)
Joan LeachJuly 6, 2018
I used to be a journalist when ethical, fair, accurate, objective reporting was still at least a goal. However, my main career turned to education. I taught college English, mostly writing, for years as I watched a few generations decline in the ability to think. I eventually added logic to my curriculum because writing is really thinking on paper and if you can’t think, you can’t write, or at least you can’t write well. That habit of not thinking but of merely accepting secular opinion as fact, along with having numbed and denied their own innate spirituality, handicaps journalists from seeing that God actually exists and that he functions in the lives of other human beings. It is a logical fallacy to think that just because they haven’t experienced something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. God does exist. God lives. And he does this whether they open their eyes and see him or not.
Steve HallJuly 5, 2018
I suspect it would be easier for them to understand if they understood just how devote they are in the religion they practice.
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