Faith, Unbelief and the Media<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
A number of studies have been conducted over the years demonstrating that those in the mainstream media tend to be very much of the left when it comes to politics, and very secular when it comes to matters of belief. Today the MSM is overwhelmingly dominated by those of the secular left.
 
As an earlier example, bac<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />k in 1986 Lichter, Rothman and Lichter wrote a book entitled The Media Elite. Based on a ten-year study by several universities, it found that the media elite are largely left of centre in politics and ideology, and they nowhere near reflect mainstream American opinions, beliefs or values.
 
Or consider a more recent example. You may recall the story that appeared last year about the incredible bias of the BBC. A leaked record of an "impartiality summit'" called by BBC chairman Michael Grade revealed that the British broadcaster is dominated by leftists who regularly show their disdain toward traditional British values. Executives at the BBC admitted that it is dominated by homosexuals and people from ethnic minorities. Morover, it is anti-American, and more interested in placating the feelings of Muslims than Christians.
 
Such bias has not come about simply by accident. Around 80 years ago the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci said the most important mission for socialism was to 'capture the culture'. He spoke of the "long mach through the institutions" by which he meant, the way to bring about a victory for socialism was to capture the institutions of power and influence, such as the universities, the media, the courts, and even the churches.
 
Instead of violent revolution from without, a gradual takeover from within was what Gramsci had in mind. And his strategy worked, big time. Many of us radicals in the 60s counter culture did just what he suggested. We (yes, I used to be one of them) took classes in journalism so we could take over the media. We took classes in political science so we could capture the political arena, and so on.
 
Just a few short decades after the cultural revolution, most of the institutions of power and influence were heavily dominated by secular leftists. And that is the situation we find ourselves in today. Thus it is not surprising that the MSM today dishes up a regular diet of secularist, leftist pap.
 
This helps, in part, to explain why the West as a whole is in such strife today. The West used to be overwhelmingly Christian. Then it progressed, or rather regressed, into being post-Christian. Now it has taken a clear turn toward being decidedly anti-Christian. The war against biblical Christianity is hotting up big time.
 
There are many indicators of such an anti-Christian tilt. Let me offer just one. I was recently checking out what was hot reading at a large bookstore in town. My discovery was quite disturbing. These are the top five non-fiction books at Reader's Feast Bookstore in Melbourne (as of Friday June 8, 2007):
 
1. God is Not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens.
2. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.
3. Romulus, My Father by Raimond Gaita.
4. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
5. Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam by Michel Onfray.
 
Notice what is going on here: three of the top five works of non-fiction are books by militant atheists, and one is by a New Age fruit loop. If that is what we are mainly soaking up in Melbourne, then we are in deeper trouble than I had thought. And this would be representative of much of the Western world.
 
Now much of the reason for this heavy proliferation of anti-Christian reading is simply because the media, as mentioned, is largely anti-Christian, and is quite happy to promote unbelief, flog atheistic titles, and generally push the radical secularist agenda.
 
Thus the media has much to answer for in this regard. But what am I suggesting? That they should never promote atheists and their works? No. But a bit of equal time would at least be appropriate. It would be nice if theists featured as prominently as the anti-theists do in many of our major media outlets.
 
When a Richard Dawkins or a John Pilger or a Michael Moore comes waltzing into town, the media goes all weak in the knees, and features them everywhere, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. But if a leading Christian intellectual arrives down under, he or she tends to simply be ignored by the MSM.
 
And it would be nice if the bookstores also were a bit more even handed. For example, at the bookstore mentioned above, I had previously mentioned to the staff there that a very good rebuttal of The God Delusion, also written by an Oxford colleague of Dawkins, and who used to be an atheist himself, would be good to have available. They got back to me, leaving a message, saying they couldn't get it in. Couldn't? Or wouldn't? The author, Alister McGrath, has written and sold many books over the years. So why couldn't they get copies of his important work, The Dawkins Delusion?, to sell?
 
The problem is, those who are pro-faith, pro-life and pro-family find very few allies in the MSM. Which is why alternative media outlets like the blogosphere are being used to get much-needed truth into the public arena. Thus a warning to any believer who is hoping to pen a best seller: it will be difficult to do so, given the bias of our media and booksellers. But not impossible. Occasionally Christian books make it into the best seller lists. Just don't count on it, that's all.
 
[937 words]