Saturday, June 9, 2012

Texas Faith: Which religion stories merited more and better coverage?


 Published on 12/21/10 at Dallas Morning news

Each December, the Religion Newswriters Association asks members to choose the top 10 religion stories of the year. We decided to flip that around and ask you our esteemed Texas Faith panelists which religion stories, trends, developments did NOT get the media attention they deserved in 2010.

Here's what they said:

MIKE GHOUSE, President, Foundation for Pluralism, Dallas  

A great initiative was taken by the Foundation for Pluralism to mitigate conflicts by demystifying the myths about Qur'aan, which were aggressively pushed by the right wingers to pit one American against the other.

Pastor Robert Jeffress (of First Baptist Church of Dallas) called Qur'aan an evil book written by a false prophet. He did not tell the truth nor did he take up the challenge to identify what is evil in Qur'aan. The media failed to ask him the specifics; his words were carried on the airwaves like the gospel truth.

The purpose of the Foundation for Pluralism conference was to understand the issues and find ways to remove such fears and phobias in an open forum and restore the cohesiveness of our society and work towards building a safe and secure America.
Pastor Jeffress declined to attend the conference. This story should have been on the front pages and evening news and it was not.

Are the neglected subjects in the media a function of the media's relentless focus on competitiveness and profits, and, at this moment, survival?

Indeed, the media are at a critical juncture of having to choose between fulfilling their societal responsibility and succumbing to the political compulsions of our times.

Please visit Dallas Morning News to read all the responses: http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/12/texas-faith-what-religion-stor.html

MikeGhouse is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a professional speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, civic affairs, Islam, India, Israel, peace and justice. Mike is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News and regularly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. The blog www.TheGhousediary.com is updated daily.


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