Just Say No: The Four-Letter Word Religion Writers Really Want To Avoid

 

Weekend Plug-in 🔌

Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” features analysis, fact checking and top headlines from the world of faith. Subscribe now to get this newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr. at therossnews@gmail.com.

BETHESDA, Md. — “Don’t Call It a Cult.”

That was the title of one of the more intriguing sessions at last week’s Religion News Association annual meeting, held at a Washington, D.C.-area hotel.

Moderated by independent audio journalist Sarah Ventre, the panel featured Anuttama Dasa, global communications director for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness; Melissa Weisz, a podcaster who grew up in a Hasidic Jewish community; and Shirlee Draper, who was born and raised within a polygamous sect known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

READ: #RNA2022: Nation's Religion Writers Convene — In Person — For Annual Conference

“The goal was to explore the ways in which we report on marginalized religious communities, particularly those that are often referred to as ‘cults,’” said Ventre, who hosted the award-winning 2020 podcast ”Unfinished: Short Creek,” about the fundamentalist Mormon community where Draper grew up on the Utah-Arizona border.

"I wanted to unpack the responsibilities we have both to our audience and to our sources,” the moderator added, “and examine the ways in which our reporting affects the communities we report on long after we publish.”

“Show, don’t tell” is a journalistic adage.

This session reinforced the importance of describing a specific pattern of abusive or manipulative behavior rather than resorting to more generalized terms like “cult” or “brainwashed.”

That’s not to say sources can’t describe their own experience as having escaped from a cult. Nor do journalists have to be completely relativist: They have a responsibility, to the extent possible, to evaluate and assess people’s — and leaders’ — accounts. Often, groups do have systemic ways of enabling abusers and abusive behavior, and journalists can identify that where they can verify it.

But news organizations need to be careful.

Just this week, Texas Monthly published an in-depth piece on an East Texas church the magazine described as “an insular fundamentalist religious group that some consider a cult.” The reporting is strong, but I’m not certain the cult reference is necessary.

I was curious, so I checked my own archive to see when I’ve used the term “cult”: It came up in a 2018 Religion News Service story I wrote on the 25th anniversary of David Koresh and 75 Branch Davidian followers dying in a firestorm near Waco, Texas. But the mentions were in a quote and a book title.

A new entry in the Associated Press’ updated religion stylebook seems appropriate:

cult A loaded term to be used with caution.

Or even better, as a Godbeat friend put it, “a whole lot of caution.”

“The only time I use it is when quoting someone who uses it or with a caveat along the lines of, ‘a term most scholars who study religion reject for its tone of judgment,’” said Kimberly Winston, a veteran religion journalist who freelances for publications including ReligionUnplugged.com. “To me, it carries the potential to inflict pain on people within the group being called a cult, and that’s something I try my best to avoid.”

Kelsey Dallas, who covers religion for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, agreed: “The issue with the word ‘cult’ is that it comes with a strong negative connotation. By using it, reporters risk drowning out the nuance within the stories people have to tell about their experiences in controversial faith groups. The panelists at RNA told us that they want the freedom to share good memories as well as the bad ones.”

For the record, the F-word (fundamentalist) also can be misused in news reporting. Here is AP’s stylebook guidance on that term:

fundamentalist The word gained usage in an early-20th century fundamentalist-modernist controversy within Protestantism. In recent years, however, fundamentalist has to a large extent taken on pejorative connotations except when applied to groups that stress strict, literal interpretations of Scripture and separation from other Christians.

In general, do not use fundamentalist unless a group applies the word to itself.

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. ‘Running from the evil that's chasing me’: Ukrainian refugee in Nashville details escape from war: “Ellina Lesnik, a church planter from Kyiv, takes her three young daughters on a difficult journey to Tennessee, leaving behind her husband, her mom and her sister.”

Brad Schmitt reports this compelling story — with an amazing lede — for The Tennessean.

