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Spirituality, Mind-Body, Gender, Ecology, Ageing, Peace, Scrapbook (in English and Korean)
2016/05/06
TRANSCEND Peace University
TRANSCEND Peace University
TRANSCEND MEDIA SERVICE » (1) WHAT IS PEACE JOURNALISM?
TRANSCEND MEDIA SERVICE » (1) WHAT IS PEACE JOURNALISM?
(1) WHAT IS PEACE JOURNALISM?
A) by Jake Lynch
Peace journalism is when editors and reporters make choices – about what to report, and how to report it – that create opportunities for society at large to consider and to value non-violent responses to conflict.
If readers and audiences are furnished with such opportunities, but still decide they prefer war to peace, there is nothing more journalism can do about it, while remaining journalism. On the other hand, there is no matching commitment to ensuring a fair hearing for violent responses, if only because they seldom struggle for a place on the news agenda.
How come? To report is to choose. ‘We just report the facts’, journalists say, but ‘the facts’ is a category of practically infinite size. Even in these days of media profusion, that category has to be shrunk to fit into the news. The journalist is a ‘gatekeeper’, allowing some aspects of reality through, to emerge, blinking, into the public eye; and keeping the rest in the dark.
Neither is this a random process. The bits left out are always, or usually, the same bits, or the same sorts of bits. News generally prefers official sources to anyone from the ‘grassroots’; event to process; and a two-sided battle for supremacy as the basic conflict model.
These preferences, or biases, hardened into industry conventions as journalism began to be sold as a mass-produced commodity in consumer societies, and faced pressure to present itself as all-things-to-all-people, capable of being marketed to potential readers, listeners and viewers of all political views and none.
Quoting officials – a category topped by the political leader of one’s own country – is a choice and a preference, but one with a built-in alibi. It was not our ‘fault’ that this person became head of government: s/he just ‘is’. ‘Indexing’, or the familiar journalistic habit of restricting the extent of debate to differences between government and official opposition – ‘elite discord’ – has the same effect, of camouflaging choices as facts.
What about event and process? News that dwells on, say, the details of death and destruction wrought by a bomb, avoids controversy. The device has, indisputably, gone off. There are well-attested casualty figures, from trustworthy sources such as hospitals and the police. What is automatically more controversial is to probe why the bombers did it, what was the process leading up to it, what were their grievances and motivations.
As to dualism, well, when I was a reporter at the BBC, we all realised that a successful career could be based on the following formula: ‘on the one hand… on the other hand… in the end, only time will tell’. To have ‘balance’, to ‘hear both sides’, is a reliable way to insulate oneself against complaints of one-sidedness, or bias.
War Journalism and Its Antidote
There are deep-seated reasons, then, why these are the dominant conventions in journalism, but, taken together, they mean that its framing of public debates over conflict issues is generally on the side of violent responses. It merits the description, ‘war journalism’.
How come? Take the dualism first. If you start to think about a conflict as a tug-of-war between two great adversaries, then any change in their relationship – any movement – can only take place along a single axis. Just as, in tug-of-war, one side gaining a metre means the other side losing a metre, so any new development, in a conflict thus conceived, immediately begs to be assessed in a zero-sum game. Anything that is not, unequivocally, winning, risks being reported as losing. It brings a readymade incentive to step up efforts for victory, or escalate. People involved in conflict ‘talk tough’ – and often ‘act tough’ – as they play to a gallery the media have created.
Remove acts of political violence from context and you leave only further violence as a possible response. This is why there is so little news about peace initiatives – if no underlying causes are visible, there is nothing to ‘fix’. Only in this form of reporting does it make any sense to view ‘terrorism’, for example, as something on which it is possible or sensible to wage ‘war’.
And if you wait, to report on either underlying causes or peace initiatives, until it suits political leaders to discuss or engage with them, you might wait a long time. Stirrings of peace almost invariably begin at lower levels. There is, furthermore, a lever in the hands of governments that no one else has – the ‘legitimate’ use of military force. For all these reasons, the primacy of official sources, coupled with the enduring national orientation of most media, is bound to skew the representation of conflicts in favour of a pronounced receptiveness to the advocacy of violence.
