Media outlets need to hire journalists who have been to church
On the benefits of cultural literacy.
You’ve probably seen the video of Donald Trump’s Saturday night rally, where he speaks softly over music while his fans point their fingers into the air. It generated a lot of confusion online:
But anybody who has been in a certain kind of church environment knew exactly what they were seeing as soon as they saw it. I had flashbacks to my teen years:
In some churches, an altar call happens near the end of the service — a time when the pastor or preacher gives a final “come to Jesus”1 message, speaking often over music, as members of the congregation come forward and bow their heads, or raise their hands as a kind of sign that they’re open to receiving the Holy Spirit in their lives. As soon as I clicked on the video, I felt the altar callness of what Trump was doing immediately: The form — but not the content — was so precise, it was kind of scary. It was clearly an effort to bind Trump ever more closely to his evangelical base, and it probably worked. He was speaking their language.
Scary, but not alien: Millions of Americans have seen or participated in altar calls. But the Twitter commentariat found the whole thing utterly mystifying. A lot of observers pointed out the music’s similarity to a song popular among QAnon folks, and I don’t doubt that played into things, but the moment wasn’t aimed just at Q fans. It was broader than that. It was an altar call.
And honestly, it’s a bit problematic that so many smart folks didn’t know that.
A couple of points here:
* If it’s a problem that so much of the country doesn’t trust or pay attention to factual sources of information, part of the challenge might be that our best sources of information seem so unfamiliar — and uninterested, frankly — with how their lives look and feel, except as an occasional source of near-anthropological interest. There are some prominent journalists who are clearly deeply rooted in the language of America’s evangelical churches,2 but mostly … they aren’t.
* If those outlets are going to hire those kinds of journalists, their audiences probably have to want it. And given all the mockery of “Ohio diner” stories from the left in recent years, I’m not sure that the people who read the New York Times and Washington Post really do want to understand their neighbors in red states and altar call churches, unless the stories rather explicitly state what those readers know, which is that the red state people are bad.
Listen: Trump’s effort to conflate church with his campaign rallies is a bad development. There’s no question about that. But Americans should understand what’s happening here. It’s not clear that the folks in charge of informing them are prepared to help them do so.
Top o’ the (Christian) pops
Speaking of which, it’s the 25th anniversary of Rich Mullins’ death. Do you know who he is? The people I grew up with did.
Literally!
Ruth Graham at the New York Times might be the best.
I’m old, I know, but anyone who watched one of Billy Graham’s crusades would understand, even if they aren’t churchgoers now.