2. Delegates view Indigenous artifacts at Vatican with mix of awe and anger: “As they walked through a private display that had been prepared for them in the Vatican Museums on Tuesday, dozens of Indigenous delegates from Canada saw beautiful pieces of history from their home territories: Inuit carvings, a Haudenosaunee pipe given to Pope John Paul II in 1980, an 1831 wampum belt, Cree embroidered gloves and a Gwich’in beaded tunic.”

The Globe and Mail’s Tavia Grant, Willow Fiddler and Eric Reguly report on the mixed emotions of First Nations representatives who were in Rome for “a historic series of talks with Pope Francis about the legacy of Canada’s church-run residential school system.”

Concerning that news, Nicole Winfield of The Associated Press reports the latest:

Pope Francis on Friday made a historic apology to Indigenous Peoples for the “deplorable” abuses they suffered in Canada’s Catholic-run residential schools and said he hoped to visit Canada in late July to deliver the apology in person to survivors of the church’s misguided missionary zeal.

Read Weekend Plug-in’s past coverage of this big story.

3. Hillsong, once a leader of Christian cool, loses footing in America: “Amid a series of crises, including the resignation of its leader (Brian Houston), the evangelical powerhouse has shed more than half its American churches in just a few weeks,” the New York Times’ Ruth Graham reports.

Graham previously wrote a front-page story (highlighted here at Plug-in) on ”The rise and fall of Carl Lentz, the celebrity pastor of Hillsong Church.”

More Top Reads

• Duke University divided over Israel’s treatment of Palestinians — and antisemitism (by Mark I. Pinsky, Religion News Service)

• A final song, a familiar end (by Cheryl Mann Bacon, Christian Chronicle)

• A Jan. 6 pastor divides his Tennessee community with increasingly extremist views (by Annie Gowen, Washington Post)

• Americans distrust religious objectors. But they don’t want them fired (by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News)

• Texas to review prayer, touch requests in executions by case (by Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press)

• Interfaith rally supports Ketanji Brown Jackson in front of Supreme Court (by Adelle M. Banks, RNS)

• Where breaking the Ramadan fast includes caribou (by Victoria Petersen, New York Times)

Cara Quinn wants Christians to get to know the mothers of their faith (by Emily McFarlan Miller, RNS)

• Think piece: Where have all the popular spiritual leaders gone? And what’s filling the void? (by Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun)

• Think piece: The rise of the ‘Umms’ (by Mike Moore, Christianity Today)

• Think piece: We want ‘God’ (by Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal)

Inside The Godbeat: Behind The Bylines

The Religion News Association has a new executive director: Christine DiPasquale.

DiPasquale, who enjoyed a two-decade career as a freelance religion journalist, was appointed on an interim basis this past October. Now, the RNA board has made her leadership role permanent, President Betsy Shirley announced at last week’s annual meeting.

DiPasquale succeeds COO Tiffany McCallen, who left after more than 21 years with RNA and its sister organizations.

• The Russian Christians boldly issuing anti-war appeals (April L. French and Mark R. Elliott)

• Christian university, Faulkner, awarded $4.25 million in grants to support Black students (by Calvin Cockrell)

• Pope Francis tells Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, ‘Wars are always unjust’ (by Richard Ostling)

• The Samaritan woman and her encounter with Jesus (by Michael Metzger)

• Why the future of the world’s largest religion is female — and African (by Gina Zurio)

• As Black and Latino churches grow, Southern Baptists look to heal racial divides (Terry Mattingly)

The Final Plug

Here’s a fun story to end this week’s column, and it’s no April Fools’ Day joke.

“A rising TikTok star from a Mennonite community in Mexico that once shunned rubber tires and electricity is embracing technology to give a glimpse of her life through social media,” Herika Martinez reports for Agence France-Presse.

Marcela Enns, 30, is known on social media as “Menonita Mexicana” — the Mexican Mennonite.

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

Bobby Ross Jr. is a columnist for ReligionUnplugged.com and editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 15 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.

 
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