Cheap Shots And Lousy Journalism

John’s reading list below refers to this article in the Associated Baptist News by Hannah Elliott. I noticed the article yesterday but did not read it carefully until today. Bottom line: This is the type of journalism conservatives would never accept from anyone writing about politics in the mainstream news media. It’s also typical of much of the information that some evangelical sources have been disseminating about Romney, so it’s directly relevant to this blog’s purpose.

As John notes, Ms.Elliott’s article begins with a nod to politics, then devotes the remaining paragraphs to aspects of Mormonism that are among the favorite hobby horses of anti-Mormon writers. And, as is usually the case in such treatments, the piece gets Mormon theology wrong, or distorts that theology by presenting it only partially or with no balance whatsoever. Through it all, there is not a single quote from a believing Mormon, much less an official spokesman for the Church. There is plenty from critics of the Church, however. This is a depressing pattern that we see all too often.

Consider these excerpts from Ms. Elliott’s article:

[Mormons] also believe that humans are now what God once was, and that humans have the potential to become what God is now, according to whatismormonism.com, a website hostile to the faith.

Why go to an anti-Mormon website to learn what Mormons believe? You might want to visit the whatismormonism.com site. It’s ferociously anti-Mormon, its only footnotes are to other anti-Mormon sources, it does not give the credentials of its authors, and it is dedicated to disproving Mormon beliefs. Is that the kind of authoritative source a good journalist uses? Even if it were, would it be good journalism to refer to The Protocols of The Elders of Zion as a source for understanding and explaining Judaism?Â Conservatives would not tolerate such nonsense from the mainstream media.

Salvation for Mormons, according to the official LDS website (www.mormon.org), comes through righteous living via tests of faith. It culminates in the believer becoming a god and starting an eternal family. By virtue of the “celestial marriage” ordinance, worthy males may bring their wives to begin this family.

Well, at least Ms. Elliott cites an official Mormon site, but this is a subtle but devastating oversimplification and outright distortion of Mormon beliefs, on several levels. There is not space here to respond to all of it. First, Mormons believe “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” That is fundamental, and there is a subtlety to the doctrine that goes well beyond the Elliott article’s simple summary. As for multiple wives in the hereafter, that is something that honest Mormons will say we just don’t know enough about to be very specific. Notably, the subject is not addressed on www.mormon.org, but the context of the article leads one to believe the contrary, and that Ms. Elliott is conveying information appearing on an official Mormon site. The subject is a favorite point of attack for anti-Mormons, which makes me wonder about Ms. Elliott’s own orientation.

Next we read some commentary from Frances Beckwith, a sophisticated (and respectful) critic of the Mormon Church:

The fact that Mormonism denies the “great creeds of Christendom” and claims to have restored true Christianity through Smith, Beckwith said, causes most evangelicals to see Mormonism as devastatingly errant in its theology. He is the associate director of the Baptist school’s J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies. In 2002, he co-wrote The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement.

Beckwith’s book is intended in part to enable evangelicals to respond to increasingly sophisticated Mormon defenses of their faith. Here’s how Amazon describes the book:

Written by an international team of respected Christian scholars, this freshly researched rebuttal of Mormon truth will aid those sharing the gospel with Mormons and those investigating Mormonism on their own. It will help readers to accurately understand Mormonism through biblical, historical, scientific, philosophical, and theological discussions.

. . .

Whether you are sharing the gospel with Mormons or are investigating Mormonism for yourself, this book will help you accurately understand Mormonism and see the superiority of the historic Christian faith.

There’s nothing wrong with writing such a book, or with Elliott referring to it to establish Professor Beckwith’s expertise. He is a respectful critic of Mormonism– at least in my view. (Here’s an example of Beckwith’s writing, in which he responds to this review of his book. Both are very interesting reads.) He’s also a fine conservative thinker.

I’m not complaining about Professor Beckwith– my concern is over Ms. Elliott’s reliance on an expert critic of Mormonism, combined with the total absence of any inquiry to any official Mormon church spokesmen– or even a believing member of the Church. What happened to balance and proportion?

Moreover, in a private e-mail to me, Professor Beckwith shared one of his responses to one of Ms. Elliott’s questions:

For me, as an Evangelical, I have no qualms working with Mormons on political matters and even supporting Mitt Romney for the presidency (though I have not made up my mind yet). If I choose not to support Gov. Romney, it would be because of his politics and not his religion.

This response, which significantly changes the context and tone of Professor Beckwith’s answers, was not included in the article.

We often accuse the mainstream media of agenda journalism. One wonders whether that is what is occurring here. Would you accept such journalism from the L.A. Times, Washington Post, or Miami Herald? Of course not. It will be fascinating to see if such sloppy, biased thinking and writing will, in the end, have a real impact on Romney’s chances, or if it will simply become background noise. I’m hoping for the latter, but I’m not sure how optimistic I should be.

Technorati Tags: religion, politics, Associated Baptist Press, Hannah Elliott, Frances Beckwith, Mitt Romney, The New Mormon Challenge