The Biblical Guide to Reporting

An on-point article by Marshall Allen appeared in the New York Times a  week or two ago:  The Biblical Guide to Reporting.  The article was a personal account of the author’s intersection between Christianity and journalism. The overarching theme was that being a Christian doesn’t preclude you from the professions or an active life in a secular society. In this case, Christians can be effective journalists even in “immoral” newsrooms.

The author highlights what the Bible “teaches” and the moral aspects of those teachings, showing the way in which Christianity – through the Bible — provides an ethical foundation which is directly applicable to the ethical imperatives of good journalism.

• Serving a higher cause
• Telling the truth
• Honesty and integrity
• Do not accept a bribe
• Be a comfort to other people

These are all good qualities and what we would like to see in ourselves, our children and our neighbors as well in the journalists whose reporting we rely on. These are the foundations of social trust.

But the article also hints at something that I think is even more profound than simple directives for ethical behavior. As lay readers who engage in the public reading of scripture, there is another virtue in the narratives found in the Bible beyond morals.

Don’t just listen to what I say, watch what I do

Bible study tends to favor what people in the Bible say – what Mary or Jesus or the disciples and apostles say – over what they do and are doing. There is the narrative – the ‘story” of Lazarus or the loaves and the fishes but we want to go right to what was said in the course of those narratives and how we can translate those sayings into moral directives and rules to live by. Thomas Jefferson made his own custom version of the Gospels that included only what Jesus said, ignoring what other’s said about him or what he is reported to have done.

But the key statement in the article for me, as a lay reader is, “…what I DO as an investigative reporter is consistent with what the Bible teaches.” (The emphasis is mine.) Or, you could say, what I do is consistent with what people with scriptural authority in the Bible DO and are doing.

For example, it’s one thing to focus on what prophets say. But what’s more engaging is to focus on what prophets do. Two additional observations from the article:

• “God didn’t direct the writers of the Bible to avoid controversy.”
• “…those who do investigative reporting, tend to annoy people in powerful positions.”

Not by what they say alone. But by what they do. Prophets upset the status quo. Not just by what they say, “Repent!” True prophets are present, bold, brave, rigorous, and unrelenting in holding themselves and others to account. They confront uncomfortable truths, keep temporal and earthly power and appetites in perspective and serve higher causes. They “annoy.”

It’s what they DO: they are curious. They observe closely. They are willing to question. That is what good reporters do. Morality is good.  But action is more immediately engaging and productive. Jesus did not just roll out a mat and sit in front of his home in Nazareth and offer aphorisms to all passersby with ears to hear. It’s what he DID that is most important and that captures our attention and imagination.

This is what we look for first when we read the Gospels aloud. What’s happening? What are people doing, right now?  This is what the Gospels are reporting. This is what we need to hear.