Christianity and the media

You may know that the way Christians- in fact, people with any strong faith- are often portrayed in the media can really annoy me. At worst, they're dangerous "fundamentalists;" and often different groups may not be distinguished, so that some of the weirder extremist's like those who refuse medical treatment and declare the world will end tomorrow because of gay people or abortions are lumped together with mainstream evangelicals like me. At best, they're usually Vicar of Dibley-esque well-meaning, harmless, but bumbling idiots. The first group are deplored, and declared to be a danger to society, while the second are mocked and declared irrelevant to modern life.

I worry that these stereotypes have an impact on the way people view Christians they see around them. That person preaching in the street- is he a dangerous radical, or a well meaning laughing-stock? In either case, they're unlikely to want to listen to what he has to say, or consider seriously what it might mean for them. And it can poison attitudes towards even good practice by churches- is the local church really offering to clear gardens just because they're trying to make a good impact on the community, or is there an darker motive?

It doesn't help when churches aren't completely honest about what they're doing- most people can tell that if they're being asked a questionnaire about their beliefs, it's not because the church is actually interested (mostly) but because the church wants them to join (that's how many people see it). If you're not careful, an opportunity to invite people to explore what faith is, like the Alpha course, can be seen by cynical members of the public- ie, most- to be just a recruitment and brainwashing drive. Yes, we hope people who've been on the course will want to join the church, but if they don't, or if they don't want to join in with any of the activities on the course we shouldn't force them.

Perhaps some of the fault is the church's. We've allowed this negative portrayal to go unchallenged in many cases, and failed to tell the positive stories well. For every one positive story of something a church is doing that is told, there must be ten of children abused by priests or similar negative stories that are reported. Some of that is just the news's bias towards reporting the sensationalist and the negative, but perhaps it's not entirely their fault. Yes, these things happen, as they do in all sections of the community. But there are many positive things too, and perhaps we need to get better at telling them- and less afraid of saying that they are good.

But if there's one thing I want my friends who come across the negative perceptions of Christianity to know, it's that we're not all like that. It's that the gospel, much as it's presented otherwise, is a message of unconditional love for everyone, of hope for the downtrodden freedom for those imprisoned by themselves or what they've done. It's not some cold intellectual argument or over-enthusiastic emotional response. I'm no perfect advert for Christianity, I would be the first to admit, but that's the point. No one is. The church is made up of real people, broken people, hurting people. The difference is that we know that God's love is bigger than our problems, and trust that he can deal with them.