1. http://www.yourjewishnews.com/pages/jv925.aspx
2. Catholic Review （http://www.catholicreview.org）
Survey says Americans find religion reporting too sensationalized
by Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON - Americans in a telephone survey conducted in 2010 said they believe news media coverage of religion is sensationalized.
The survey findings, released only April 5, also revealed different types of audiences for religious news, including the “focused” and “specialized” consumers of religious news who make up about one-fourth of all media consumers.
In the survey authors’ definition, focused consumers are those with strong religious leanings and who are regular consumers of media, while specialized consumers have a weaker desire to consume media.
The majority in these categories are women, are “more likely to live in the South, and are less affluent and older, than the public as a whole,” said the report, a joint project of the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California and the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron in Ohio.
The survey also interviewed reporters, and found differences between them and their audiences in their perception of what constitutes religion news.
“Things have changed from 2010 to now, obviously, but things between 2000 and now have changed astronomically in terms of the online news universe,” said one of the study’s principal authors, Diane Winston of the University of Southern California.
Just in the past two years, Winston told Catholic News Service in an April 10 telephone interview, “there’s been a proliferation of online sites, specialized sites where people can read different kinds of religious commentary. ... There are probably more (content) aggregators now than in 2010 that specialize in religious news.”
John R. Green, Bliss Institute director at the University of Akron and the other co-author, said the people who “care most” about religious news are the ones who complain most about sensationalized coverage. They would prefer that religion coverage focus on individuals’ religious experiences, spirituality, practices and beliefs, he said.
“The highly religious people who were not regular consumers of the news media tended to be the most critical” of coverage,” Bliss told CNS. “Who knows why that is? Maybe they don’t use the media a lot because they don’t like what they see and read.”
The survey reached 2,000 Americans by telephone, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The survey also interviewed 800 reporters, with an error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Among the reporters, one-sixth said religion coverage was central to their job and one-fifth said it came up frequently in their work.
One big difference between the reporters and Americans at large was in their view of religion’s role in society.
The public is “sharply polarized” on the issue; 52.6 percent said religion was on balance a force for good in the world, while 43.6 percent it was a source of conflict. But among reporters, 56.1 percent reporters said religion is a mix of good and conflict, compared to 3.8 percent of the public who see it that way.
Reporters, in contrast to consumers of news, said religion news should emphasize religious institutions, activities, events and personalities.
Only one-fifth of the reporters said they were “very knowledgeable” about religion. Green told CNS that most reporters based their religion knowledge on what they knew and practiced growing up.
Green said reporters complained about not having enough time and resources to do stories on religion, or having too few contacts in the field. He added that one surprising element of the reporters’ responses was a lack of interference from editors for the articles they did write.
“There is no one media world,” Winston told CNS. The Washington Post “has really had to step up its game” with its On Faith blog, she said, to compete in the blogosphere.
Sectarian media, Winston added, “tend to cover their issues fairly well, if not aggressively. If you want to read diverse Jewish opinions on Israel, you’re not going to get it in the Jewish media,” but readers would find “minutiae on Jewish life. In the same way the Catholic media may not give you the most insider information on global sex scandals, but it will give you the most up-to-date information on what the pope is doing.”
Still, Winston said, “you can get what you want if you look for it. If I wanted to find out what’s going on in Catholic life and did not get a Catholic newspaper, I would have a hard time.”
Copyright (c) 2012 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
3. Radio Vatican （http://www.radiovaticana.org）
Pope appeals for peace at Easter urbi et orbi
Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass this Easter Sunday in St Peter's Square, after which he offered the urbi et orbi benediction - the blessing of the city and the world - which it is tradition for the Pope to give at Easter and at Christmas. The Holy Father delivered remarks to the faithful gathered in the square, focusing on the radical and permanent novelty of Christ's resurrection. Following his address, Pope Benedict offered Easter greetings in more than sixty languages. Listen to Chris Altieri's report:
Below, please find the full text of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI's remarks at the Easter urbi et orbi blessing.
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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Rome and throughout the world!
“Surrexit Christus, spes mea” – “Christ, my hope, has risen” (Easter Sequence).
May the jubilant voice of the Church reach all of you with the words which the ancient hymn puts on the lips of Mary Magdalene, the first to encounter the risen Jesus on Easter morning. She ran to the other disciples and breathlessly announced: “I have seen the Lord!” (Jn 20:18). We too, who have journeyed through the desert of Lent and the sorrowful days of the Passion, today raise the cry of victory: “He has risen! He has truly risen!”