Hence, peace journalism, as a remedial strategy and an attempt to supplement the news conventions to give peace a chance.
Peace Journalism:
- Explores the backgrounds and contexts of conflict formation, presenting causes and options on every side (not just ‘both sides’);
- Gives voice to the views of all rival parties, from all levels;
- Offers creative ideas for conflict resolution, development, peacemaking and peacekeeping;
- Exposes lies, cover-up attempts and culprits on all sides, and reveals excesses committed by, and suffering inflicted on, peoples of all parties;
- Pays attention to peace stories and post-war developments.
Reality and Representation
Peace journalism is more realistic, in the sense of fidelity to a reality that already exists, independently of our knowledge or representation of it. To report violence without background or context is to misrepresent it, since any conflict is, at root, a relationship, of parties setting and pursuing incompatible goals. To omit any discussion of them is a distortion.
At the same time, it acknowledges that there is no one correct version of this reality that everyone will agree upon. We understand the world around us by taking messages and images – including those served up by the news – and slotting them into codes we develop through our lives and carry in our heads. Meaning is not created solely at the point of production, or encoding; no act of representation is complete until it has been received, or decoded. Decoding is something we often do automatically, since so much of what we read, hear and see is familiar. This is what propaganda relies on – establish Saddam Hussein as a ‘bad man’, or ‘weapons of mass destruction’ as a ‘threat’, and it forms a prism, through which all the reality, both subsequent and previous, tends to be viewed.
Journalism is often easy prey for such efforts because it does not generally encourage us to reflect on the choices it is making, for reasons discussed above. The famous US ‘anchor-man’, Walter Cronkite, signed off CBS Evening News every night with the catchphrase, “that’s the way it is”. How it came to be that way would be an interesting conversation, but it is not one in which news is generally keen to engage.
Communications students will recognise the last few paragraphs as a potted version of reception theory. In writing this introduction, I’ve resisted academic sources, because, yes folks, the clichés are true, media scholars often do dress in black (which we won’t hold against them) and chew polysyllables for breakfast (which we might). However it’s worth quoting one famous aphorism coined by a clever and original researcher, Gaye Tuchman: “the acceptance of representational conventions as facticity makes reality vulnerable to manipulation”.
So peace journalism is in favour of truth, as any must be. Of course reporters should report, as truthfully as they can, the facts they encounter; only ask, as well, how they have come to meet these particular facts, and how the facts have come to meet them. If it’s always the same facts, or the same sorts of facts, adopt a policy of seeking out important stories, and important bits of stories, which would otherwise slip out of the news, and devise ways to put them back in. And try to let the rest of us in on the process. Peace journalism is that which abounds in cues and clues to prompt and equip us to ‘negotiate’ our own readings, to open up multiple meanings, to inspect propaganda and other self-serving representations on the outside.
Can journalists actually do this, and do they? Latterly, researchers have set out to gauge the amount of peace journalism that is going on. There is probably no one piece of reporting that exhibits all five of the characteristics listed above, whilst also avoiding demonizing language, labeling and so forth. But distinctions do exist, and they have been measured. Reporting in The Philippines, especially by the country’s main newspaper, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, is interesting in providing an effective counter to attempts by the country’s government to import the ‘war on terrorism’ ideology and apply it to a long-running insurgency. The paper I used to work for, theIndependent of London, does a lot of peace journalism.
Then of course there are proliferating independent media, now building, through web-based platforms, on traditions long nurtured by alternative newspapers and community radio stations. There is some peace journalism, so there could be more.
________________
Jake Lynch is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney. Before that, he spent nearly twenty years in journalism, including spells as a newsreader and presenter for BBC World television, a Political Correspondent for Sky News and the Sydney Correspondent for the Independent newspaper. He reported on conflicts in the Middle East, South East Asia and South East Europe, as well as countless political and diplomatic meetings and developments in the UK and Europe.
