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"To what extent are today's religious communities social clubs rather than agents of change?" Paul Simon asks, and then quotes political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain of the University of Chicago's Divinity School: "(We have) a smorgasbord religiosity whose primary aim seems to be to make us feel good about God but god forbid that this should place any demands on us."

Simon reminds his readers: "Centuries before Jesus or Muhammad, the prophet Amos wrote that because people denied justice to the oppressed, the Lord despised their religious assemblies, their songs and their sacrifices."

In his final column for Editor & Publisher magazine, Simon lamented the current state of news reporting. He said, "Pulitzer prizes are nice, but I sense they're not as important to most of today's CEOs as the profit margin … So news treatment by reporters, who are spread too thin, tends to be superficial. Personal scandals and controversies that would not have made the news 30 or 40 years ago often are the big news items. 'It's what the public wants,' we're told. This excessive attention to the trivial, to the scintillating, is not good for the nation and is not responsible journalism."

Simon concluded: "To make profit an all-absorbing pursuit does not serve the nation well, and in the long run, it will not serve the media outlets well."

Weblog answers Weblog

Speaking of the state of news reporting, earlier this week Weblog asked "Does Fuller Seminary program really oppose evangelism of Muslims?" Stories in the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press reported on a federally funded program launched by Fuller that sought to make peace with Muslims, in which Fuller pledged not to "proselytize." Evangelicals were concerned that Fuller had decided not to evangelize Muslims, but the seminary insisted "that pledges against proselytizing one another's communities would apply only to the two-year peacemaking project and would not prevent either side from sharing their respective faiths during that time."

This left many scratching their heads. Weblog promised to keep you informed of new developments in the story. Recently we received some clarification from Fuller. "The LA Times article obscured an important point. For this particular project of seeking to reduce conflict between Muslims and evangelicals, we have agreed that neither group will use this particular project for the purposes of proselytizing. We continue to teach courses in Muslim evangelism. Indeed we just appointed a new faculty member who will combine her work at Fuller with her continuing leadership in a French ministry that aims at leading Muslim women to Christ."

Well, with other news about Fuller, that's one less thing to think about.

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December (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47