Every Christian relives the experience of Mary Magdalene. It involves an encounter which changes our lives: the encounter with a unique Man who lets us experience all God’s goodness and truth, who frees us from evil not in a superficial and fleeting way, but sets us free radically, heals us completely and restores our dignity. This is why Mary Magdalene calls Jesus “my hope”: he was the one who allowed her to be reborn, who gave her a new future, a life of goodness and freedom from evil. “Christ my hope” means that all my yearnings for goodness find in him a real possibility of fulfilment: with him I can hope for a life that is good, full and eternal, for God himself has drawn near to us, even sharing our humanity.
But Mary Magdalene, like the other disciples, was to see Jesus rejected by the leaders of the people, arrested, scourged, condemned to death and crucified. It must have been unbearable to see Goodness in person subjected to human malice, truth derided by falsehood, mercy abused by vengeance. With Jesus’ death, the hope of all those who had put their trust in him seemed doomed. But that faith never completely failed: especially in the heart of the Virgin Mary, Jesus’ Mother, its flame burned even in the dark of night. In this world, hope can not avoid confronting the harshness of evil. It is not thwarted by the wall of death alone, but even more by the barbs of envy and pride, falsehood and violence. Jesus passed through this mortal mesh in order to open a path to the kingdom of life. For a moment Jesus seemed vanquished: darkness had invaded the land, the silence of God was complete, hope a seemingly empty word.
And lo, on the dawn of the day after the Sabbath, the tomb is found empty. Jesus then shows himself to Mary Magdalene, to the other women, to his disciples. Faith is born anew, more alive and strong than ever, now invincible since it is based on a decisive experience: “Death with life contended: combat strangely ended! Life’s own champion, slain, now lives to reign”. The signs of the resurrection testify to the victory of life over death, love over hatred, mercy over vengeance: “The tomb the living did enclose, I saw Christ’s glory as he rose! The angels there attesting, shroud with grave-clothes resting”.
Dear brothers and sisters! If Jesus is risen, then – and only then – has something truly new happened, something that changes the state of humanity and the world. Then he, Jesus, is someone in whom we can put absolute trust; we can put our trust not only in his message but in Jesus himself, for the Risen One does not belong to the past, but is present today, alive. Christ is hope and comfort in a particular way for those Christian communities suffering most for their faith on account of discrimination and persecution. And he is present as a force of hope through his Church, which is close to all human situations of suffering and injustice.
May the risen Christ grant hope to the Middle East and enable all the ethnic, cultural and religious groups in that region to work together to advance the common good and respect for human rights. Particularly in Syria, may there be an end to bloodshed and an immediate commitment to the path of respect, dialogue and reconciliation, as called for by the international community. May the many refugees from that country who are in need of humanitarian assistance find the acceptance and solidarity capable of relieving their dreadful sufferings. May the paschal victory encourage the Iraqi people to spare no effort in pursuing the path of stability and development. In the Holy Land, may Israelis and Palestinians courageously take up anew the peace process.
May the Lord, the victor over evil and death, sustain the Christian communities of the African continent; may he grant them hope in facing their difficulties, and make them peacemakers and agents of development in the societies to which they belong.
May the risen Jesus comfort the suffering populations of the Horn of Africa and favour their reconciliation; may he help the Great Lakes Region, Sudan and South Sudan, and grant their inhabitants the power of forgiveness. In Mali, now experiencing delicate political developments, may the glorious Christ grant peace and stability. To Nigeria, which in recent times has experienced savage terrorist attacks, may the joy of Easter grant the strength needed to take up anew the building of a society which is peaceful and respectful of the religious freedom of its citizens.
Happy Easter to all!
・All the contents on this site are copyrighted
4. Union of Catholic Asian News（http://www.ucanews.com）
Fairy tales and the propagation of faith, 10 April 2012
Christians want religious seminars and controversies handled with greater sensitivity
by Joachim Francis Xavier, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Once again Muslims and Christians in Malaysia are at loggerheads. This time the clash is over a state-sanctioned seminar that seemingly cast Christians as a threat to Islam.
There has been a barrage of criticism ranging from the less than tactful seminar title to the state’s involvement in the seminar. While these criticisms are understandable, considering the constant attacks Christians in Malaysia have been facing, not all are completely justified when considered in light of Malaysia’s constitutional arrangement.
Angry Reactions
The seminar on March 30 was acrimoniously entitled: “Strengthening the Faith, the Dangers of Liberalism and Pluralism and the Threat of Christianity towards Muslims.” It was jointly organised by two agencies in southern Johor state – the Johor Mufti Department and the Johor Education Department. The seminar targeted 300 Muslim state school teachers who teach Islam to Muslim students in national schools.
Not surprisingly the event drew immediate condemnation by Christians even before it took place. The Council of Churches of Malaysia said the seminar would sow suspicion and hatred, and expressed disappointment that the state would consider Christian citizens a threat to Muslims and Islam.
