Comments on: Retire the Chimps! Help the Media Find the “Real” Evangelicals!

By: 7oob

7oob — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:01:18 +0000

mel gibson’s passion…

I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

IM…I’m going to play a little devil’s advocate here as I was one who spent a few years in the media.

We don’t like success stories unless someone crawled back from being unjustly hurt by a rich white guy.

We don’t like people helping others; blood and sperm get more ratings.

If we can’t categorize you in one sentence with a catchy buzzword then the audience may tune out after a lengthy description of who you really are and no audience means no money.

If you cry, it had better be on Oprah or with Katie Couric and it better be because you were just raped, stabbed, robbed, treated with intolerance by someone or you’ve just lost a ton of weight with the new Richard Simmons diet.

That’s why I went back to flying airplanes for a living. I couldn’t do the above anymore. The human interest stories were “nice” but I was told my stories needed to grab the audiences attention in the first sentence (radio) or I’d lose them. (I was let go then hired back…then I quit.)

I would offer up some of the unsung heroes who work in the local rescue missions. Ours in Redding has a decent success rate; 60% for men, 70% for women. Those (the unsung workers) are among the people who need to be followed every day to see how Christianity works. The struggles of real life combined with the reliance on Jesus Christ to help them through the real life.

Eric…lurker…redding

By: Irenicum

Irenicum — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for the list. I especially appreciate Redeemer being included. I just joined an OPC that’s not very… well, OPC. It’s amazingly welcoming and focused outwardly. It’s also a motley crew of people who are all over the place. Theologically, we’re all on the same page basically, but politically there’s actual variety. Truly amazing, and amazingly refeshing. But I digress, what are your thoughts on the PDI/Sovereign Grace folks? If I lived near one, that’d be where I would be involved. I also love that John Piper has joined the fray of racial reconciliation. It’s nice to see some in orthodoxy “getting” social issues. Oh, to parrot what the previous poster said, quiet faithful success isn’t sexy. The extremes are. We should be more realistic about what the world is going to focus on. But hey, I’m a Calvinist, whatya expect!

By: iMonk

iMonk — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

There is a lot to like about PDI.I certainly endorse them.
I am concerned that when CJ stepped down, he named his successor. Guess the congregationalist in me wanted to see something else done rather than go the typical “Father-son” route of so many independent churches.
CJ is hanging around with the culture warrior folks. I hope he remembers what the cross centered life was all about.

By: Bene Diction

Bene Diction — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Is this question limited to USA evangelical stories?
In the real world…

By: Smith Lilley

Smith Lilley — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Mission Mississippi is a great organization that seeks to build relationships across racial and denominational lines in MS. Sunday morning may still be the most segregated time in America each week, but Mission Mississippi is diong its part to change that.

http://www.missionmississippi.org

By: iMonk

iMonk — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Anywhere is fine. Obviously, the American media has its chimp complex (no insult meant to chimps) and the BBC has theirs, etc.

By: Travis Prinzi

Travis Prinzi — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

How ’bout Derek Webb for not hugely popular, but with a lot of great stuff to say about the church and culture? I’d love to see an interview done with him.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Greetings from the zoo. I’m one of the chimps — TV news anchor (first time poster). Actually, I hope I’m helping to de-chimp the chimps with whom I work, helping them, hopefully, to “get it” when they gaze upon an actual evangelical in the wild.

I’m on the air as we speak — commercial breaks can be productive times — but I had to jump in here. Hey, there’s room for hope. Don’t give in too quickly to cynicism about the news biz Eric. You overstate your case. I know many reporters who are willing to learn, to listen, to try to discover what we Bible-lovers are all about. (A few of them have joined me for an in-house Bible study.) Yes, you and Michael are all too correct about the business in general — vast ignorance; and if-it-bleeds-it-leads — but we, and many others, have done stories on people of faith (I know I have) and on ministries that are having an impact. So…pray for us.

Coverage-wise, I’d love to see stuff on the small, evangelical, Reformed (formerly Mennonite) denomination I’m in, the Bible Fellowship Church — an association of about 60 churches in the northeast. Passion for the Gospel, hard-working folk. Also, I’m a big fan of Piper, Keller, and the PDI/Sov. Grace folk.

By: brandon

brandon — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Young Life – I see in very few areas of Christianity a more pure form of relational and relevant ministry without sacrificing the truth of the gospel. A lot of people who don’t fully understand the ministry or perhaps had a bad encounter at some time tend to slander young life perhaps more than it deserves. Are you familiar with YL?