Reporters need to tell truth even
when topic is controversial, panel says

United Methodist News Service
SAN ANTONIO—Church communicators need to present the truth in religious publications—even when topics are controversial.
That was the consensus during a panel discussion Oct. 15 at the United Methodist Association of Communicators annual meeting.
Responding to a question about the place of truth telling in religious journalism today, Jeanean Merkel, president of the Religion Communications Council, said, “The real question comes in defining truth.”
Dana Jones, editor of Response, the magazine of the Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries, said that “what is truth is at the heart of the conversation.”
The challenge, she said, is to fuse “our” words and images with grace and truth.
Sarah Wilke, chief executive of UMR Communications in Dallas, said church communicators have a responsibility to educate, inform and move people to action. But communicators should not give people more than they are capable of hearing.
If the message is too intense or complicated, readers “write you off,” Wilke said.
But “there is so much truth that needs to be told, and sometimes there is so much truth that people are afraid of it,” said Kristin Knudson Harris, communications coordinator for the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women.
Harris noted that she began her work in communication ministry in 1992 as director of public relations and communication for the Wisconsin Conference.
“Note the order in the title,” she said. “That tells you what the priorities were.”
Both Harris and Jones noted a tension between protecting the church’s reputation—the public relations concern—and the journalistic priority of reporting truth no matter what the consequences.
Now that she works for a church monitoring agency, Harris said, she no longer feels the journalism-public relations tension.
“I have an agenda,” she said. “I no longer have to be fair and balanced.”
The Book of Discipline says the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women is to “function as an advocate with and on behalf of women individually and collectively within The United Methodist Church … and as a monitor to ensure inclusiveness in the programmatic and administrative functioning” of the denomination.
Some 100 United Methodist communicators attended the Oct. 13-15 meeting in San Antonio. Bishop Joel N. Martinez of San Antonio presided at the closing Holy Communion service.
The communications association was created in 1973 to help church communicators stay informed about developments in the industry, foster dialogue about technological changes and promote advocacy of communication issues.
The association works with the General Commission on Communication to provide professional certification for Christian communicators.