What’s more threatening to an authoritarian regime than a terrorist? Apparently, a journalist. Make that a journalist for a religious publication, and the perceived threat is that much greater.
Lynn Yarbrough, whose work in China as a Kingdom Advance Ambassador is being supported by both the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia, invited me to travel to the People’s Republic to observe the work of Virginia Baptists and a Chinese Christian organization called The Amity Foundation. Virginia Baptists donated $10,000 to Amity to help with relief work following earthquakes in China. Plans were set, the itinerary established, tickets purchased, visa applied for — all the normal procedure.
Jim White, Editor
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We entrusted the visa procurement to an expediter used routinely by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, and everything went well until the words “Religious Herald” leapt off the page to alarm a Chinese Embassy bureaucrat. Letters of explanation were required and provided. More letters of explanation were required and provided. Finally, the answer came: “No. But you can come to the publicity office of the Chinese Embassy and reapply.”
So my wife and I drove to D.C. and I spoke with the appropriate people. We were told that my application would have to be sent to China to be considered for approval. Even if granted, it would not be back in time for me to leave on schedule. When I questioned further, it became apparent that I shouldn’t expect to have it until after I was scheduled to return home.
China has come a long way from the days of the little red book containing the sayings of Chairman Mao. Although it has made leaps toward openness, transparency is a long way off. Understandably, it would prefer to keep some of its troubles from becoming known. “Better to keep out people who might go poking around and say something that might embarrass them,” is apparently their attitude.
I suspect that the rioting in western China among the Muslim Uighars and the recent 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre caused Chinese officials to be overly sensitive about letting newspaper editors — especially religious newspaper editors — into their country.
I still hope to visit China at some point to report on what Virginia Baptists have done and are doing there. But this experience has caused me to reflect on the value of a free press generally. It was not by accident that the Bill of Rights begin with religious freedom and the freedom to print the truth.
In this amendment, the founding fathers, and those who encouraged them to add amendments guaranteeing the rights of citizens, provided for transparency in government. Nothing keeps politicians honest like accountability and the threat of having their misdeeds exposed. Unfortunately, even that doesn’t work with some of them! But, eventually, when the public knows that a politician is corrupt and immoral the people move him out of office. Marion Barry and the people of Washington, D.C. are notable exceptions.
But newspapers have done much more than expose corruption. They have educated. Generations of Americans received their post-public school education from the pages of their daily papers. Unlike the bare essentials presented by network news, a newspaper story provides background and context.
The value of newspapers in our history is undeniable. A huge new “Newseum” has been built on Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. between the White House and the Capitol to celebrate their contributions to our past.
Religious newspapers have also played an essential part in educating and, when necessary, exposing. Since 1828, the Religious Herald has been informing, inspiring and interpreting events within the context of Virginia Baptist life. Even through the trials created by the War between the States and the Great Depression, the Religious Herald continued its assignment without faltering.
But, do newspapers have a future?
What totalitarian states seek to eliminate or control may simply die out in America. All across the country newspapers, including state Baptist papers, are in trouble. For three decades circulation has been declining. The Religious Herald’s circulation peaked in 1978 at 49,675 and has been falling more or less steadily since to the current subscription level of 14,560. This trend is mirrored by Baptist state papers across the country. Combined circulation peaked in 1978 at 1,804,102 and since then has declined to about half that figure.
It is easy to hook this decline to Baptist in-fighting which surfaced at the convention level at about the time of the peak. Without doubt, Baptists grew weary of the conflict and lost interest in reading about it. But this cannot explain why the same trends are seen in the publications of other denominations and in newspapers in general.
Some argue that people are getting their news from other sources like CNN or FOX News. While this may have validity on the national scene, the same cannot be said for Virginia Baptist news.
Perhaps, it has been postulated, people get their news on the internet. Perhaps so. But if the masses are browsing our Religious Herald website most have avoided detection. On average, our website, www.religiousherald.org, gets 1,000 hits per week.
The information age is a difficult time to be in the information business. Communication technology is changing so rapidly that even teenagers can’t keep up. It is now possible for individuals to assume the role of reporter as we saw so dramatically demonstrated during the demonstrations following Iran’s presidential elections. A cell phone can record video detail and then email it globally in seconds. Who needs to wait for the morning paper to find out what is happening in the world?
Newspapers, including the Religious Herald, are feeling their ways through a landscape changing, it seems, with each step they take. Most, including the Herald, are transitioning from newsprint to web distribution. Although some will always want to hold a paper when they read the news, the cost savings realized by not printing and mailing is enormous.
What concerns me is not that Virginia Baptists are not subscribing to the Religious Herald. If I were sure that they are getting information from some other source I would be content. Not happy, necessarily, but content. But, truthfully, I am disappointed that even pastors seem largely apathetic about what is happening in Virginia Baptist life.
Many of them are so focused on their local churches that they have little time or inclination to consider what is happening more broadly. But in doing so they, and their people, are becoming increasingly isolated from the rest of us. A nagging fear is that Virginia Baptists simply don’t want to be informed.
If news agencies go out of business, our news will come from those who have axes to grind or who have a vested interest in providing a certain slant—which inevitably makes them look good. Right up until it collapsed, Enron public relations information painted a bright future for the company. We have learned that self-generated news can’t be completely trusted.
Perhaps the time will come when a newspaper is not essential to Virginia Baptists. But a trusted source of information will always be essential. It is the task of the Religious Herald staff and board to discover the media that will best communicate with our people and then inform, inspire and interpret within the context of Virginia Baptist life. To be that trusted source is the Religious Herald’s mission.