November 06, 2006
About Ted Haggard; Part I
My post below was about how America, in general, is growing more skeptical about spiritual matters. The unspeakably sad news about what Ted Haggard has done to his family, his remarkable career and his influence will likely amplify another trend that has been in place for several decades now—growing cynicism.
I only have two observations about the whole icky thing. The first is rather pedantic and trivial, but since when has that ever deterred me. . .
I couldn't help but notice that when the news first broke a few days ago, practically all of the headlines and news reports in the MSM referred to Ted Haggard as an "Evangelist."
"Evangelist Steps Down Amid Allegations of blah blah. . ." etc. Of course, there were several other descriptors that were much more accuarate. Why not "Pastor," or Megachurch Pastor," or "Church Leader?"
My first thought was that liberal headlines writers, reports and editors had originally wanted to use the term "televangelist" because it has been turned into a codeword for "evil hypocrite." But of course, Ted Haggard doesn't have a national television program so they had to drop the "tele" part. But then I remembered "Hanlon's Razor," an axiom which states "Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence."
That's when it dawned on me. . . The news reports were about Haggard stepping down as head of the NAE—the National Association of Evangelicals. These reporters (like a few Christians I've heard) didn't know the difference between the meanings of the terms evangelical and evangelistic!
Thus they reasoned, "If this guy is the head of a bunch of 'evangelicals,' then he's an evangelist!"
Don't ever assume that reporters assigned to report on religion know anything about the subject or are inclined to learn.