It's the worst of times for the American media, with vanishing newspapers and magazines, shrinking staffs and budgets with what's left, the heavy-handed slant on cable TV "news" and polls showing record lows for consumer confidence in the accuracy and honesty of work done by journalists.
But the religion beat offers one ray of hope with gutsy investigative journalism from within evangelical Protestant ranks that sets the standard for other media -- and is one reason this movement so dominates religious news.
For years, Christianity Today and World magazines have bravely lifted rocks regarding what's been called the "evangelical industrial complex.". One can hope World will persist after its recent shakeup (click here for GetReligion post on that topic).
This Memo spotlights two muckrakers who belong on source lists of religion writers and religious organizations: Julie Roys of "The Roys Report" and Warren Cole Smith of "Ministry Watch."
Alas, there's much muck for them to rake. Religion-watchers are unlikely to miss any newsworthy scandals if they subscribe to free listserves and monitor their original reporting, alongside pick-ups such as this $600,000 mystery at THE Houston superchurch or this academic fuss at Cornerstone University.
By coincidence, both editors, who are resolutely conservative in terms of religious beliefs, jumped into the scene in 2019. Either or both would make for a good story, as would Roys' "Restore 2022" conference May 20-21 at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois.
Roys, a Wheaton and Medill School alumna, was a newswriter and reporter for Chicago TV stations. She took 13 years off to raise her three children and then, for a decade, hosted Moody Radio Network's "Up For Debate" show. She then exposed "corruption and mission drift" at the sponsoring Moody Bible Institute on her personal blog, which evolved into the "Report," with a special focus on #ChurchToo sexual exploitation scandals. She is even a watchdog of watchdogs, catching the president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability in resume-padding.
Smith, a University of Georgia journalism major, became a marketing executive with the PriceWaterhouseCoopers accounting firm, founder of a Christian newspaper in Charlotte, editor of the Evangelical Press Association's news service, vice president of World magazine and vice president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. As Ministry Watch president, he has expanded its work from its initial mission — providing information on Christian organizations for donors — into broader investigative journalism. See his news philosophy here.
Roys' motto is "Reporting the truth, restoring the church." The key is her belief that Bible-based faith can motivate investigative journalism — even if fellow believers resent the effort. She makes the important point that evangelicalism is especially vulnerable to misconduct due to the lack of effective oversight for many parachurch groups and fiercely independent congregations led by "celebrity" preachers. Also, click here to download her manifesto: “The Case for Christian Investigative Reporting.”
Changing topics. There's a takeoff point for a possible story theme with Sunday's New York Times Book Review roundup, which had 84 pages to play with and featured not a single religious title, in contrast with prior times. Not surprising, but this is an example of the era's yawning gap between the cultural elite and roughly half of the populace.
Speaking of books, here's a Christmas gift for anyone who writes or reads English: "Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme -- and Other Oddities of the English Language" by Arika Okrent (Oxford). Gotta love that subtitle. The Guy has not read the book, but Columbia University linguistics Professor John McWhorter blurbs that "everybody … will feast on every page."
FIRST IMAGE: Illustration at The Wire for a feature entitled “What is the Worth of Investigative Journalism?”