The Christian Century recently asked a group of distinguished culture commentators how they get their news, focusing on what they read and how they read when their topic is religion.
Mark Silk—a wonderfully thoughtful and creative analyst of religion in the news, especially the new media outlets that proliferate, and professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College—walked us through his day in an interesting, provocative, and remarkably recognizable way.
He reads two newspapers at home in the morning:
The New York Times and the Hartford Courant.
Then he listens to NPR in the car: “Morning Edition” on the way to work; and “All Things Considered” on the way home.
Once in the office, he hits some of the main blogs and websites: Daily Dish, Politico, Talking Points Memo, the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast.
Given his interest in religion coverage, Silk pays closer attention to blogs associated with the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, US News & World Report, and USA Today.
This is all brilliant in its quiet, descriptive way. Silk is especially mindful of the ways in which we are bombarded by news and information from the time we wake to the time we retire. He has structured his response by simply walking us through his day, reminding us that we are always (both actively and semi-passively) receiving such information, sometimes to the point of overload.
But then I come to the curious final line, a sort of electronic afterthought:
For professorial thumb sucking there’s Religion Dispatches ‘zine and Immanent Frame.
Yowza.
It is striking that Professor Silk couldn’t bring himself to say that he reads RD, though he presumably must, from time to time, in order to have come to this strange assessment.
And while I don’t want to be overly sensitive, nor seem defensive about a site that does not need defending, the comment is puzzling. I always am puzzled by those academics who look askance at academic pursuit, the sly professorial sneer at the professoriate. I find this as false and distorting as the alternative attitude, the professorial looking down the nose at “popularizers,” as if we are not all popularizers, each and every day that we set foot in a college classroom.
Mark Silk is a professor; so am I. It’s a noble profession, and in the right hands, it makes possible some marvelous examples of community outreach. RD provides precisely such outreach, and the reason I write here is that its editorial mission so neatly coincides with my own.
Religion is not protected in the United States. Free speech and thought are.
What does it mean for a professor to suck his or her thumb? Is the suggestion that what we do is infantile? Perhaps.
But there is something close to infantile in the subtle invoking of a thumb as the way to offer a colleague a very different finger by implication.
Tags: christian century, magazine, magazine industry, mark silk, media
RD is dedicated to understanding religious forces and providing a diversity of progressive voices. That is great, I appreciate finding such a website (thanks to Frank Schaeffer). A progressive 'zine is badly needed because of the current state of the conservative voices. But progressive Christianity is still not perfect, so the zine has to make a choice. Will it feature progressive religious voices that are all mutually respectful and all progressives can be happy about what is said and academics can give praise, or will it allow voices that might point out some of the flaws in even progressive religion, and make some of the progressives uncomfortable? Thanks again to RD for the great job, and make sure you invite Mark Silk to join in the conversation.
Thanks for the comment, Jim. "Thumb sucking" is a complex and nuanced term -- strictly negative for some, neutral for others -- though it's seldom used (due, I suspect, to this elasticity). But to the non-journalist it's not particularly friendly sounding. The average Christian Century reader (and RD reader, for that matter) is unlikely to interpret it as much more than a jab.
In any case, Silk has contributed to RD in the past and is always welcome.
I second your opinion, Jim. Indeed, as we all know, there is no such thing as "bad publicity" :)
And once Professor silk has a unemployed thumb to suck and a little time to devote to it, hopefully he will contribute some RD-worthy article. I am not being sarcastic, but rather always eager for interesting material to read and mill over.
Don't be Glenn Beck. Nobody loves a whiner,
Thumbsucking is a form of seeking comfort, the ultimate and unlosable security blanket. I expexct it was used in this sense, though I'm puzzled because I find many challenging ideas presented on RD.
Mark has posted a clarification of what he meant. I take him at as his word.
http://www.spiritual-politics.org/
Ruprecht's (or RD's) quotation marks around “expert observers of the religion scene,” implying italicized dubiety along with scrupulousness in reporting, are significant, indicating discomfort rather than amusement with Silk's risky self-deprecation, Israel and the world being in such dire circumstances. Yet I recommend RD accept Silk's compliment, that when RD is preaching to the choir, Silk is right there sucking his thumb among the earnest tenors and worried sopranos. I write as a grateful thumbsucker. My spouse, mother and father, university colleagues, etc., were certain my sense of humor would imperil my well-being, and they were never incorrect. I'm reminded of Julia Child's remark about people who are vegetarians for religious rather than health reasons. She said, with her marvellous quaver, "You just can't DO anything about PEOPLE like that."
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