Why Religion Reporting Matters

A question I was often asked was, need one be religious to write about religion? Obviously not, judging by the many non-believers who have written really well on the subject. But it is surely an advantage if one is familiar with religious culture, debates and challenges. It gives one a broad background against which to work, and when a journalist doesn't have that it often shows. Paul Marshall's book Blind Spot: When Journalists Don't Get Religion, has a telling example of this. A Washington Post reporter was covering a protest at the White House by Pentecostal Christians, and reported that a speaker said "Let's pray that God will slay everyone on the Capitol." No one at the paper understood the Pentecostal practice of being "slain in the Spirit" - so it was reported as a call for mass murder.