Misunderstanding Faith Through a Political Prism

George Korda, a columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinel, today memorializes former Southern Baptist Convention president Adrian Rogers, who passed away Nov. 15. Rogers helped to achieve a "Conservative Resurgence" in the denomination in the 1980s, but Korda says the MSM portrayed his life work in political terms rather than as one committed to his faith:

The New York Times wrote that Dr. Rogers "helped revive the fundamentalist Christian message that the Bible is to be regarded as literally true."

The New York Times says such a message required reviving. That undoubtedly comes as a surprise to many millions of Christians.

The Los Angeles Times attempted to dismiss Dr. Rogers by categorizing him as a "televangelist who helped engineer a conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention," thus revealing the reporter’s ignorance of Adrian Rogers, the pastor.

The Associated Press said he was "leader of a conservative takeover of the faith," thus revealing a reporter’s lack of understanding of the subject of faith. Faith is what a person has in God. The Southern Baptist Convention is a denomination. The two are not the same.

(Hat tip: My dad in Tenn.)