Certain newsrooms would definitely benefit from a discussion about their apparent lack of religious diversity and literacy. Maybe these groups ought to entertain the idea of hiring more Christians or, at the very least, perhaps they should consider consulting Christians on specific stories.
Maybe that way, when it comes to reporting on a faith shared by some 2.2 billion people, certain media organizations won’t look so foolish.
The latest example of the press’ wider problem of religious illiteracy comes via an article published Friday by NPR titled, “Pope To World: Hell Does Exist.”
The report is about a likely bogus story alleging Pope Francis supposedly said hell is not real. The supreme pontiff’s supposed pontifications, which the Washington Examiner addressed here, aren’t the point. The point is the correction attached to the NRP story, which reads as follows:
“An earlier version of this post incorrectly described Easter as ‘the day celebrating the idea that Jesus did not die and go to hell or purgatory or anywhere at all, but rather arose into heaven.’”
Uh … What???
Yeah. No. That’s … not what Easter is. At all. That sounds more like a bizarro version of the Ascension, which is celebrated 40 days after Easter Sunday. Also, Christians do definitely believe that Christ died. It’s right there in both the Apostles’ Creed (“was crucified, died, and was buried”) and the Nicene Creed (“he suffered death and was buried”).
For NPR’s future reference, Easter Sunday is the day when Christians celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. After he rose, Jesus spent 40 days among his closest followers (and was seen by a few others) walking around, talking, and even eating, despite having definitely died previously. At the end of the 40 days, Christians believe that he ascended into Heaven, body, soul, and divinity.
Come on, NPR. You had roughly 1,988 years to get this right. You had one job! How did this make it past both author and editor?
And you turned me into a liar.
(h/t Rod Dreher)
