Keep the Bible in one hand, a newspaper in the other: Tips for stressed-out preachers
“You preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.”
That’s what Bishop Timothy Clarke, an Ohio senior pastor, said in a recent front-page feature by Danae King, the Columbus Dispatch’s religion writer.
It’s an idea that originated with the late Karl Barth, one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. Barth put it this way: “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”
Barth’s concept was a prominent theme of a Facebook Live panel discussion organized this week by the Siburt Institute for Church Ministry at Abilene Christian University in Texas.
“We used to think the hard part was interpreting the Bible, but now we've decided the hard part is interpreting the newspaper,” quipped Randy Harris, one of the co-hosts, along with Carson Reed, of the discussion on “Light, Truth and Fake News.”
The panel — on which I was honored to speak — aimed to help stressed-out ministers make sense of the news in a time of polarization and conspiracy theories.
“Read broadly. Value truth,” urged Cheryl Mann Bacon, a Christian Chronicle correspondent and retired journalism chair at Abilene Christian. “Be compassionate when you share it, but be courageous when you share it.”
Co-host Harris is a longtime preacher and spiritual director who works with the Siburt Institute.
He advised: “Pay attention to local news. We can get caught up with what's happening in Washington, but there's stuff that's happening in your town that needs a response. The second thing is, to ministers: You've made a commitment to read the news through a certain lens, and that's the lens of a crucified and risen Messiah.”
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. A Catholic sinner seeks Communion — and happens to be president: Emma Green, The Atlantic’s all-star religion-and-politics writer, offers a detailed, nuanced take on the “‘difficult and complex situation’ of a Catholic president (Joe Biden) who publicly supports expanding abortion rights, contrary to the faith’s teachings.”
“Sinners abound in politics,” Green writes. “The question facing the Catholic hierarchy is whether to offer the most famous Catholic sinner in America an invitation to closeness with God, or to withhold Communion until the president falls fully in line with his Church’s teachings.”
2. No pew? No problem. Online church is revitalizing congregations: I missed this Christian Science Monitor cover story when it was first published earlier this month.
But the in-depth report by veteran religion writer G. Jeffrey MacDonald remains a timely and relevant read on the “pandemic shift no one saw coming at the start of 2020.”
That shift: “Churches that had long assumed their members would live nearby are no longer resigned to geographic constraints. As congregations have gone online to maintain ministries while social distancing, new worshippers from other regions have been showing up.”
3. The House has passed the Equality Act, but religious freedom concerns remain: The Deseret News’ Kelsey Dallas owns the religious freedom beat.
Yes, I’ve said that before. But it’s true: No journalist produces more vital work on that First Amendment right than Dallas.
Besides her Equality Act story this week, she reported that more than 20 states are debating bills that would protect in-person church services.
CONTINUE READING: “Bible In One Hand, Newspaper In The Other: Tips For Stressed-Out Preachers,” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged.