Sunday, May 06, 2007

3796

Training ground for biased big media?

The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper is one of the hundreds (maybe thousands) of struggling free circs, those piles of newsprint and skinny magazines you see in the lobbies of coffee shops, shopping centers and libraries. Technically, they offer an alternative, but if they become successful, a bigger paper usually buys them. I hear they pay well, and the slant is, well, very, very one way or the other. The Stranger is left, although I've only read one article. It's anti-religious right. Yawn. That's like an elephant being afraid of a mouse. There is not a single leftist program proposed since FDR that hasn't succeeded. Conservatives, at best, toss an occasional banana peel, and a baby might make it out alive in the Dakotas that otherwise would have been thrown in a trash can.

The article that was sent to me is "Cross Purposes" by Erica C. Barnett. For some reason she thinks it is sad that Seattle's old line, dying liberal churches are shrinking and becoming irrelevant. When we joined UALC [it's a conservative congregation within a liberal denomination] in 1976 our pastor had formerly been a Lutheran pastor in the northwest--can't remember if it was Oregon or Washington. But I remember him saying that the mountains were white capped from all the letters of transfer that never made it. That means, for you non-Christian readers, when people headed west, they left their relgion back in the east or midwest and started worshiping Mother Nature. If they needed a little familiarity for a wedding and cozy pot lucks, they could always join the Unitarians. So I don't know where Erica's been hanging out, but it ain't church.

So she writes a lengthy story about the "new conservatives." But she has a very odd hitch in her gitalong. Seems to really focus on externals, hoping I think, to turn off . . . who, exactly? In describing the people she's afraid of (i.e. conservative Christians) seen at two different gatherings, tiny Church on the Hill, and big Mars Hill:
    T-shirts and jeans
    overalls and sweats
    casual sportswear
    bearded guy in sweats
    blond man in sneakers and faded blue jeans
    brown long-sleeved t-shirt
    thrown-together, house-party-ish scene
    heavily gelled hair [preacher]
    sloppy, untucked dress shirt
    wooden bead necklace
    trendy wide-strapped brown leather watch
    girls in glittering half-sweaters
    sloppy emo boys with tattooed arms
    disheveled hair
    pregnant women in stylishly expensive maternity jeans
    loud and a bit slovenly [preacher]
    Jimmy Kimmel-esque comedian [preacher]
I haven't seen that much fashion description except in my own complaints about what people wear to church these days.

When describing the liberal Mainline Methodists in Ballard, WA she says. . . not much about their appearance, but does cite their criticisms of the new kids on the church block, and they have a serious case of edifice envy.
    "Very much your father's conservatism"
    "women are the nurturers who should go home and have babies"
    "negative, almost misogynistic view of women"
    "emergent or emerging" [these are 2 different terms, but she doesn't distinguish]
    "They've built a show that attracts masses of people. That legitimates it"
    "it's possible they are simply not paying attention"
    "an astonishing number believe in reincarnation, which is not a Christian doctrine"
    "we're in a time when people pick and choose what they want from their religious experience"
    "appeal to people who think we live in apocalyptic times"
    "creates a system where people can have a feeling of control"
    "they see themselves as cutting edge, whereas mainline churches are struggling to keep their doors open"
    "theology of fear"
    "they're cool and they can go out into the world"
    "they'll outgrow it"
Oddly (or, not so odd since she wants a job with a "real" paper), Erica sees the mainline church goers (most with gray hair and canes), as more tolerant and diverse because there is a sprinkling of gay couples, and some female pastors. She thinks it is quite OK for the Methodist pastor to be preaching on the "evil empire" the U.S. is becoming with obscene tax-cutting, but not OK for the Mars Hill guy who's preaching that the suburbs have just as much evil as the city. She calls the conservatives intolerant with retrograde political leanings (she only sites homosexuality and women as evidence of "retrograde"), and apocalyptic, rebelling against the pop culture while appropriating its language and styles.

Yes, Erica's looking for a job with a playa.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I went to church yesterday to see my daughter sing in youth choir at her Dad & Stepmom's very wealthy Methodist church. (FYI daughter lives in a 50/50 custody situation in houses 1 mile apart). I was amazed at the way people were dressed. Wearing a dress with matching jacket, I was the best-dressed there. I saw jeans ( on adult women) and the altar boy was wearing flip-flops. The "sermon" consisted of showing the last scene of the movie "October Sky." And the most amazing part was NOBODY WAS THERE! This is a huge wealthy congregation and including choir member families, there probably weren't 100 people present. It was a poor snack when you're used to a feast.

Norma said...

The clothing and programming sounds like they're trying to draw a crowd by focusing on the externals. Too bad they don't use the Gospel. . . but that's so retro.

AJ said...

Sometimes it's not so hard to read between the lines, huh.