He is the co-author, with Annabel McGoldrick, of Peace Journalism (Hawthorn Press, 2005), and his new book, Debates in Peace Journalism, has just been published by Sydney University Press and TUP – TRANSCEND University Press.
He also co-authored with Johan Galtung and Annabel McGoldrick ‘Reporting Conflict-An Introduction to Peace Journalism.’
In Spanish, ‘Reporteando Conflictos-Una Introducción al Periodismo de Paz‘ (Ariete, TRANSCEND México, Respuestas para la Paz, 2006). Translated by Fernando Montiel T.
In Portuguese, ‘Cobertura de Conflitos-Uma Introdução ao Jornalismo para a Paz’ (TRANSCEND University Press México, 2010). Translated by Antonio Carlos Silva Rosa.
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B) by Dietrich Fischer
Johan Galtung is often asked to define peace journalism. In the most concise way, he says, it is to ask two questions (in addition to the usual questions like how many bombs were dropped, how many buildings destroyed, who is winning, etc.):
“What is the conflict about, and what could be the solutions?”
If George W. Bush were asked, “What is the conflict with Iraq about?”, he would probably reply, “It is a struggle between good and evil.” “Would you like to expand on that?” “No.” “What is the solution?” “To crush evil!” “Would you like to expand on that?” “No.” If he were asked this twenty times, and quoted each time, he could not get away with it forever. Bush is being under-quoted.
In the 18th century, we had “disease journalists” who reported in detail how epidemics were spreading and how people suffered, but little was known about cures and little reported. Today we have “health journalists” who write about current research on new cures for diseases, and healthy lifestyles that help prevent disease.
The time has come for “peace journalists” to write not only about war, but also about its causes, prevention, and ways to restore peace. They need not invent solutions to conflicts themselves–in the same way as health journalists need not invent cures for diseases themselves; they ask specialists.
Similarly, peace journalists can ask various peace organizations and mediators about their ideas for preventing or ending a violent conflict, and report about it. Health pages in newspapers are very popular, and it can be anticipated that the same will be true for reporting about peace proposals, once they become available.
People thirst for peace. All we ask is “Give peace a page.”
__________________
Dietrich Fischer (1941-2015) from Münsingen, Switzerland, got a Licentiate in Mathematics from the University of Bern 1968 and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from New York University 1976. 1986-88 he was a MacArthur Fellow in International Peace and Security at Princeton University. He has taught mathematics, computer science, economics and peace studies at various universities and been a consultant to the United Nations.
TRANSCEND MEDIA SERVICE » Vatican to Host First-Ever Conference to Reevaluate Just War Theory, Justifications for Violence
TRANSCEND MEDIA SERVICE » Vatican to Host First-Ever Conference to Reevaluate Just War Theory, Justifications for Violence
“Coming out of it, Pope Francis might see his way clear to articulate a fresh vision of peacemaking to the church,” said Rynne, who helped found Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking. “That would be wonderful.”
Vatican to Host First-Ever Conference to Reevaluate Just War Theory, Justifications for Violence
RELIGION, 11 April 2016
Joshua J. McElwee - National Catholic Reporter
Pope Francis I
5 Apr 2016 – The Vatican will be hosting a first of its kind conference next week to reexamine the Catholic Church’s long-held teachings on just war theory, bringing some 80 experts engaged in global nonviolent struggles to Rome with the aim of developing a new moral framework that rejects ethical justifications for war.
Participants say the conference — to be cohosted by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the global Catholic peace network Pax Christi International April 11-13 — may recommend displacing the centuries-old just war theory as the main Catholic response to violence.
They also express hope that Pope Francis might take up their conversations by deciding to focus his next encyclical letter, the highest form of teaching for a pontiff, on issues of Catholic peacemaking.
Terrence Rynne, a U.S. theologian who will be attending the event, said he considers it “phenomenally important.”
