If Christians want to be understood, they must work with the media, not against it

Ahead of the National Day of Prayer for the Media, journalist Ali Burnett says it’s time for the Church to stop being frightened of engaging with the mainstream press

The scene: a busy radio newsroom.

The story: Christians protesting about an occult workshop.

A reporter slams down her phone in frustration. “The workshop organiser is happy to talk, but I could only raise one of the Christians, and he said they needed to pray about it. Now he won’t talk to us.”

“Why?” demands the news editor. “God tell ’em not to, did he?”

“Something like that. They ‘didn’t feel it was right’, quote unquote. Weird, these people.”

“Fine,” says the news editor with a shrug. “Do a ‘not available for comment’. They had their chance.”