Some conservatives are questioning ABC television's stated commitment to religious news coverage, not because the network is laying off its religion reporter in a budget-cutting move, but because ABC said it would now partner with Beliefnet.com for its religious coverage.
Beliefnet bills itself as a "multi-faith e-community designed to help you meet your own religious and spiritual needs."
While it claims to be respectful of a wide variety of religions, Beliefnet co-founder Steve Waldman admits, "you'll find things on this site that may annoy or even infuriate you."
Waldman promises to be "balanced, sensitive, and inclusive," but to some, the Web site, in striving to be politically correct, leans strongly toward the feminist, pro-abortion, liberal dogma.
Christian Values?
Under the Website's "dictionary" section, a quick review of various "hot-button" topics includes the following: Homosexuality is defined as "Sexual relations between members of the same gender."
It continues: "Religious traditions place both negative and positive value on homosexuality as a boundary-crossing activity. For some, the power to invert culturally sanctioned relations is a mark of, or a means to acquire, supernatural power; for others, it is a forbidden activity.
"Temporary homosexual relations are frequently found in both male and female puberty initiations, in male-bonding activities within warrior groups, and as part of a series of reversals in carnivals, usually by adapting some mode of transvestism," the Web site said.
Abortion is defined: "Premature termination of pregnancy. All societies possess techniques for abortion. Many religions recognize the legitimacy of abortion to protect the mother's health (i.e., therapeutic abortion). Voluntary abortion is more controversial, especially among Christian groups in the United States."
In an Expert Advice section, a young man writes that his wife, who had an abortion while she was in college, feels uncomfortable at family dinners, when her pro-life father-in-law rants about baby killers. Should he tell his father to stop talking about it? Here's part of the answer.
"I would therefore suggest that you tell your father the truth - just not the whole truth - that your wife, and you as well, disagree strongly with his views on abortion. You might mention, for example, that you and your wife think it is wrong to forbid abortion to a woman whose physical or emotional well-being is threatened by a pregnancy."
The question about abortion comes under the "Ethics" heading.
Beliefnet's Catholic Identity Quiz includes a question about Mary, the mother of Jesus - who was she? The first of five possible answers reads this way: Mary was "invented by the male church hierarchy to subjugate women."
Beliefnet's Jesus Quiz questions Jesus' marital status, presenting choices suggestive of sexual deviance -- "gay" and "in a relationship with Mary Magdalene."
The Website offers everything from a "Gay Community Forum" to a section called the "Bible As A Sex Manual."
Differing Opinions
Todd Polkes, a spokesperson for ABC News, said that ABC's decision to form their partnership with Beliefnet came after religion reporter Peggy Wehmeyer's contract was not renewed due to corporate downsizing.
However, Polkes said ABC was still "committed to doing a range of stories on religious and spiritual issues" and said, "a partnership with Beliefnet is a natural outgrowth of that commitment."
He said ABC decided on a partnership with Beliefnet because the Web site is considered a "multi-faith organization that is objective in its reporting," and will contribute to ABC ventures.
"Beliefnet will help contribute story ideas for religious and spiritual issues that we cover," Polkes said. "They will also conduct polls with us that will be branded 'ABC News/Beliefnet' polls where we will ask about religious and spiritual angles in the news, such as President Bush's faith-based initiatives."
Steven Waldman, editor-in-chief and cofounder of Beliefnet, said that his website and ABC were natural partners.
"We are now the leading multi-faith Web site, and they wanted to beef up their coverage of religion and give it a little more breath and enhance it. So it was a natural partnership," he said.
Waldman bristled at allegations that Beliefnet was anything but an objective take on a host of religions, taking neither a liberal nor conservative side.
"I think we have more conservative columnists than the National Review and more liberal columnists than The Nation," he said. "I think the reason we are so popular with so many conservative writers and users, is that unlike other mainstream media outlets, we treat conservative religious and political viewpoints very respectfully.
"We've really bent over backwards to make this a site that has very strong conservative voices, politically and religiously and it is actually a source of great pride for us," said Waldman.
However, some public policy organizations do not see the ABC/Beliefnet partnership as objective or the Web site as being in possession of concrete facts about different religions.
"There is no objectivity," said Loretta Hanley, spokesperson of the American Life League. "There is nothing based on real truth or philosophical principles, only the views of others on different religions.
"Their motto, 'We all believe in something,' says a lot about where Beliefnet is coming from, which is the mentality of 'whatever you want to believe is fine,' where there are not guidelines based around truth," she said.
Hanley acknowledged that links to church doctrine are available on the site, but "who is going to link to another site after getting so much information where they are?" she asked. Providing official church teachings on the issues presented would validate the site as a real source for religious information, she added.
Heather Cirmo, spokesperson for the Family Research Council, said not much credibility could be attributed to a Web site that is not based on fact.
"[Beliefnet] tries to be a resource for all religions, and there doesn't seem to be one that dominates or predominates, and it seems to be more opinion-based than fact-based," she said. "And of course, as with all dotcoms that are independent, you have to wonder how long it can survive."
Cirmo said the real issue is that ABC is cutting loose network news' only full-time religion reporter.
"[ABC] is losing someone who really helped define who they were - helped make them unique, and they're not going to be able to cover religion in the same way," Cirmo said.
"Sometimes a regular reporter will go out and try to do a religion story and won't have the insight into religion that Peggy had, and of course, ABC was unique because they had her as a full-time reporter covering the issue of religion. And of course, she was a Christian too, so that helped as well."
Cirmo said Peter Jennings's piece called "Searching for Jesus," which explored many facets of Christianity, angered many because they said it was scripture-based.
"ABC using them as a resource is definitely not the best option when you're thinking about how many Christians there are in the United States versus other religions, and how well Christianity is going to be covered," she said.
"If Peter Jennings' special is any indication of what's going to happen from now on, we don't have much hope that Christianity is going to be covered well."
Michael Brown, the national church liaison for the Christian Coalition, said Web sites such as Beliefnet offer a "university approach" - trying to "accommodate people of different faiths." But, he said, even that is bound to offend people who subscribe to the traditional Judeo-Christian understanding of religion.
- Susan Jones, Morning Editor
CNSNews.com