Mass media that unites

Conservative religious people decry what they see as a liberal media unsympathetic to their worldview. Liberal Protestants and Catholics wonder why the media deploys the umbrella term “Christians” but seems to mean mostly people who sound nothing like them. People of other faiths may wonder why they rarely appear in the news except to represent extremism of some form. It seems as if the media aids rather than ameliorates the growing polarization of the American populace.

Eighty-nine years ago an interfaith group of activists and religious and political leaders aimed to use the nascent radio and movie industries to bring people of different faiths, races, and ethnicities together. The presidential campaign of New York governor Al Smith, the first Catholic to run for the office, heightened nativist and anti-Catholic sentiments around the country, which colluded with anti-Semitic attitudes. In response, a 1927 conference formed the National Council of Christians and Jews for the Advancement of Justice, Amity and Peace (NCCJ). Nationally recognized leaders like Jane Addams, Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Marshall, and Henry Morgenthau served on the organization’s advisory council.

The NCCJ made its stated goal to “publish the fact continually before the American people that the country’s best leadership is on the side of understanding and good-will between people of divergent kinds and creeds.” It aimed to achieve its objective through educational campaigns at college campuses across the nation, clergy and theological students, local goodwill councils, and conferences.