“Coming out of it, Pope Francis might see his way clear to articulate a fresh vision of peacemaking to the church,” said Rynne, who helped found Marquette University’s Center for Peacemaking. “That would be wonderful.”Just war theory is a tradition that uses a series of criteria to evaluate whether use of violence can be considered morally justifiable. First referred to by fourth century bishop St. Augustine of Hippo, it was later articulated in depth by 13th century theologian St. Thomas Aquinas and is today outlined by four conditions in the formalCatechism of the Catholic Church.
The de-facto definition of Just War based on the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.
A number of theologians have criticized continued use of the theory in modern times, due to the powerful capabilities of modern weapons and evidence of the effectiveness of nonviolent campaigns in response to unjust aggression.
The Catechism currently outlines as one criteria for moral justification of war that “the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated” and notes that “the power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.”
Conference organizers say in a note to participants about the April event that just war teaching “can no longer claim center stage as the Christian approach to war and peace.”
“After more than 1,500 years and repeated use of the just war criteria to sanction war rather than to prevent war, the Catholic Church, like many other Christian communities, is rereading the text of Jesus’ life and re-appropriating the Christian vocation of pro-active peacemaking,” they state.
“Emphasizing the need to work for a just peace, the Church is moving away from the acceptability of calling war ‘just,'” they continue. “While clear ethical criteria are necessary for addressing egregious attacks or threats in a violent world, moral theologians and ethicists should no longer refer to such criteria as the ‘just war theory,’ because that language undermines the moral imperative to develop tools and capacity for nonviolent conflict.”
As part of their goals for the conference, organizers state they seek a “new articulation of Catholic teaching on war and peace, including explicit rejection of ‘just war’ language.”
They state that they want “an alternative ethical framework for engaging acute conflict and atrocities by developing the themes and practices of nonviolent conflict transformation and just peace.”
April’s conference will be the first to be cohosted by the Vatican’s pontifical council and Pax Christi, an international Catholic coalition akin to Amnesty International that maintains separate national groups in many countries.
Started in 1945 by a French laywoman and a French bishop in the aftermath of the Second World War, Pax Christi has long sought to address the root causes of conflict and advocate for nonviolent solutions.
The conference is being organized around four sessions allowing participants to dialogue and share experiences with one another. The only scheduled talk at the event is to be given by Cardinal Peter Turkson, the head of the pontifical council.
The four sessions are given the themes: Experiences of Nonviolence, Jesus’ Way of Nonviolence, Nonviolence and Just Peace, and Moving Beyond Unending War.
Each of the sessions is being led by experts in the separate topic areas, including: Rose Marie Berger, an editor at Sojourners magazine and social justice activist; Fr. John Dear, a former Jesuit known internationally for his writings and civil disobedience actions; Maria Stephan, a senior policy fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace; and Lisa Sowle Cahill, a theologian at Boston College.
Rynne said that the participants are hoping their discussions will allow them to draft some sort of document summarizing their sessions. The organizers’ note to participants says they hope to create an “action plan for promotion of Catholic teaching on war and peace, violence and nonviolence.”
Rynne said that participants are coming from many places, including: Chile, Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya, Palestine and Burundi.
“It’s a dream that I’ve had for a long time that the church would embrace peacemaking as its central manta, and not have the just war theory be settled teaching the way it has been for so many centuries,” said the theologian.
“If people understood they had this powerful method of non-violent action that has been demonstrably proven again and again, we would begin to move away” from just war theory, he said.
________________________________
Joshua J. McElwee is NCR Vatican correspondent. His email:jmcelwee@ncronline.org.
Plain Truth Ministries
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Plain Truth Ministries proclaims authentic Christianity without the religion.
Our work is Christ-centered, based on God's amazing grace, giving hope to those burned out by legalistic religion.
Our work is Christ-centered, based on God's amazing grace, giving hope to those burned out by legalistic religion.
