ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608100004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: The Back Pew
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
One of the nicest things about human beings is our ability to learn and grow. It's one of the things that makes us not only tolerable, but pleasant to be around.
I often tell people that one of the joys of a life in journalism is that it is like going to school every day - except, no tests. Journalists get to meet new people all the time. And most of them are interesting, intelligent, likeable, and willing to share what they know with us - and with our readers.
In a meeting just last week, a co-worker pointed out again how astonishing it is that people are so willing to open up, often about the most intimate details of their lives, to share a bit of themselves with the community around them.
Sometimes we journalists learn some things that make a real difference in our personal lives. The courage of someone fighting disease or overcoming poverty or leaving a legacy of good even after their death.
Usually the lessons aren't quite that dramatic, and they don't always come in face-to-face interviews with subjects for stories.
Recently, for instance, I read a new book, "Active Faith," by Christian Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed. If I hadn't needed to read it for work, I probably would never have picked it up and read, among other things, Reed's defense of his organization's name.
The name had always seemed presumptuous to me - as if attempting to claim that all its positions were being touted as THE Christian positions on social and political issues. Because I didn't agree with some of the positions, I resented that.
But Reed reminded me that relatively few Christians objected to Martin Luther King's naming his organization the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. And nobody would assert that the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which dates back even farther, is "arrogant" or "exclusionary" for its use of the name of its members' faith.
Only one paragraph in Reed's 300-page book was devoted to the subject of the name, but it pulled me up short.
It reminded me that I don't have an exclusive hold on all Truth, and that perhaps I ought to stop worrying about the Christian Coalition's name - though I may still disagree with some of its positions.
I certainly would not contend that its members are NOT Christians. The Christian faith is made up of countless denominations and sects that claim the name, and people belonging to many of them also belong to the Christian Coalition.
Its name need not imply that all its members believe that people who disagree with them may not also be Christians worthy of the name.
Actually, my root problem may be that in front of the group's actual name - Christian Coalition - I tend to add the word "The." Note the capital "T."
When writing about the organization, it is often called by supporters and detractors as "the Christian Coalition" - which may be read to imply that it is "the only" coalition of Christians in the country, or "the only True" coalition of Christians. Perhaps that's the way its founders intended for its title to be read, though Reed denies that.
But that really isn't what its title is. I should read it, "a" Christian Coalition. That certainly shouldn't be objectionable to Christians who don't agree with its policies. Oh, we can still argue - as we do among our sects and denominations - whether it is "really" Christian or not, but most of us would agree that it is a coalition of Christians.
Somebody else could - perhaps should - start an organization called "Another Christian Coalition." Maybe the National Council of Churches - as far to the left in the theological and political spectrum as Christian Coalition is to the right - could consider a name change.
If they did, neither I nor Christian Coalition should squawk about it. The National Council of Churches certainly is another coalition of Christians, who just happen to have a different set of priorities from the organization based in Chesapeake.
A name can mean a lot, and Christian Coalition didn't chose its label without serious thought as to its meaning and implications. But I should be careful not to attach baggage to the name, especially when that choice is wholly mine.
It's just another journalistic lesson I'm happy to learn.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB