No topics confound media with greater regularity than firearms and Christianity.
To put it plainly, many commentators and reporters have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to either of these subjects.
We were reminded earlier this month of the press’ general ignorance of the Second Amendment and firearm-related issues following a politically motivated assassination attempt on a Republican member of Congress.
And we’re reminded now of media’s general illiteracy regarding Christianity following the publication of a New Yorker article titled, “How A. E. Housman Invented Englishness.”
In a lengthy and meticulously edited piece examining the works and influences of the poet Houseman, the author, former New Yorker deputy editor Charles McGrath, inadvertently revealed his ignorance of a well-known Bible verse.
One particular poem in Housman’s “A Shropshire Lad,” McGrath wrote, included a “strange” line recommending, “plucking out your eye and cutting off your hand or foot if it offends you.”
Strange? There’s nothing strange about that line. It is a clear and obvious reference to Matthew 18:9, which reads: “And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee having one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.”
McGrath shouldn’t feel too badly about missing the reference. His mistake is par for the course for an industry whose coverage of the world’s largest religion has long been lacking.
In 2005, for example, the New York Times had a particularly embarrassing moment when it referred to the late St. Pope John Paul II’s papal ferula as a “crow’s ear.”
First, the paper clearly meant to write crozier. There’s no such thing as a “crow’s ear” in Roman Catholicism, or any other Christian denomination for that matter. Secondly, a crozier is the staff carried by Catholic bishops. It looks like a shepherd’s crook. The staff carried by the pope is topped by a crucifix. The Times has yet to correct this mistake.
There’s much more where this came from, as the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway has documented.
In 2011, the Times and the Associated Press attributed authorship of a verse from Hebrews to the poet William Butler Yeats. Just to be clear, the line quoted by the Times and others (“Be not inhospitable to strangers / Lest they be angels in disguise”) is clear homage to Hebrews 13:2, which reads, “And hospitality do not forget; for by this some, being not aware of it, have entertained angels.”
In 2013, the Times misreported that Easter is the celebration of Christ’s ascension into heaven. It isn’t. It celebrates his resurrection from the dead, after which Christians believe he spent forty more days on earth before his ascension. In 2014, the Times reported that St. Patrick is known best for banishing slaves from Ireland. He is not. The legend holds that Patrick, a former slave in Ireland, banished snakes from the island. The Times misreported that same year that many Christians believe Christ’s body is buried at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. No self-professed Christian believes that Christ is buried there, let alone anywhere else on Earth.
Years later, during the 2016 GOP presidential primary, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker did herself no favors when she responded to a remark from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
The senator said in a clear appeal to evangelical voters, “If we awaken and energize the body of Christ – if Christians and people of faith come out and vote our values – we will win and we will turn the country around.”
Cruz did not literally mean a human body when he referred to the “body of Christ.” Rather, this is a fairly common way to refer to the community of faithful. This apparently went over Parker’s head.
“I don’t know anyone who takes their religion seriously who would think that Jesus should rise from the grave and resurrect himself to serve Ted Cruz,” she said during a panel discussion on CNN.
Years later, in 2017, the Huffington Post revealed it had no understanding of what Christians believe regarding one’s personal relationship with God or what happens when a person rejects His grace.
You get the picture.
As big as McGrath’s blunder was this week, it’s sort of a drop in the ocean. At this point, there’s practically a hall of fame for faith-related media missteps, and McGrath is merely the latest inductee.