The political opposition jumped on the condemnation bandwagon with its leader, Anwar Ibrahim, calling the event “a disgusting political maneuver to use religion to frighten people.” Scores of Malaysians have chalked their displeasure on various blogs and websites, where the issue has been sizzling for the last two weeks.
A quick analysis of these criticisms reveals they fall into one of three categories.
Off-limit Topics
The first is along the lines that such a seminar, which addresses a “threat” posed by one religion to another, should never be organised in a multi-religious country like Malaysia, because it would serve as a potential flashpoint for religious disharmony.
I find this a little hard to accept. Every faith considers itself to be sacred and true. Thus, when one faith is seen to be having influence over the adherents of another, regardless of whether that influence is real or perceived, religious leaders of the affected faith will want to talk about it and find ways to deal with it.
This is done all the time – even in Malaysia. Muslims do it. Hindus do it. Even Christians do it. Christians have organised seminars, talks and camps to deal specifically with the issue of their children embracing Islam, especially when these children enter public universities or the uniformed services, where the propagation of Islam is said to be active and real. We ordinarily treat such propagation activities as a threat to the faith of our children.
In fact, we all know of Christians from one Church considering Christians from other Churches or denominations a “threat.”
So, blindly asserting that such seminars should never be organised per se is hypocritical. Instead, let us try and understand that preventing our children from leaving the faith of their birth is something most religions work naturally to discourage.
State involvement
The next kind of criticism, though not entirely divorced from the first, censures the state for being involved in such a seminar. This criticism has some validity. The state purports to represent the interest of all citizens, so identifying one section of its citizens as a “threat” is hardly in keeping with its role as a unifier and peacekeeper.
However, things are never so straightforward in Malaysia. Under the Malaysian Federal Constitution, Islam is the official religion of the state. This means that the state is legally permitted to put in place governmental structures and bodies that promote and uphold Islam. One such body would be the Johor Mufti Department. One of its roles would be to defend the Islamic faith and see to its propagation as well. In that sense, the department had the right under the constitution to organise the seminar.
But what about the state education department? Surely its role is secular in nature — to promote education of all Malaysians instead of dabbling in Islamic matters. Again, things are not that straightforward. If the mufti department was going to organise an event involving teachers in public schools, it would have to work with the education department. So, objectively speaking the criticism against state’s involvement cannot be properly sustained.
Christians are not a threat
The third type of criticism is probably the most cogent and arguable one. Basically, it says the seminar is not justified because it was premised on a falsehood — that there exists a Christian threat against Muslims. The pertinent question is: Has such a threat ever existed and does it exist now in Malaysia?
To say there are no Muslims converting to Christianity would be patently false. Several high-profile cases of Muslims going to court to assert their right to become Christians have graced our newspapers before.
However, such incidents are few and far between, and there has never been evidence suggesting there is a concerted, organised and large-scale conversion campaign by Christians against Muslims.
Hassan Ali, the sacked state executive councillor of Selangor state, has recently been at the forefront of such claims, but when asked to produce proof, he cites things like hand-held solar-powered talking Bibles and conversion testimony video clips that are either non-existent or at best dubious both in source and content.
Since there is no proven threat of Muslims in Malaysia converting en masse to Christianity, clearly the topic of the seminar in Johor was unwarranted and irrational. It smacked of ignorance and prejudice that only served to divide an already divided and nervous nation. To this end, the disappointment expressed by the Christian community is justified and appropriate. What is worse is that precious public funds were wasted tackling a non-existent problem.
Motivations
If the raison d’etre of the seminar was false, then why was such a seminar organised? The most plausible explanation is probably politics. The ruling coalition led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) is frantically fighting for its survival in the impending general election. UMNO has adopted a strategy of posturing itself as “more Islamic” than the opposition in an attempt to win the hearts and minds of the majority Muslims in the country.
Could this have been the motivation for such a discourteous seminar? Considering that Johor is an UMNO stronghold and also the home state of the education minister, such a base motivation cannot be dismissed.
It is vital that as Christians living in modern Malaysia, we identify and isolate the issues that confront us clearly and objectively in light of our unique constitutional make up. In this respect, state agencies charged with Islamic affairs are clearly exercising their lawful right to organise seminars that serve to preserve Islam, the faith of Muslims or even to deal with any problems associated with the propagation of other faiths among Muslims. Let us not begrudge that.
But the demand that such seminars be organised with some tact and sensitivity towards other faiths is a legitimate and necessary one. Further demands should be made that scarce governmental resources are used to deal with real national problems rather than those based on colorful fairy tales.
・Joachim Francis Xavier is a legally trained social activist who has served the Catholic Diocese of Penang for more than 10 years. He is chairman of the Malaysian bishops’ Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants.
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