(CIBS) – By Ashford Peters) – President of the SVG Mission of Seventh-Day Adventists Dermot Baptiste has attacked the media accusing them of having a delight for bad news.
“When we look at various media houses, various media outlets; when we read the newspapers of the day, when we look at the headlines of many newscasts, all that we see is bad news.
“And that’s what the media delights in – bad news, that which is salacious, that which is juicy; perhaps that which is gonna help them to get their papers sell,” the pastor said, as he conveyed greetings from his SDA church during a worship service held by the Kingstown Methodist Church.
Pastor Baptiste was among a number of heads of religious organizations invited by the Methodist Church to bring greeting, using the opportunity created by social media live broadcast at a time when church are not allowed to meet as usual.
Pastor Baptiste’s attack on the media, no doubt, comes at a critical time when, as a result of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic a number of protocols, based on recommendations by the World Health Organization, are now in place. Such protocols affect the way societies now have to function and no doubt affect even the traditional manner in which religious denominations have been conducting worship services.
One of those protocols is social distancing which allows for a maximum 25 persons at worship, as in the case of St Vincent and the Grenadines. As a consequence, it is the media that play a critical role in getting those services to the general public.
Further, it is the various media houses and media outlets that are now heavily relied on to publish news and other information on the COVID-19 disease that has so far killed around 50,000 persons around the world.
“But we ask the question this morning: ‘Is there any good news?’” pastor Baptiste asked.
The question posed by the pastor is one which, of course, many have asked religious denominations to ponder.
The media have carried, and continue to carry, messages from various religious denominations based on the Holy Bible and the teachings.
The media have also carried but the very bad news coming out of the church, involving corrupt activities and sexual exploitation.
The media do not make the news, they report on activities that are of interest to the public – of which the church is a part.
