TV goons miss the point on religion coverage

That is generally the theme of the GetReligion blog, that “the press ... just doesn’t get religion.” Here’s what David Pulliam was most recently referring to: the growing liberalization of young evangelicals, which you probably noticed sometime in the past few years and not when you saw it on the evening news a few nights ago.

Sometimes television news pieces are just bad. ...

This ABC News piece on asking the question “Are Young Evangelicals Skewing More Liberal?” is case in point. First of all, please don’t ask questions like this in a news article headline. Rhetorical questions are best saved for cocktail party conversations.

The story gets support from what I believe is a September 2007 Pew Research Center survey — a very good source by the way — that found that “40 percent of evangelicals younger than 30 call themselves Republicans,” and that two years ago 55 percent of evangelicals claimed the GOP. In the substance department, that’s about as far as the article takes the reader:

This weekend at a concert and a rally in New York City, a huge gathering of Christian youth came together to decry the coarsening of culture.

“What should be done to stop glamorizing the things that are destroying my friends, your friends — like drugs, alcohol and sex?” cried a young evangelical.

The top three issues these young evangelical Christians said they most want the presidential candidates to address are Internet pornography, media glamorization of sex and drugs, and children orphaned by AIDS. Abortion and gay marriage were not at the top of their list.

Many of those who did rank abortion as their number one issue also said their favorite candidate was Barack Obama.