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We believe in one eternal, triune God in three co-essential, yet distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. - Jesus Christ
We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, begotten of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, fully God and fully human, the Son of God and Lord of all, worthy of worship, honor and reverence, who died for us as a supreme expression of God's love, was raised bodily from the dead, ascended to heaven and will come again as King of kings. - The Holy Scriptures
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If you are a new student of the Bible, feeling a little intimidated and overwhelmed by the task of reading and studying this incredible collection of 66 books that we call the Bible, this study series is for you! And even if you have read and studied the Bible for 50 years, we think that you will learn and profit from the CWR Bible Survey! We believe the CWR Bible Survey will not only be fascinating, but it will help you to better know the true Word of God, Jesus Christ.
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Books by Greg Albrecht
A Taste of Grace —A Taste of Grace is an easy-to-read page-turning exploration of God's amazing grace, demonstrated and illustrated by the teachings of Jesus.
A Taste of Grace reveals God's grace as irreconcilably opposed to the core values and beliefs of institutionalized religion.
A Taste of Grace reveals God's grace to be an absurd and foolish sentiment that doesn't add up to the human mind.
A Taste of Grace reveals God's grace as irreconcilably opposed to the core values and beliefs of institutionalized religion.
A Taste of Grace reveals God's grace to be an absurd and foolish sentiment that doesn't add up to the human mind.
Rejecting Religion—Embracing Grace —Join Greg Albrecht as he examines what Jesus has to say about the kingdom of religion, through an eye-opening study of Jesus' sermon in Matthew 23. Jesus uses words like woe, hypocrites, blind, greedy, self-indulgent, unclean, desolate, hell and snakes to describe the religious industry, its professionals and the consequences it brings into the lives of those it "serves." But the kingdom of heaven, in stark contrast to the oppressive kingdom of religion, is a spiritual dimension of freedom and peace. Rejecting Religion—Embracing Grace affirms the ultimate victory of God's grace—even as the relentless waves of his grace will eventually erode and cover the shifting sands of religion like the waters cover the sea.
Spiritual Soup for the Hungry Soul —Greg's fifth book is a collection of 48 carefully selected messages Greg has previously given at Christianity Without the Religion. With nearly 400 compelling and inspiring pages, this is the most substantial of Greg’s books to date, so while you may be tempted to read it all at once—we recommend reading a little at a time. Spiritual Soup for the Hungry Soul makes a great devotional or a companion to other studies and resources you may use as you journey through the year.
Spiritual Soup for the Hungry Soul –Volume 2 —A second collection of 48 sermons previously given at the teaching ministry of Christianity Without the Religion. Another superb resource enabling the reader to consider timely messages for every week of the year.
Unplugging From Religion...Connecting With God —Get ready to know God who loves you more than you have ever imagined!
Get ready to discover how you can break free from religious shackles and embrace God's unconditional no-matter-what love for you.
Get ready to discover how you can break free from religious shackles and embrace God's unconditional no-matter-what love for you.
Between Religious Rocks and Life's Hard Places—101 Answers to Tough Questions About What You Believe. Greg answers 101 questions about Christianity and the Bible. From prayer to prophecy, from sin to salvation, from tithing to the Trinity—you'll come away from this book equipped with the tools and methodology to face life's spiritual issues grounded in God's grace.
Revelation Revolution—the Overlooked Message of the Apocalypse —is a revolution in the way that many have been trained and taught to think about biblical prophecy. Revelation Revolution is a grace-based, Christ-centered exploration of the biblical book of Revelation. Join many others in beginning to understand what the Bible's most misunderstood book really means.
Bad News Religion—the Virus That Attacks God's Grace. A guide to the most dangerous spiritual virus of the 21st century—the deadly virus of religious legalism—the idea that you can do something that will make God more pleased with you. Bad News Religion shows you how to spot legalism and tells how to identify healthy, Christ-centered, grace-based Christianity.
