Rolling Stone Smear Shows Yet Again That Elite Journalists Just Don’t Get Religion

Readers of a certain age will recall a sign that was placed on the wall next to the cash registers at Shakey’s Pizza Parlors many years ago. “We Have An Agreement With the Bank — We Don’t Cash Checks and They Don’t Make Pizzas.”

Rolling Stone’s journalists published a story about religious faith that was written by two Rolling Stone journalists.

That’s not just my opinion, speaking as a veteran Washington journalist who also happens to have a deep faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior. I know a great deal about both journalism and Christianity, and that’s why I cringed when I read “SCOTUS Justices ‘Prayed With’ Her — Then Cited Her Bosses to End Roe.”

Dean Baquet is the executive editor of the New York Times. He didn’t know how accurate he was when he told NPR, on Dec. 8, 2016, about how the elite media in this nation don’t get why most Americans claim they are religious.

Baquet stated that Washington-based media powerhouses and those based in New York don’t get religion.

Baquet said that the problem was elite journalists and editors’ inability to accurately report on Christianity. Inaccurate reporting can lead to serious injury, especially when it involves the Supreme Court.

Rolling Stone claims that there is a conflict of interest among conservative justices. They prayed in private chambers on the Supreme Court grounds with someone who is connected to an organization that often argues cases before our most revered court.

Let’s begin with the most obvious inaccuracies in the Rolling Stone piece regarding religion. Let’s then address the total irresponsibility of this recklessly careless and dangerously inept apologue.

The problem lies in the way the authors describe prayer: Prayer can be a powerful communication tool in the evangelical tradition. The speaker assumes the divine is speaking and disagreeing is sin. ”

My whole life I have been a member in good standing of evangelical and Presbyterian churches. I am now slowly working online to get my MA in apologetics at one of America’s most respected evangelical seminaries.

But, in all of my years and studies, I have never heard an evangelical preacher or professor refer to prayer as the “mantle God” that is assumed through prayer.

It has never been said that an offered prayer is sinful.

I am referring to the fact, that if a Southern Baptist congregation sang “Just As I Am”, then it would be a grave offense to disagree with it.

I’m not an expert on everything. Here is the definition of prayer from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Prayer is spiritual communication between God, man, and one another. Prayer is two-way communication between man and God.

It took me 12 seconds to search Google for the definition of prayer from the most famous evangelical group in history.

It is clear that the Rolling Stones’ idea of prayer does not reflect the truth. The fact that God alone has the “mantle of the divine”

These authors don’t spend the time to learn what evangelicals believe about praying. Why should they be concerned that these same authors see a problem with Supreme Court justices doing it together?

Here lies the danger. Illiterate reporting can cause injury or death.

Given the intensity of emotion and violence prompted by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that ended Roe v Wade‘s bloody 49-year tenure — a decision the Rolling Stone article all but declares resulted from that problematic prayer with the justices — it comes as no surprise that security guards were needed for days afterward on the 2nd Street NE “Ministry Row” where multiple evangelical legal, political, and outreach groups maintain offices.

Much more remains to be said about this Rolling Stone piece, which is a thinly veiled attempt to smear pro-life evangelicals, so stay tuned.