Newsweek’s Nina Burleigh Hits New Low: Calls Christian Beliefs “Superstitions”

Should an intolerant writer who is unable to understand, respect, and write honestly and truthfully about the beliefs of people with whom she does not agree be trusted with stories that challenge her own presuppositions?

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

A recent Newsweek story written by Nina Burleigh about Ralph Drollinger is a factually inaccurate and inflammatory hit piece that is based on the writer’s personal opinion and boldly and inappropriately presented as news.

The piece is comprised of innuendo, personal attacks that compare Drollinger to murdering terrorists, condemnation and mocking of Christian beliefs, and incendiary and misleading wording that deceive the reader.

The story was written by a writer who once said she would give sexual favors to Bill Clinton “just to thank him for keeping abortion legal,” and who ran from a church she was visiting with “the hair standing up” on the back of her neck after the congregation was encouraged to fight for the lives of the unborn.

One would question this writer’s qualifications, her judgment, and her ability to be fair, but this is the reporter that Newsweek assigned to write stories about a pastor who is dedicated to teaching the Word of God.

OPINION AND MALICE, NOT FACT

The story was published on Halloween with the sly headline: “Trump Cabinet Spiritual Adviser Shares His Views, And Some Find Them Spooky.”

According to the story, those who found the views “spooky” were limited to Burleigh and one unnamed source.

The story contains a picture of men praying with and for President Donald Trump. The cutline reads:

“Evangelicals lay their hands on President Donald Trump at the White House in September. The man who advises President Donald Trump’s nine fundamentalist Cabinet members has shared his favorite superstitions, including that Earth was created in six days and that women can’t teach men.”

To call someone’s religious beliefs “superstitions” is disrespectful, mocking, openly malicious and shocking to anyone who holds dear the conviction that we are all entitled to our own beliefs, and that we have a right to express them.

That this attack was published by a once major news source would be unbelievable if Newsweek had not become known for such irreverent and inaccurate pieces.

Questions persist:

Should an intolerant writer who is unable to understand, respect, and write honestly and truthfully about the beliefs of people with whom she does not agree be trusted with stories that challenge her own presuppositions?

Are only those people who share Burleigh’s beliefs considered by her to be credible and worthy of respect?

How would Burleigh write of the convictions of devout Muslims who believe what the Qur’an teaches: “There is no deity but Allah”?

Would those beliefs be considered superstitious also, or, are only Christians in particular the targets of Burleigh’s open attacks?

BELIEF IN BIBLE INERRANCY CALLED SUPERSTITIOUS

Drollinger is a pastor with deeply held convictions. He believes the Bible is the Word of God and without error.

Regarding six day creation, the Bible says:

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. (Genesis 2:1-2)

Regarding what the Bible says about men only as preachers, among many Scriptures about this subject is:

It is a trustworthy statement if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. (1 Timothy 3:1-16)

Note the pronoun “he.” The word “overseer” (in Greek, episkopos) as used in the New Testament relates to leadership in the church.

While this may not sit well with today’s ultra feminist, among many Scripture that deals with this issue is:

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:3)

A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. (1 Timothy:2:11-12)

These Scriptures are in the Bible (NASB). That is fact.

While Burleigh may not agree with what the Bible says, common courtesy, decency to a fellow human being, and journalistic fairness demand that she at least show respect to those who do.

JOURNALISTS DO MAKE THINGS UP

Burleigh writes: “Drollinger doesn’t talk to American journalists, because, like the president, he feels “they just make things up.” (His office declined to participate in Newsweek’s cover story on God and Trump, for example, using the excuse that he was hiking in the Sierras.) But he agreed to an extensive interview with a reporter from the German daily Welt am Sonntag, possibly because he hopes to expand his evangelical NGO into Germany.

