Q: What do the NFL Hall of Fame and the Doulos’ arrival in Brisbane have to do with each other?
A: News coverage.
The Doulos has arrived in Brisbane and will be docking over the next few weeks before heading to Sydney. Recently Art Monk was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. The Doulos is a ship which sails around the world providing social services as well as a wide variety of Christian books. Art Monk is both a humble and (seemingly) mature Christian.
But if you watched or read the news regarding these two events you’d might miss the Christian connection.
On Ten news earlier this week was a little spot on the Doulos. There was no mention about the Christian nature of it’s mission or its services, but a focus on the fact that it’s currently the worlds oldest ocean liner. Coverage of Art Monk’s induction into the NFL Hall of Fame seems to very selectively quote his fantastic speech.
Now, good has come from the news spots (for instance there is greater public awareness and interest in the Doulos and more visitors because of that) but I can’t help noticing the continued double standards of the media in portraying Christianity. News wise there are really only three ‘Christian’ type of stories – the story of the old (but outdated Church) trying something new (like the Priest marrying a couple whilst standing on top of flying planes), the outspoken (and outdated) Church representative up in arms over some piece of legislation the wider community seems to support, or the Church sex-scandal (showing it’s not just outdated, but also evil).
To put it in a nutshell, the media tends to portray Christians negatively. Positive acts go frequently unreported and if they are reported tend to be missing anything Christian about them.
Am I being too cynical? Perhaps. Am I wrong? Let’s keep watching/reading the news to find out…
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