Media and the March

Hi! I'm back. :)

This week, I want to talk about an event that consistently makes an impact on both the Christian and secular world: the March for Life held annually in Washington, D.C. But this time, you won't hear me talking about the Church's stance on abortion.

My issue this time is with my colleagues in the media.

First, some background: after the resolution of Roe vs. Wade and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton in 1973, the right to terminate a pregnancy on demand was declared a constitutional right for all.

One year later, anti-abortion advocates gathered at the Supreme Court to protest the decision and demand its reversal. They have done so every year since with increasing numbers, diversity and passion.

The 38th annual March for Life was held this past Monday, with an estimated 400,000 people, 50 members of the House of Representatives and one senator in attendance.

That's almost half a million people.

But ironically, you would never notice this by turning on the evening news or opening up the paper in the following days.

In fact, the media has been consistently notorious for avoiding any mention of the March, and when it is covered, the information presented is usually misrepresented and biased.

Let me say clearly that I'm not speaking as a Catholic as I write this. I'm speaking as a journalist who is confused by the almost universal error in judgment.

To show you what I mean, here is a traditional list of the eight elements of newsworthiness that have been drilled into my head since I was 18. Since then, I've done tons of exercises in the classroom to root out these elements in current events.

There is plenty of conflict in this story, one that has remained close to the top of political debates for decades now. And it was obviously timely with the anniversary of such a landmark set of cases.

The sheer number of people and delegates rallying at the Capitol and in smaller gatherings nationwide (like the Walk for Life West Coast in California) fulfills consequence and prominence -- it's hard to get half a million people to do much of anything, let alone gather for one cause.

Abortion is an issue that stirs the emotions of people on both sides of the debate, and affects every single person who has a child. That's something that appeals to human interest.

We can also say it's a good variety story because of the diversity of the people present. Christians from many denominations that typically argue over doctrine came together to pray. Feminists, men, old people, tens of thousands of youth of every race were all present. A friend who was there told me that he even saw a sign that read "Atheist Anarchists for Life."

So...that's six out of eight. Where was the coverage? Aside from Catholic broadcasting outlets like EWTN, it's anybody's guess. Do a Google search. Where are the prominent news names we expect to see?

Why are we letting our audience down?

Advent videos and a second farewell

Hello, loves.

It's that time of year again: we've reached the end of the semester, and I was informed last week that I've been relieved of my obligations here. :) I only have one week of classes left now, and then finals begin. Soon, I'll be home by the tree with my cat. (It takes so little to make me happy.)

This will be my last post for a while. However, I'm going to be serving as a lab monitor next semester, and will probably end up back here in one capacity on another. Fear not. :)

Until then, I have two great videos that expresses a lot about Advent that I've been trying to convey here. I got them both from the fine folks at Phatmass.com.

Have a wonderful, safe and Blessed Christmas season. I'll see you again next year!

Slowing down...

This time of year, it seems that the whole world is in a hurry. The to-do list is relentless: eat the leftover turkey, decorate, get the tree up, write out cards, shop, shop, plan the Christmas meal, shop, make cookies, shop some more.

Dec. 26 is usually when we flop on our couches, bodies and souls exhausted with the constant rush of the last six weeks, admiring our tree for a few brief moments before we rush to take it down, undecorate...the radio doesn't help. B101, the forerunner of those stations in this area that have flipped to all Christmas tunes, switches back at 12:01 a.m. that day. Boom -- no more Christmas.

You get the idea.

Here's the interesting thing about being Catholic. More than any other time of year, the weeks leading up to Christmas are a time to slow down, reflect and prepare ourselves for Christ. And the big day itself is celebrated starting on the 25th. Each Mass between then and the Epiphany (Jan. 6) is ranked with the same solemnity as Christmas Day.

So much of what we do goes against what this world says is important. For us, it's not so much about what we buy, but the intention behind our giving. It's not about greed, but charity. We don't work to impress our visiting relatives, but open our homes with humility and thanksgiving. And while so many are only celebrating the presents and food, we are celebrating so much more -- the reality that our entire world was changed the day Jesus was born.

It can be pretty staggering to consider. Sure, the list of errands is just as extensive for Catholics, and if we're not careful, the season will pass us by. But as the Gospel reading from this past weekend tells us, if we are vigilant and keep watch for Him, this season will do wonders for our faith.

Tearjerker: The Hammit Family's Gratitude

One of my favorite Christian bands is Sanctus Real, a rock group headed by singer Matt Hammitt. He's famous for capturing hearts with his emotional lyrics paired with powerful melodies. Go on and listen to "Lead Me" on their website to get an idea of what I mean.

