wfn.org | Martin Marty Tells Religion Communicators Faith Stories still Needed

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

Religious Communication Congress 2000
http://www.rcc2000.org
Dan Gangler, coordinator of news and information
DRG1946@aol.com
Newsroom telephone during Congress 312-595-3151

By Linda Bloom

         CHICAGO - While complaints regarding the lack of perception about 
religion in public life are true, they are "not the only story," according 
to renowned theologian and historian the Rev. Martin Marty.
         Marty, author of 50 books and former head of the Public Religion 
Project, spoke March 30 about "Going Public with Public Communications" 
during a session of the Religious Communication Congress 2000 meeting in 
Chicago. He recently retired after 35 years on the faculty of the 
University of Chicago, where he taught in the schools of divinity, 
medicine, and arts and sciences. He participated in three previous congresses.
He noted that there has been "an explosion of new religious energies" and a 
working of religious vocabulary  words such as reconcile, forgive and 
repent  into public life even since RCC 90.
         Pointing out that Chicago alone has more than 100 religious 
denominations and groups, thousands of churches and millions of members, he 
told the religious communicators: "You will not run out of stories."
         But he suggested not whining about how the status of religion in 
public life has changed since the "good old days," since "no one ever 
changes because somebody's whining."
         Marty instead considers earlier times as the "different old days." 
One of the differences is the adoption of the word "secular" to describe 
the world outside of religion. In many respects, he said, everyone is 
secular and that term represents not just one thing, but many things. 
Indeed, "the secular world is a good reminder that there's another side" to 
the story of life.
         The task of religion communicators is not to be at home with the 
secular order of things but to introduce the element of faith, he added.
         He agreed there are a lot of distractions in the public realm, and 
said the contribution of religious communicators will "add to that 
plurality of signals."  But, indifference can be fought by being different 
and blindness to religion by being equipped to look for faith in the world. 
Being too specialized, he pointed out, can lead to becoming blinded by reality.
Pluralism, the vast diversity of culture and faith in a world with six 
billion people, is simply "a context in which we work and it's not going away."
          According to Marty, the secular and religious worlds are not 
separate but interactive on many levels. While people of faith must follow 
the rules of the public arena and often use a secular rationale, he pointed 
out that it's not hard to see a world of waste and disease "to which the 
world of religion, faith and spirituality seeks to bring different voices."
         Those voices must penetrate not just one public but many 
sub-publics. "Some of them we get through to and some of them we don't," he 
added.

END