The blogosphere is abuzz with the recent controversy surrounding not just a front page article in Newsweek magazine but also how the editor responded.
This week Newsweek featured an article by Lisa Miller entitled “Gay Marriage: Our Mutual Joy“.
Well darn – the title alone tells you what is coming right?
It is bad. Really bad. Even if you agree (1) Ms Miller has a right to her opinions and (2) is entirely correct on this issue… still… it is a truly dreadful article. It misrepresents the issue. Misrepresents the views of millions of people. Misrepresents the arguments involved. Misrepresents the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. (And why oh why do proponents of gay marriage ignore what other religions such as Islam and Hinduism have to say about this? Why single out Christians?)
Mollie Hemingway in “Sola scriptura minus the scriptura” (the Bible only without the Bible) offers an utterly devastating critique of the piece:
And yet preach with unhinged emotion is precisely what Miller does. She never once speaks with an actual opponent of same-sex marriage. She never once speaks with someone who knows anything about the Biblical model of marriage as understood for thousands of years. This piece is disgusting, unfair and unworthy of a high school graduate. It is the opposite of thought-provoking. It’s a post-frontal lobotomy exegesis of Scripture. This is journalism? This is how people are supposed to cover the news, today?
… This is a serious topic. We have had the majority populace of three dozen states now vote to define marriage as a heterosexual union. I know the news industry is suffering but perhaps one reporter could go actually research what these people think.
Instead we learn nothing about the principled opposition to same-sex marriage and instead get blasphemy and some of the most cliched reading of Scripture to appear in print. Thanks, Newsweek. Thanks a bunch.
Read the whole thing at Get Religion. You do not have to register.
But what really takes the cake is how Jon Meacham responded to the strong backlash (including fair well known public figures taking issue with the article and how it handles the subject matter). Rather than “no no it was not a report – it was an opinion piece” or “this is an important point of view in a larger debate” he openly declares a theological-political position. Among other things Meacham writes:
This conservative resort to biblical authority is the worst kind of fundamentalism…
Religious conservatives will say that the liberal media are once again seeking to impose their values (or their ‘agenda,’ a favorite term to describe the views of those who disagree with you) on a God-fearing nation. Let the letters and e-mails come. History and demographics are on the side of those who favor inclusion over exclusion.
(I cannot find a link to this – these excerpts are from other articles which quote Meacham.)
Wow. Tell us what you really think.
Christianity Today in a three page editorial about the Newsweek article and Meacham’s defense thereof offers this trenchant summary:
And so ironically, even before the first word of Miller’s religious case for gay marriage has been read, Meacham has conceded that it is not a case at all, but a simple assertion. And while they both claim they are arguing against exclusiveness and for inclusivity, they have managed to exclude from this crucial national conversation a significant proportion of the American population who happen to believe there is a strong biblical case for traditional marriage.
Read the whole thing at Christianity Today. You do not have to register.
If the editors and staff at Newsweek or any other nationally recognized publication wish to make a case for one side in a larger debate – that is fine. Let them do so. But what Newsweek has done is not make a case. It has offered assertions not arguments. Rhetoric designed solely to marginalize the opposition rather than engage in serious conversation.
So… when ‘orthodox’ Christians wonder if the Mainstream Media has an axe to grind against the Christian faith…
Apparently it is not all in our imagination. That is one very positive thing we gain from Newsweek. We know precisely what they are trying to do. They have told us as much.