Drollinger doesn’t ‘feel’ journalist make things up. He knows that they do. Here are some recent headlines:

“New York Times forced to admit ’17 US intelligence agencies’ narrative is fake news”

“At CNN, Retracted Story Leaves an Elite Reporting Team Bruised”

“Daily Mail publishes retraction to a story at the center of Melania Trump lawsuit”

Washington Post Appends “Russian Propaganda Fake News” Story, Admits It May Be Fake

And there are many that involved Burleigh’s employer Newsweek. An Oct. 5, 2017 story by Brian Flood of Fox News, carried this headline:

“Newsweek retracts story filled with fake news about Vegas shooter’s girlfriend”

The story also said:

“Newsweek has now issued at least 20 corrections in 2017, including at least one per month, and even has a page on its website dedicated to its mistakes. The magazine admitted to over 50 mistakes in 2016 and even apologized for a story that praised an assault on white nationalist Richard Spencer earlier this year. Mistakes are so common at Newsweek that every digital article features a “submit correction” option beneath the text.”

DROLLINGER WAS HIKING

Burleigh wrote: “(His office declined to participate in Newsweek’s cover story on God and Trump, for example, using the excuse that he was hiking in the Sierras.)”

The Truth: Drollinger did not participate in the interview because he was on his annual hike of the 215-mile John Muir Trail that starts in Yosemite National Park and continues through the Ansel Adams Wilderness, Sequoia National Park, King’s Canyon National Park, and ends at the highest peak in continental United States, Mount Whitney at 14,496 ft. It is an arduous climb.

He also didn’t participate in the interview because he did not wish to.

Burleigh wrote: “But he agreed to an extensive interview with a reporter from the German daily Welt am Sonntag, possibly because he hopes to expand his evangelical NGO into Germany.”

Yes, he did.

Burleigh’s complaint sounds like professional jealousy.

Perhaps this is why Burleigh appropriated wholesale the work of another – German reporter Lucas Wiegelmann – and passed it off as her own.

MALICIOUS, DEFAMATORY, AND LIBELOUS

Burleigh wrote: “After reading the interview, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State said Drollinger and his flock are “one step removed from a Christian fundamentalist version of ISIS.”

Not exactly an unbiased source, Americans United for Separation of Church and State is hostile to religious organizations. It boasts on its website that it works in concert with national media to derail “the radical agenda” of Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, and the Family Research Council.

Why does Burleigh refuse to name the Americans United for Separation of Church and State “spokesman?” Is the person ashamed of this libelous quote and is hiding behind anonymity? How credible is an unnamed source? Or, is the person a made-up source?

The website for Americans United for Separation of Church and State says:

“We envision an America where everyone can freely choose a faith and support it voluntarily, or follow no religious or spiritual path at all, and where the government does not promote religion over non-religion or favor one faith over another.”

Is Drollinger the only person in America whom this organization believes does not have a right to freely follow his faith?

To allow an unnamed source to malign someone in a story, especially without asking the person being attacked for comment, is irresponsible and journalistic malpractice.

In a barbarous act of bully journalism, Burleigh marries in the mind of the reader vicious, murderous terrorists who blow people up with bombs, slaughter the innocent with assault weapons in mass killings from shopping malls to concert halls, and slit the throats of anyone who does not agree with them with a pastor who wants to teach the Word of God.

This is journalism?

MANIPULATION BY WORD CHOICE

Manipulating by word choice is a sneaky way a writer can influence the reader to embrace her own opinions that she is cunningly or in this case, openly forwarding. Here are some other examples of that technique in Burleigh’s story:

Burleigh wrote: “In time for Halloween, the man who advises President Donald Trump’s nine fundamentalist Cabinet members has shared his favorite superstitions…”

The very approach mocks Drollinger, a pastor, and tells the reader very clearly that superstitions are equivalent to Christian beliefs.

Burleigh wrote: “(His office declined to participate in Newsweek’s cover story on God and Trump, for example, using the excuse that he was hiking in the Sierras.)”

By using the word “excuse” instead of “explanation,” the writer urges the reader to doubt Drollinger’s credibility and honesty.

Burleigh wrote: “He believes the forgery-riddled biblical archaeology field has proven the Bible true.”

“Forgery-riddled” is neither defined nor verified. The reader is left with an unfavorable impression of biblical archaeology that is based solely on the writer’s unsubstantiated charge.

While Burleigh authored a book on biblical archaeology and forgery in Israel, her Newsweek story offered no specifics to refute points on archaeology made by Drollinger. Rather, she uses vague inference for broad-brush condemnation.