It’s rare that I allow coverage of a religious organization. It’s not that I think religious organizations are not newsworthy; I just don’t want Pendletonian Times to become a platform for religious propaganda.
It’s hard. On the one hand, I want to give the church that I attend a column. But if I did that, then I would have to open these pages to every church or religious group in town. I would be responsible for disseminating religious teachings that are contrary to the ones I hold — this would jeopardize my soul, according to my beliefs.
Another note: the United States Constitution guarantees freedom of religion just like it guarantees press freedom — I get a lot of mileage out of the First Amendment! So, I respect everybody else’s right to free religious expression and free expression of ideas (even though I’m picky about what I publish) and I expect the same!
Sometimes though, I come across what is commonly known as a cult. I don’t really like that word in print. It’s negatively perceived, even though it sometimes has a positive meaning. Take the cult of Our Lady of Lourdes, for example. It’s a Catholic cult, but the definition of cult given by CatholicCulture.org is “a definite form of worship or of religious observance.” Nothing nefarious about that.
But I’m not talking about those kinds of cults; I’m talking about destructive cults, as described by John Gordon Clark when he spoke to Congress in 1977. You know the ones I mean, the ones with totalitarian systems of government and emphasis on money making.
I’ve noticed that when you find totalitarian systems of governance in a religious system combined with excessive emphasis on money, you’ll find indications of unethical, unlawful or illegal activities along with them. When you cross that line, you become very newsworthy!
I don’t go looking for destructive cults to write about. But sometimes, members of the community reach out and tell you to look under some rocks and see what you find! That happened in the newsroom this week.