{"id":113,"date":"2018-09-09T16:04:33","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T16:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/?p=113"},"modified":"2018-09-09T16:04:33","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T16:04:33","slug":"what-are-you-doing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html","title":{"rendered":"What are you DOING?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-114\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/412\/2018\/09\/Jesus-and-discliples-300x162.jpg\" alt=\"Jesus and discliples\" width=\"300\" height=\"162\" \/>The Biblical Guide to Reporting<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>An on-point article by Marshall Allen appeared in the New York Times a \u00a0week or two ago: \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/09\/01\/opinion\/christianity-bible-journalism.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>The Biblical Guide to Reporting<\/strong><\/a>. \u00a0The article was a personal account of the author\u2019s intersection between Christianity and journalism. The overarching theme was that being a Christian doesn&#8217;t preclude you from the professions or an active life in a secular society. In this case, Christians can be effective journalists even in \u201cimmoral\u201d newsrooms.<\/p>\n<p>The author highlights what the Bible \u201cteaches\u201d and the moral aspects of those teachings, showing the way in which Christianity \u2013 through the Bible &#8212; provides an ethical foundation which is directly applicable to the ethical imperatives of good journalism.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Serving a higher cause<\/li>\n<li>Telling the truth<\/li>\n<li>Honesty and integrity<\/li>\n<li>Do not accept a bribe<\/li>\n<li>Be a comfort to other people<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are all good qualities and what we would like to see in ourselves, our children and our neighbors as well in the journalists whose reporting we rely on. These are the foundations of social trust.<\/p>\n<p>But the article also hints at something that I think is even more profound than simple directives for ethical behavior. As lay readers who engage in the public reading of scripture, there is another virtue in the narratives found in the Bible beyond morals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t just listen to what I say, watch what I do<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bible study tends to favor what people in the Bible say \u2013 what Mary or Jesus or the disciples and apostles say \u2013 over what they do and are doing. There is the narrative &#8211; the \u2018story\u201d of Lazarus or the loaves and the fishes but we want to go right to what was said in the course of those narratives and how we can translate those sayings into moral directives and rules to live by. Thomas Jefferson made his own custom version of the Gospels that included only what Jesus said, ignoring what other&#8217;s said about him or what he is reported to have done.<\/p>\n<p>But the key statement in the article for me, as a lay reader is, \u201c\u2026what I <strong>DO <\/strong>as an investigative reporter is consistent with what the Bible teaches.\u201d (The emphasis is mine.) Or, you could say, what I do is consistent with what people with scriptural authority in the Bible <strong>DO<\/strong> and are doing.<\/p>\n<p>For example, it\u2019s one thing to focus on what prophets say. But what\u2019s more engaging is to focus on what prophets do. Two additional observations from the article:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cGod didn\u2019t direct the writers of the Bible to avoid controversy.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201c&#8230;those who do investigative reporting, tend to annoy people in powerful positions.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Not by what they say alone. But by what they do. Prophets upset the status quo. Not just by what they say, \u201cRepent!\u201d True prophets are present, bold, brave, rigorous, and unrelenting in holding themselves and others to account. They confront uncomfortable truths, keep temporal and earthly power and appetites in perspective and serve higher causes. They \u201cannoy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s what they DO: they are curious. They observe closely. They are willing to question. That is what good reporters do. Morality is good.\u00a0 But action is more immediately engaging and productive. Jesus did not just roll out a mat and sit in front of his home in Nazareth and offer aphorisms to all passersby with ears to hear. It\u2019s <strong>what he DID<\/strong> that is most important and that captures our attention and imagination.<\/p>\n<p>This is what we look for first when we read the Gospels aloud. What&#8217;s happening? What are people doing, right now?\u00a0 This is what the Gospels are reporting. This is what we need to hear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Biblical Guide to Reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":621,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What are you DOING? - Hear the Gospel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An article in the New York Times offers guidance for working in a secular workplace. Useful guidance is also to be found for lay readers should be DOING...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What are you DOING? - Hear the Gospel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An article in the New York Times offers guidance for working in a secular workplace. Useful guidance is also to be found for lay readers should be DOING...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hear the Gospel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-09T16:04:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/files\/2018\/09\/Jesus-and-discliples-300x162.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Theodore May\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What are you DOING? - Hear the Gospel","description":"An article in the New York Times offers guidance for working in a secular workplace. Useful guidance is also to be found for lay readers should be DOING...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What are you DOING? - Hear the Gospel","og_description":"An article in the New York Times offers guidance for working in a secular workplace. Useful guidance is also to be found for lay readers should be DOING...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html","og_site_name":"Hear the Gospel","article_published_time":"2018-09-09T16:04:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/files\/2018\/09\/Jesus-and-discliples-300x162.jpg"}],"author":"Theodore May","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html","name":"What are you DOING? - Hear the Gospel","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/files\/2018\/09\/Jesus-and-discliples-300x162.jpg","datePublished":"2018-09-09T16:04:33+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-09T16:04:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/#\/schema\/person\/c9e5892a8128aa67c63807b1c7d6b181"},"description":"An article in the New York Times offers guidance for working in a secular workplace. Useful guidance is also to be found for lay readers should be DOING...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/files\/2018\/09\/Jesus-and-discliples-300x162.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/files\/2018\/09\/Jesus-and-discliples-300x162.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/09\/what-are-you-doing-2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What are you DOING?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/","name":"Hear the Gospel","description":"What it means to really live in a world inhabited by the living God","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/#\/schema\/person\/c9e5892a8128aa67c63807b1c7d6b181","name":"Theodore May","description":"Ted May speaks with no authority other than the fact that he has served as a lay reader for more than 50 years in multiple churches, spanning multiple denominations, and feels the call to share what he has learned from that experience with others. After a successful corporate career, he\u2019s now an executive presentation coach who works with business professionals and students in the greater Washington, D.C. area. He and his wife live in Northern Virginia, where they raised three children.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/author\/tmay"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/621"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}