Once again, we need to pause and try to explain some of the X factors that enter into journalists deciding why a specific event or trend is a “story,” or even a “big story.”
Some “stories” seem to be similar, but they are not. In some cases, events or trends that touch the lives of several thousand people may draw little or no coverage, while events that involve a dozen or so people end up on the front page or at the top of a television newscast. Is this fair?
Several years ago, I described the puzzle this way:
A suburban megachurch builds a massive family-life center and it isn’t news. The same evangelical church builds a new parking lot that — in the eyes of its neighbors — clashes with zoning laws and the story goes straight to the front page. Meanwhile, the historic Episcopal parish in downtown decides to change a single window in its sanctuary (the original has been there since the facility was built, of course) and the story runs on A1 on a Sunday, with multiple photos.
I raise this issue, again, because of a recent NBC News story that caught the attention of a GetReligion reader. The headline proclaimed: “Transgender Latina makes history as Evangelical Lutheran pastor.”
The reader’s question: Why did the ordination of this pastor of a small congregation deserve national attention?
For starters, it helps to know that this story was produced by the “NBC Out & Proud” team. That does raise questions about advocacy journalism. Can anyone imagine the existence of an “NBC Born Again & Proud” in that newsroom? How about “NBC Catholic & Proud”?
Here is the overture to this particular story:
Before coming out as transgender, Nicole Garcia prayed daily that God would “fix” her. When her prayers weren’t answered and the feeling in her gut didn’t go away, she gave up on religion.
Now, nearly four decades later, Garcia stands behind the pulpit at Westview Lutheran Church in Boulder, Colorado, and delivers weekly sermons to a congregation of more than 100 faithful as their ordained pastor.
“Nobody can question my faith, my devotion to Christ, my devotion to the church. That’s why I’m the pastor here,” Garcia,who turned 60 Thursday, told NBC News. “Being trans is secondary.”
Yes, a congregation of “more than 100 faithful” is not very large, even in the context of a declining mainline Protestant denomination (See “Will the ELCA be Gone in 30 Years?”). Most congregations of this size will struggle to fund a full-time salary and benefits package for a mainline pastor.
So what made this event a national story? Here is how the NBC Out team stated that thesis:
Garcia, who delivered her first sermon at Westview earlier this month, is the first known transgender Latina to serve as a pastor within the 4 million-strong Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — an unanticipated position for someone who grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and left religion entirely for nearly 20 years.
As always, it would have helped to have made it clear that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is, in the U.S. faith-scape, not an “evangelical” church as most readers would understand that term.
Instead, the ELCA is a trailblazing body of believers on the doctrinal left. This flock officially ordained its first trans pastor (also in Colorado) in 2015. Thus, the term “Latina” is what makes this event “historic.”
So was this ordination and first sermon a “big” news story?
I would argue that this was an important story for a simple reason — The Rev. Nicole Garcia had already become, to some degree, a nationally known ELCA leader in the denomination’s LGBTQ work, as part of the ReconcilingWorks organization. This story is another landmark in the evolution of the mainline Protestant left.
Also, it’s hard to argue that the former Catholic’s journey to liberal Protestantism wasn’t dramatic. Here is a crucial turning point:
Garcia’s marriage crumbled after 8 years, and her wife asked for a divorce in 2002. After they separated, Garcia was sitting at her kitchen table, wondering why she had thrown away what seemed like an ideal life.
“I had my come-to-Jesus moment. It wasn’t one of those, “Oh please, oh please, help me,’” she explained. “It was more, “Alright you son of a b—h, if I’m going to come back, you better step it up this time.’”
One other journalism issue should be mentioned. As GetReligion readers would expect, the NBC Out team didn’t feel the need to quote any ELCA leaders with a different theological point of view on the symbolic ordination of another trans pastor.
After all, it has been a decade since doctrinally conservative members of this flock hit the exit doors and formed the North American Lutheran Church. Are there any doctrinal conservatives who have remained in the ELCA to quote?
Thus, more questions: Would it be good — from a journalism perspective — to talk to conservative Lutherans to add another perspective to this report? Would it have helped to have added a paragraph of two about the size and health of this pastor’s congregation? Would it be a shocking national story if ELCA leaders, maybe in the Bible Belt, ordained a conservative pastor?
In conclusion, I do think that this was a valid and even important story. The question of whether it should have been covered by the NBC Out & Proud team is an important issue. This is, of course, an increasingly common issue in journalism today.
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