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(OPINION) Who is listening?

Preachers face that question every weekend, and it’s vital for strategizing by religious organizations — or should be. The Religion Guy has lately been pondering a long-running religion-beat puzzle that possibly warrants some analytical articles, or at least reflection on the part of journalists.

Why do U.S. power-brokers, and journalists themselves, pay little or no heed to ardent pronouncements by the World Council of Churches and the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA? After all, the WCC says it represents 352 church bodies in 120 countries that encompass 580 million Christians. The NCC reports its 37 American member bodies include more than 30 million members in 100,000 congregations.

Last year, a Religion Guy Memo promoted media attention to the WCC’s upcoming Global Assembly in Germany at the start of its 75th anniversary year.

Journalists could not have asked for a stronger news peg. Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine was proceeding with hotly disputed blessings from the Moscow leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church, by far the WCC’s largest member body, which created a vast humanitarian crisis for fellow Christians in Ukraine.

(That memo put special focus on the plight facing Metropolitan Hilarion, the Moscow patriarchate’s well-known ecumenical officer and foreign envoy. There were signals that his views on the invasion were quite different than those of Patriarch Kirill, and he was soon abruptly “released from his duties” and reassigned to Hungary. Follow-up, anyone?)

The September assembly stated that it “denounces this illegal and unjustifiable war” and (without naming Russian Orthodoxy) that delegates “reject any misuse of religious language and authority to justify armed aggression.” The meeting also called for “an immediate ceasefire” and “negotiations to secure a sustainable peace” — though at the time some critics figured that stance would undercut Ukraine’s position.

The situation facing the WCC and its Orthodox members surely counted as news, and still does. Meanwhile, it’s important to remember that Orthodox views on doctrine, worship and moral theology are much more conservative than the mainline Protestant norm in the WCC. (In America, the Orthodox are quite divided when it comes to working with, or even abandoning, the WCC and NCC.)

Religious news outlets posted items about that WCC assembly, but The Guy does not recall any coverage in the general American media. Perhaps Europe was different.

In late June, the newly-chosen Central Committee that governs the WCC between assemblies met in Geneva and issued policy statements on the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, environmental damage from climate change and from the Ukraine war, U.S. suspension of food aid in Ethiopia, Syriac and Assyrian genocide, and situations of conflict in Armenia, Kosovo and Sudan. Once again, the mainstream media took no notice.

As for the NCC, will reporters flock to its annual Christian Unity Gathering in Nashville October 10-12? And why did the media show no interest the past two months when the organization announced that it “vehemently opposes” the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to outlaw consideration of race in choosing among college applicants, as sought by Asian American groups. The NCC considered such thinking “shameful, and downright immoral.” (Nothing was said about the court’s two rulings addressing religious liberty.)

The NCC leaders also:

* Criticized the “toxic” debt-ceiling negotiations between President Joe Biden and House Republicans, saying the final agreement “falls short” of what’s required to aid the needy and also weakens the IRS’ “ability to hold wealthy people who defraud the system accountable.”

* Pressed member congregations and local, state and federal government for “urgent, decisive, and deliberate action” against “the threat of easy access to guns,” including “a ban on assault weapons and other weapons of war that have infiltrated our communities,” in order to “end the massacres.”

* Said it was “deeply concerned” over a “disturbing and alarming trend” of book bans justified by protection of children but mostly targeting “authors from marginalized communities.”

* Joined a March interfaith letter urging Biden to appoint by Juneteenth a national commission to formulate proposed reparations for African Americans, along lines of the discussion currently roiling California.

Speaking of race, “the anti-Black culture of the United States” was the theme when Black theologian Jennifer Leath addressed a gathering of North American delegates at the June WCC meeting. In her view, “religious freedom” was “a pretense on which European settlers colonized Turtle Island” (Indigenous activists’ label for North America, drawn from creation myths) in their “obsessive and overwhelming pursuit of capitalist enterprise.”

At a time of considerable U.S. tension over race, polls disagree on public attitudes over race-based college admissions. Regarding reparations, Pew Research reports opposition by 68% of U.S. adults, including majorities among Hispanics, all age groups, all education levels, all income categories and 49% of Democrats overall — but with 77% Black support. (By comparison, Gallup found 59% of Americans overall supported the epochal 1964 Civil Rights Act despite 66% opposition among White southerners.)

That brings us to an explanation for the previously mentioned puzzle on the media vacuum. Do journalists figure WCC and NCC statements are internal attempts by leaders to reshape what American churches think, and do not tell outside observers what ordinary churchgoers actually do think?

Then again, the U.S. mainline and liberal Protestant denominations that have held such influence in the WCC and NCC suffered unprecedented, long-running and steady membership declines, which naturally affects news judgment. Schisms haven’t helped. Moreover, polls indicate their grassroots members are rather divided politically — often clergy/leaders vs. laity — while conservative churches are a far more unified force.

As for the international issues, American audiences are notoriously uninterested, and foreign coverage is difficult and costly for media companies in this age of red ink in many newsrooms.

Or is the problem that continual and heavy media interest in the Religious Right (capital letters) has overshadowed the words and deeds of the various religious lefts (no capital letters)?

Perhaps the explanation is found in the the prescient 1972 classic “Why Conservative Churches Are Growing” by Dean Kelley, who directed NCC religious liberty efforts. His point, oft misunderstood, was not that liberal political activism weakened the Protestant mainline but that politics was distracting churches from ministry focusing on basic meaning-of-life matters that are their primary function. (What does that tell 21st century evangelical activist preachers?)

Then there’s the scattershot problem. Perhaps church councils should focus hard on one or two major moral problems, in contrast with the 13 issues above that the WCC and NCC addressed in recent weeks.

Related: Do pronouncements give evidence that they result from thoughtful religious reflection rather than writers’ prior political commitments, and are a variety of pro-and-con Christian viewpoints considered when policies are formulated?

Or some combination of these and other factors?

Reporters seeking a news angle on all this might check the dates and cities for the summer visit to U.S. member churches and United Nations headquarters by WCC General Secretary Jerry Pillay, a Presbyterian theologian from South Africa. Communications Director Marianne Ejdersten is at mej@wcc-coe.org, or office media@wcc-coe.org or Geneva, Switzerland phone 41-22-791-61-11.

The NCC communications post is vacant, but those interested in covering the October gathering can contact Washington, D.C., headquarters at info@nationalcouncilofchurches.us or 202–544–2350.

Richard Ostling is a former religion reporter for The Associated Press and a former correspondent for TIME Magazine. He’s also worked in broadcast TV and radio journalism covering religion and received a lifetime achievement award from Religion News Association. This piece first appeared at GetReligion.org.