By Monte Wolverton
Chasing 120—A Story of Food, Faith, Fraud and the Pursuit of Longevity Join PTM board member and nationally syndicated cartoonist Monte Wolverton for a fictional story that is so close to the religious dysfunction in your world today it might make you uncomfortable or you might laugh and cry
By Brad Jersak
A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospel Senior Editor, Brad Jersak (PhD. d.), is a theologian with a pastor's heart—a theologian who can actually be understood! This ground-breaking book and its Christ-centered message is deeply needed, especially within the world of Christendom. Highly acclaimed and endorsed, and critically important.
All nine of these life-changing books are available through Plain Truth Ministries.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q. Is Plain Truth Ministries (PTM) financed by or affiliated with a church or denomination?
A. No. We partner with and provide resources to other ministries and well as small groups and individual congregations. But we are not dependent on any other ministry or church.
Q. How is PTM financed?
A. The vast majority of our support is from the generous contributions of our dedicated Friends and Partners. The remainder of our income is derived from resource sales and miscellaneous income. PTM is a 501(c)(3) charity, registered with the IRS. Contributions to PTM are tax-deductible in the U.S.
Q. Who is Greg Albrecht?
A. Greg Albrecht is president and CEO of Plain Truth Ministries, teaches at PTM's online church, Christianity Without the Religion, and Editor of our two magazines. You can read a short biography by clicking here.
Q. How is PTM governed?
A. As a nonprofit corporation, PTM is governed by a board of directors. PTM's operations are conducted by a small staff, directed by president Greg Albrecht.
Q. The title of your weekly online worship service – and the tagline on Plain Truth magazine – is Christianity Without the Religion. Isn't Christianity a religion? Just what do you mean by religion?
A. Religion can be defined in various ways, but its popular connotation is any system of practice and observance intended to make people more acceptable to God. By that definition, authentic Christianity is not a religion – because authentic Christianity is not about human effort that enhances our standing with God, but about what God has done for us.
Q. Where are your offices?
A. In the city of Duarte, California.
Q. What radio stations are you on?
A. Plain Truth ministries has chosen to put its resources into the Internet, where Christianity Without the Religion (our worldwide online church) and Plain Truth radio are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week around the world. Some PTM Partners and groups of our supporters choose to sponsor our programs on local stations. Other stations run our programs free of charge, but as this varies from week to week, we have no set listing of stations.
Q. Is PTM connected with the late evangelist Herbert Armstrong?
A. He is part of PTM's history, as he founded Plain Truth magazine in 1934. Although Armstrong was a popular religious broadcaster for many years, his doctrines were deeply flawed. After his death in 1986, Plain Truth magazine and its parent organization, Worldwide Church of God, underwent significant doctrinal reform, abandoning Armstrong's flawed teachings and embracing the good news of the gospel of grace. Plain Truth Ministries was formed in 1996 and has published the new Plain Truth magazine since that time. PTM is no longer involved or affiliated with the Worldwide Church of God (itself renamed Grace Communion International). Our former history of legalistic oppression motivates PTM to warn against religious legalism, to teach sound Christian doctrine and to boldly proclaim God's amazing grace!
Q. The word "religion" seems to get slammed by PTM. Doesn't James 1:27 say, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." This seems to say that religion isn't necessarily bad!
A. James 1:27 tells us about pure and undefiled religion– implying that there is such a thing as impure and defiled religion. So not all religion is good. The idea behind many words changes over time. Religion is such a word. Religion can be used as a term for any kind of belief or faith in God. Religion thus may refer to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, etc. Many secular individuals dismiss all religion as useless, as an emotional crutch that some people seem to need to make it through the day.
However, there is another meaning attached to the word "religion" today to which The New Testament is absolutely opposed. The popular, common denominator of religion is the idea that humans must do, perform and produce works, deeds, virtues or behaviors as stipulated by rituals, rites and regulations. The idea is that having performed ceremonies, having followed religious prescriptions, priests, pills and potions, then God is more pleased with humans than he otherwise would have been. This is the fundamental difference between biblical Christianity and religion in general (whether it be a non-Christian religion, or a practice which claims to be Christian). The gospel of Jesus Christ insists that God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We are, according to the gospel, incapable of pleasing and appeasing God on the basis of our works. That is the definition of religion that PTM uses– and opposes, for it is the enemy of the gospel.
