Thread by @mthawk

A thread about #SBC19 and media.

For many years of my early career I edited media (radio) or provided oversight to other editors. I’ve long thought there was a need for an ethical framework for media editors b/c of the technological power we have at our fingertips.

I began thinking this years ago when I witnessed a credible religion journalist interview 2 prominent Southern Baptist brothers on different sides of an issue. The interviews were separate then edited together with narration.

The final cut of the interview depicted a far greater divide than there actually was between the subjects. The report inflamed the already tense conversation. But that was a secular media corp reporting on Baptist life. Little surprise they would get it wrong.

I thought the lesson at the time was for Christian public leaders to be more discerning in accepting interviews and to speak directly with one another first instead of relying on a non Christian reporter to mediate the conversation.

Since then I’ve witnessed a Baptist newspaper publish half truths about other Baptists. I’ve witnessed Christian talk radio hosts lie about SB leadership. Now, we see another parachurch org publishing media that sure appears produced w/ bait & switch tactics.

For all our Christian outrage about #mediabias (2000’s) and #fakenews (2010s), we haven’t been salt & light to secular media. We’ve just adopted the same unprofessional & unethical tactics against our own brothers and sisters.

As in our political witness, this is what happens when we embrace an ends-justifies-means ethic. Tactics we would never permit inside our local church become our model of engagement in public.

All the Baptist “conviction” in the world is worthless if our communication methods are from the world.