I was bemused when I read ABC General Manager Mark Scott's recent comments on the role of religion in the media. Scott allowed Radio National management to axe The Religion Report, remove Stephen Crittenden from the religion unit, and declined from December to March to meet a representative group of religious leaders. When he finally met them he made unspecific promises about religion being covered in 'mainstream programs'.
The Australian reported that Scott told a prayer breakfast in Adelaide that the media has trouble covering issues of faith, often framing religion in a political context rather than as personal belief.
He said: 'We train our journalists to be skeptical, to seek out answers, look for documentation and to not accept things on face value ... And part of the challenge about faith is that some of the things we hold to be true ... are not visible, cannot be proven.'
This suggests that Scott defines faith in terms of personal conversion and belief, rather than engagement with the broader community context where faith encounters culture, society, ethics and political reality.
This is a troubling view for the ABC GM to take. Of course belief can't be 'proven', but it certainly can and should be examined. That is what theology is about, faith seeking understanding as Saint Anselm said in the 11th century. But it seems Scott is not conversant with mainstream theology, and this provides a clue as to why he axed The Religion Report.
The speech reveals other aspects of Scott's perspective. It reflects an explicitly evangelical Protestant approach which sees media in terms of propaganda rather than analysis. This is the antithesis of the role laid down for the ABC in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983. The Corporation's mandate unequivocally demands that a strong critical, journalistic approach be applied to religion, just as it is to everything else.
And if Christians are seen by media as 'judgmental, simplistic, passionless or narrow-minded', as Scott claims, perhaps it's their own fault because that is how they present themselves.
Prayer breakfasts are not just about consuming food; they're intrinsically political. Evangelicals are not necessarily gentle, naive souls. They can be aggressively political when it comes to pushing their agenda. It didn't take the Australian Christian Lobby, a political pressure group if ever there was one, long to get on to Scott's speech. Perhaps unknowingly, he is playing into