The difficulty when dealing with religion is that the subject is one that millions take to be deeply personal and sacred. And so we respond sensitively. For example, the media’s recent portrayal of the Judas Gospel as fact, when the Church for centuries has ruled it as heresy, rankles true believers.

I’m convinced most of the difficulties arise from the media’s ignorance about Christian belief.

Take the case of General Peter Pace, who commented in a wide-ranging interview that certain acts are immoral, including adultery and homosexual sex. A torrent of outraged coverage followed. He was asked about his personal conviction and spoke plainly about something which, for many Americans, is a matter of orthodoxy. For those of us who believe the Bible, any sex outside of marriage is sinful and thus immoral. So for stating his deepest religious convictions, his integrity is impugned. This is grossly unfair.

Christians also wonder why so many movies and television shows depict Christians in a negative light. A study by the Parents Television Council in 2006 showed, “Over half (50.8%) of all entertainment television’s depictions of laity were negative.” Religious institutions, specific religious beliefs, and direct references to Scripture didn’t fair much better, “nearly half (47.6%) of which were negative.” Interestingly, the scripted drama and comedy shows had a much higher percentage of negative portrayals of religion (95.5%) than did the unscripted shows (4.5%). This indicates an interesting disparity between the public view of religion, and the views portrayed by many script-writers and producers.

In fairness, it should be noted that the media often gives very positive coverage when they understand what we’re doing. All the major news magazines have given very positive stories about the Christian faith in the last couple years, most notably this week, a cover story in Time about the need for Biblical literacy in the schools.

On balance, we need to remember that the press by its very character tends to be cynical and skeptical. It has to be. It has to penetrate the smokescreens put up by people and get at the truth. At the same time, Christians who often feel attacked by the press need to remember that we hold ourselves to a higher standard of behavior.

I would defend the rights of a free press as vigorously as I would defend the freedom of conscience that allows me to worship in my own faith openly.