I have to give credit to MSNBC's Chris Matthews for something he said at the beginning of today's Hardball featuring his interview with the Rev. Billy Graham:
MATTHEWS: On this Memorial Day, there are many pressing issues that are dividing the country...and for the majority of Americans, it is our personal religious beliefs that help us endure and perservere during these difficult times.
It was brave of Chris Matthews to put his faith out there like that, to publicly make a statement about his "personal religious beliefs" in such an upfront way in a medium--television news--that too often treats organized religion like a science: something to be studied and utilized if and when convenient, not something to be respected and accepted.
Later, in a segment taped at Rev. Graham's 3-day crusade in New York last summer, Matthews was clearly emotional and overwhelmed at being in Graham's presence, both during the interview and reporting from the sidelines of Graham's speech. Addressing the camera, Matthews' voice cracked:
MATTHEWS: Everyone thinks of evangelism as being a kind of a rural thing, as a kind of a country religion...and I think one of the messages [Graham] wanted to demonstrate here is that evangelism is very big here in a big city like New York...I was watching some white people and black people and different color people all being just as emotional about this chance to be saved...it's very dramatic. It kills your cynicism.
I just thought it was very human of a tough-guy journalist like Matthews to admit that sometimes, cynicism is a bad thing...and that a lot of the time, religion is a good thing. It was the opposite of what many Americans expect of the media elite, and Matthews should also be commended for speaking out against the acceptable contemporary bias of evangelism as "hick faith."
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» What kills Chris Matthews' cynicism? The Rev. Billy Graham, for starters