Earlier this fall, Hammitt found a new source of inspiration: the birth of his third child and first son, Bowen. He's had so many bumps and triumphs in his first months of life, and tonight his story graces ABC World News during an episode of gratitude.

This resonated with me, as someone who followed baby Bowen's progress on the radio, through Matt's Twitter, and Bowen's Heart, a website the family built chronicling his struggle for anxious supporters. I had a rough start, too -- born 3 months premature, I was under 2 lbs and spent 81 days in the hospital.

We all have a lot to be grateful for this week. I hope all of you have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving!

Here's the segment from ABC. Grab your tissues.

New York's Dolan to Lead U.S. Bishops

There has been an especially large amount of buzz in Catholic news lately. There are two stories I want to cover that have broken over the past few days, so bear with me as I work to sort out the details.

The first comes out of the nation's capital from Tuesday. Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, has been elected to lead the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The USCCB serves as the main body of Catholic leadership and guidance in America.

The question here is likely "So what?" The answer is that no one saw this result coming. The USCCB has consistently elected its Vice President into the top spot for every single election since its creation (then the National Conference of Catholic Bishops) in 1966.

Currently, the sitting vice president is Tuscon's Gerald Kicanas, an outspoken liberal in his theology who has aligned himself with pro-abortion and GLBT causes and politicians. There have also been instances of priests abusing children under his watch. For the more progressive of the Church, Kicanas has been seen as a rallying point and hope for the future. As VP, his elevation to president was virtually guaranteed.

But after the third round of voting, Dolan emerged as the clear winner, defeating Kicanas 128-111. Known as a fierce defender of both the Pope and conservative values, he has become a favorite among those who toe the Church's party line. The decision is a startling one, both because it was unprecedented and because, as the bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, he is one of the most prominent faces in Catholic America.

The one thing I will say without compromising my objectivity is that it's great to see a bishop have so much charisma. Let's hope that personality serves well in the Church's relations with the country's political scene.

Post #50!

Permit me a moment of unprofessionalism, okay?

B101 PHILADELPHIA IS OFFICIALLY FLIPPED TO 24/7 CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!!!!

I have been waiting for weeks! Woohoo!

Enjoy it on 101.1 FM!

A Matter of Time

Last night was the last meeting at CCM until after the brief Thanksgiving break. When we return for Mass on Sunday the 28th, it will be the first Sunday of Advent. If you'll recall my post from last year on this season, this means that there will be only four weeks standing between us and Christmas.

It's funny how the season tends to sneak up on us, at least for me.

Ironically, last night our chaplain used the meeting to talk about time. Advent is a subdued kind of season as we all dig in our heels and reflect back on everything that has gotten us to this point, repenting as we find we need to. It's a time to focus on all that Christ has done (this is especially true for this weekend's holy day, the Solemnity of Christ the King) for us, the direction our lives are headed as we seek to follow Him, and of course, the end of time.

Father told us a story of a woman he had known named Connie, a poet from Pennsylvania who, after suffering a terrible stroke, lost her ability to communicate. She was virtually a soul trapped in a shell.

Her daughter was one day very emotional over this, and wrapping her arms around her mother, said, "Mom, if it weren't immoral, I wish I could help you move on to heaven so you don't have to suffer like this."

Using a touch pad to spell out words, it took Connie hours to type this: "I am in God's time. Don't cry for me, Argentina...this has happened so that I have to depend fully on Him."

Woah. Now that, friends, is faith -- and a peace with death that I imagine many would envy.

After the talk, we went downstairs to our chapel that was pitch black, with a special surprise: the place was lit entirely by luminarias, bags of sand with candles inside.

We prayed Compline together, better known as Night Prayer, a collection of hymns, psalms and Scripture that the entire Church prays together.

"Watch over us, Lord, as we stay awake, and protect us as we sleep; that awake, we might keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in His peace."

The theme was darkness and light, which was perfect for the coming Advent season. The whole experience encouraged us to pray for peace, and trust without anxiety that God will take care of us.

It's just a matter of time.

Music Monday: Audrey Assad

A lot of people will tell you that today, the contemporary Christian music scene is largely dominated by men. If I were to list a few of the most popular groups and artists played on the nationally-syndicated station Air 1, you'd hear names like these: tobyMac, Skillet, Kutless, Third Day, Tenth Avenue North, Jars of Clay, Jeremy Camp, Brandon Heath, David Crowder.

Not a woman in the mix.

This sad fact has only recently been pointed out in Christian media outlets; a particularly good read is this feature from Christianity Today on Addison Road's frontwoman, Jenny Simmons.

While I have nothing against male artists, because of the lack of females in the industry, I'm much more likely to gravitate toward them.

