Anderson Cooper

Posted on December 28, 2006
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CNN's Anderson Cooper I don’t dabble in pop culture much. Admittedly, too often I avoid it, and then feel ignorant for the worthwhile bits that I miss. As of today, having watched one full segment of 360°, I’m hardly in a position to evaluate the show or Cooper’s work. The show I saw today, I think was a re-run, called, “What is a Christian.”

I was impressed with the breadth and sensitivity with which his subject was treated. I think he was fair to the Evangelicals. They came off looking extreme and foolish for the most part (and honestly, scarey). Still, he showed some reasonable people who practice a charismatic faith, and some very positive movements among evangelicals, especially showing a service orientation among some, and a nascent environmental movement among others.

The scarey stuff comes in the form of those who expect and would even bring about “the end of days,” along with so-called Christian Zionists, and huge charismatic groups who practice a faith of personal wealth. There are some new well-known players who were wholly unknown to me. I’d certainly never heard of Joel Osteen, reported here to be the biggest among televangelists. He was featured as one who preaches a religion of personal prosperity.

When I see my own experience through the eyes of a journalist and still recognize it, I’m inclined to award points. In the past I’ve heard some major distortions of activities and groups I’ve participated in, even in reporting I would regard as friendly or neutral.

When Cooper’s team reported on All Souls Church, Unitarian, in Washington, DC, as a contrast to evangelical churches it was the All Souls that I had attended and recognized. It is a church where a diversity of beliefs is not only respected, but encouraged. They hardly captured the full essence of All Souls, but any distortion created by omission was minor.

I don’t know what to make of the size and intensity of the Evangelical movement in America. While any one person or group among the larger demographic may do tremendous good in the world, I fear the larger movement teaches intolerance for persons with different points of view, is intolerant of dissent amongst themselves, and teaches a rigid cosmology and morality that can only do harm in the end.