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By Jim Coggins
A WIDE-RANGING series of news reports on CBC radio examined the question 'Where is God today?' The series ran January 6 - 11 on various news programs, including The World This Weekend, The World Report and The World at Six.
CBC producer Vito Cupoli, who headed up the project, told CC.com the idea for the stories surfaced last June during a brainstorming session searching for ideas that could be turned into "big projects." The idea stirred an immediate response. Those present agreed that they were encountering "more and more people looking for spiritual answers." After periodic discussions, the project took formal shape in November.
The CBC has "a very ground-up system," said Cupoli. Once the project was approved, word was sent out to CBC reporters across the country, who used their contacts and did some digging to come up with suggestions for stories. For instance, Vancouver reporter Curt Petrovich saw it as an opportunity to follow up on some stories he had come across and was already interested in.
After discussions, some of the stories were accepted for inclusion. Cupoli said the series had "a huge tie-in" to the CBC website. Each story referred listeners to a special section of the CBC website where there were additional facts and profiles of believers in various religions.
Airtime is limited and choices had to be made about what went on the air, said Cupoli, but the website allowed coverage of a broader spectrum of Canadian religious belief.
The series had originally been conceived as looking at the "search for answers to traditional questions in nontraditional places," but the series ended up including some traditional answers, as well, said Cupoli. "Where ideas end up is never where they begin."
For instance, while the series included people who had rejected Christianity, it also included a profile of an Eastern Orthodox priest. "You can't do a series like this without acknowledging eternal questions, such as 'Who made all this?'" said Cupoli. Hence a story by Petrovich profiling Christian and non-Christian astronomers.
Cupoli said news media can't use a quota system for putting such projects together. If Roman Catholics make up 32 percent of the population, this doesn't mean they should have 32 percent of the stories. News stories must be "new, informative, relevant and interesting," he said, and if traditional groups such as Roman Catholics and Methodists have a new thing going on, it will be covered.
The CBC's stated goal for the series was simply to inform listeners about what it found, without making any judgments. Listeners were stories encouraged to think through the issues for themselves.
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Cupoli said the series uncovered a shift in the religious landscape. While in the past people tended to remain in the religious tradition they were brought up in, the series encountered "a lot of people who want to worship and who feel comfortable shopping around" for new options.
A common theme in many of the stories was a search for spiritual answers that often led the participant in new directions. The series profiled some with a Christian background who gravitated to other religions, but it also included people from other religious backgrounds who moved to Christian faith. Some made three or four transitions. Others ended up combining elements of two or more religious traditions.
Cupoli said he had been pretty confident the series would "touch a chord" -- and indeed, there was a "huge response." Traffic to the 'Where is God Today?' website was "very high," and about 800 people posted responses online. "Some loved [the series], some hated it, but at least they found it interesting," said Cupoli.
This may mean the mainstream media will be more interested in covering religious topics in future. "The media are always looking for ways to explore what Canadians are thinking and talking about," said Petrovich. This means the media are quite willing to discuss religion, provided it is "done in a comprehensive way."
After all, said Petrovich, "religion is important to a lot of Canadians."
Serving where God is already active
One of the people profiled on the CBC website was John Van Sloten, pastor of New Hope Christian Reformed Church in Calgary.
Van Sloten told CC.com he was selected for the series because he was already known to CBC reporters. He has written "30 or 40" editorial pieces for the Calgary Herald in recent years, and the media have sometimes covered his sermons because many of them start with references to contemporary movies, rock music, sports and current events.
When four RCMP officers were murdered in Alberta three years ago, television cameras turned up at his church the next Sunday on the assumption that he would be preaching on the subject. He wasn't, but he was able to read a response on the topic that he had already written for the Calgary Herald.
"The reason I'm doing church this way is I have a huge passion to get people reconnected to church and God," said Van Sloten, adding that his church tries to serve "where God is already active in people's lives."
While the CBC series indicates that there is a widespread search for God in Canadian culture outside of the Christian church, the four "Christian" profiles on the CBC's website suggest that God is also actively seeking human beings and revealing himself to them. One person said, "I think God speaks to me through the media," while another stated, "God was always there to help me." Van Sloten summed up: "God is self-revealing all over the place."
January 24/2008
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