However, there is another meaning attached to the word "religion" today to which The New Testament is absolutely opposed. The popular, common denominator of religion is the idea that humans must do, perform and produce works, deeds, virtues or behaviors as stipulated by rituals, rites and regulations. The idea is that having performed ceremonies, having followed religious prescriptions, priests, pills and potions, then God is more pleased with humans than he otherwise would have been. This is the fundamental difference between biblical Christianity and religion in general (whether it be a non-Christian religion, or a practice which claims to be Christian). The gospel of Jesus Christ insists that God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We are, according to the gospel, incapable of pleasing and appeasing God on the basis of our works. That is the definition of religion that PTM uses– and opposes, for it is the enemy of the gospel.
Q. Could you please differentiate between legalism and fundamentalism in an easy to understand definition? I think I understand for the most part. Is there an overlap in their definitions or are they two totally different entities? Thank you very much and I also thank Plain Truth Ministries for all it offers.
A. Thanks for your question— responding to it might serve to sharpen my thinking. Legalism is the religious viewpoint that proposes that our performance of deeds enhances our relationship with God. Legalism can lead one to fundamentalism. Legalism is the virus (somewhat like HIV) that leads to the full blown toxic condition of fundamentalism (somewhat like AIDS). Fundamentalism is the religious viewpoint that proposes that its teachings and practices are the one and only true religion. Fundamentalism is an environment in which legalism thrives. Fundamentalism is the organized religious/political movement that gives birth to sects, cults, exclusivist parties, groups and denominations. Fundamentalism is fueled by legalism. Thus, it would seem that all fundamentalists are legalists, but not all legalists are fundamentalists. The self-love of legalism, the glorification of human performance as something with which God is supposedly well pleased, can eventually turn into the monster of fundamentalism, which not only is about self-love, but now is adversarial, demonizing those who do not agree, eventuating in hatred, bigotry, and war. Legalism can seem harmless, in which those who are infected begin to focus on religious pills, potions, prescriptions and priests as their saviors— but it can turn into the nasty, malicious monster of fundamentalism. Our cover story, in the July-August 2007 Plain Truth, was titled "The Gathering Storm of Fundamentalism" —it might provide further insights.
The Plain Truth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Plain Truth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Plain Truth, a former free of charge monthly magazine, was first published in 1934 by Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of The Radio Church of God, which he later named The Worldwide Church of God. The magazine gradually developed into an international, free of charge news magazine, sponsored by the WCG church membership. The magazine's meesages often centered on the controversial doctrine ofBritish Israelism, the belief that the early inhabitants of the British Isles, and hence their descendants, were actually descendants of theTen Lost Tribes of Israel.
The Plain Truth
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The Plain Truth, a former free of charge monthly magazine, was first published in 1934 by Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of The Radio Church of God, which he later named The Worldwide Church of God. The magazine gradually developed into an international, free of charge news magazine, sponsored by the WCG church membership. The magazine's meesages often centered on the controversial doctrine ofBritish Israelism, the belief that the early inhabitants of the British Isles, and hence their descendants, were actually descendants of theTen Lost Tribes of Israel.
By 1986, The Plain Truth was published in seven languages. The magazine's monthly circulation was roughly 8.2 million; in contrast,Time magazine's 1986 monthly circulation was 5.9 million.
After Armstrong's death in 1986, new WCG leadership sought to change the core principles of WCG Church doctrine, quashed publication of Armstrong's writings, sold off most of the church's holdings and began offering magazine subscriptions for sale. WCG leadership eventually changed the name of the organization and embraced positions closer to those of mainstream Protestantism.
The Plain Truth magazine as founded by H. W. Armstrong is no longer in print, however, two organizations, legally unrelated to each other or the original group, currently publish a magazine under the same name, one in the United Kingdom and one in the United States.
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