One of my favorite Christian artists made her solo debut just recently, and has had a firm grip on my attention ever since. Her name is Audrey Assad, a pianist/singer/songwriter hailing from the Phoenix area. Her music is incredibly simplistic, rarely more than piano and rhythm underneath her airy yet powerful soprano vocals.

In every sense of the word, her music is a form of prayer as she touches on subjects that many of her genre shy away from: doubt, suffering, apathy among them.

"Fear is a current we all get caught in
and in its motion, faith can be so hard to find. 
And we all falter, 'cause we're all broken
we're just trying to turn the shadows into light ...  

You say I am blessed because of this
so I choose to believe
That if I carry this cross,
You'll carry me."

This is just one example of how Assad speaks candidly to both the worries Christians face, and the hope that we can be sure of in Christ.

Random trivia: She's a Catholic convert, the only one in her family, and got her start singing backup vocals for her best friend, Matt Maher. I wrote about Matt (who is also Catholic) on this blog last year.

Check out this video of Audrey Assad performing "For Love of You," the first track off her debut album, "The House You're Building." Then, do yourself a favor and buy the CD.

Off Beat: Writers beat the clock in November

A lot of writers, whether professional or amateur, have big dreams. Many of them long for the day that their name graces the front cover of the New Releases section at Barnes & Noble, or even better, the New York Times' Best Seller list.

Every year, some of these people set out on the journey to write that great American novel. But the majority of them aren't crazy enough to try it in a month.

That's exactly what hundreds of thousands do each year during November, though. Armed with nothing but a flash of plotted brilliance and gallons of caffeine, they tackle the fiction beast that is National Novel Writing Month.

The event, which began on a whim in 1999 with freelance writer Chris Baty, offers hopeful novelists a quick and dirty opportunity to get their ideas down on paper. Beginning at midnight local time on Nov. 1, they have just 30 days to write a 50,000-word work of fiction.

In its first year, NaNoWriMo had just 21 participants, mostly Baty's friends from the San Francisco Bay Area; only a third of these met the goal. Eleven years later, 197,000 adults and young people from all over the globe have signed up for the challenge.

A popular component of the experience is the write-in, a meeting of local participants (called "wrimos") in venues throughout a specific region. Most of these people meet via the website's forum system, which includes regional chapters. According to the NaNo website, there are currently 164 people from South Jersey who have written at least a word this year (including me!).

The task of writing at least 1,667 words every day to hit the big 50K by the month's end may seem daunting, but it ends up not being so bad. If a person types as little as 30 words a minute, it will take just under an hour to get the day's quota done. With careful examination of our daily schedules and a little trimming here are there, it's a piece of cake.

The hardest part for a lot of participants is turning off their "inner editor," that voice of criticism that threatens to beat the hopeful writer into the dirt with every sentence. That's why the month-long deadline is in place. You have to write quickly, not worrying about being critical; in this way, you end up writing for the love of it.

To learn more about National Novel Writing Month, its sister program Script Frenzy, or the Young Writers Program, visit their website: The Office of Letters & Light.

Losing Christ in Christmas

I was really hoping that I would be able to save this post for another week or two, but it looks like the time has come sooner than I expected.

Or I guess what I should say is that "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Today, I went to spend some of the birthday money that's been burning a hole in my pocket at a mall about 30 miles south of Rowan. Signs were up all over the place advertising the upcoming arrival of Santa Claus for photos and eager wish lists on ... Nov. 13! How about that. Don't you think it would be easier to, you know, put the Halloween decorations away first? Goodness, we still have a solid three weeks to go before Thanksgiving, even.

Now in the spirit of full disclosure and integrity I have to confess that I'm probably more excited than my baby cousins (seven of them ages 2 to 6, one on the way) when it comes to the holiday season. I'm guilty of blasting Christmas music in my apartment on campus by the second week of classes, have had ideas for gifts since the third, and was very close to buying my outfit for the family party today. I'm really terrible about it.

In my own defense, however, the reason I'm so crazy is because my family has taught me to appreciate the joy and simplicity of this time of year, despite the rushing and preparations. It's an opportunity to slow down with my family and be thankful that we've gotten through another year. For me personally, the coming of Christmas has given me so much more to celebrate now that I actually celebrate it for its purpose -- Christ. (So that's what Christmas is about? Jesus? Go figure!)

The stores were full to overflowing today with trees, candy canes, snowmen and enough reindeer to fill a barn...yet, ironically, the only time I saw anything to do with spirituality was in a gift card envelope. Even that reference was one use of the word "holy" in a ridiculous and cheesy rhyming couplet. I read it, groaned, and put it back.

Where, I kept asking myself, did they hide the Christ child under all of those snowmen???

Keep the faith, friends. ;)

(I'm thinking of turning this into a column for The Whit...Cuddy, when you see this, do you think it's got a shot if I clean it up some?)