By Lian Bunny
Assistant News Editor
Students explored the controversy of religion and media during a lecture given by Judith Buddenbaum, professor emerita in the department of journalism and technical communication at Colorado State University.
The lecture titled, “Religious Scandals: Can People Do Whatever They Want in the Name of Religion?” was given in the Dresser Auditorium of the Murphy Professional Building on Tuesday, April 8.
Buddenbaum’s talk explored the limits of the First Amendment in the face of “scandalous” acts performed in the name of religion. The speech incorporated material from the book she published in 2009 on media coverage of religious scandals in American history titled, “Religious Scandals (Scandals in American History).”
The basis of Buddenbaum’s lecture emphasized the problem of religion within federal laws. By citing specific court cases chronologically, Buddenbaum highlighted how the history of this controversy is inconclusive.
Buddenbaum often referred back to the perceived founding of America as a Christian nation, while recognizing early efforts for religious toleration citing Thomas Jefferson. In his Notes on Virginia, Jefferson writes, “But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
To portray the unsatisfying question to the problem of religion in federal law, she referred to People v. Ruggles and Burston v. Wilson.
In 1811, John Ruggles was taken to court for yelling blasphemy at a neighbor in Salem, N.Y. He was arrested, indicted and found guilty.
Ruggles appealed to the Supreme Court, claiming that New York did not have a law against blasphemy. Once again, Ruggles was found guilty.
However, Buddenbaum cited Burston v. Wilson from 1952, in which an anti-Christian movie was released in New York and later brought to court. Wilson, the commissioner of education of New York, claimed that the First Amendment did not protect movies.
The conclusion of this case is incongruent with People v. Ruggles, Buddenbaum said. The Supreme Court ruled the movie did get First Amendment protection and states cannot make theological decisions about religion.
In her conclusion, Buddenbaum said she does not believe any theologies have simple answers to these questions of religion in federal law. She stated the Christian label is being used too broadly and is causing membership in churches to decline.
Buddenbaum has taught for more than 20 years at Colorado State University, which has distinguished programs on religion and media. Prior to this job, she worked as a reporter and taught at Indiana University and St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.
During her academic career, Buddenbaum has authored or edited six books on media coverage of religion. In addition, she published several dozen book chapters and journal articles on similar subjects. Buddenbaum has lead nearly 20 professional workshops around the country and conducted more than 20 funded research projects.
When asked in the question and answer session about media’s role in controversial religious debates, Buddenbaum responded by saying media’s job should not be to tell the truth. She expanded on this to say an audience’s role is to find the truth. Media can never be objective; covering news is always a matter of selection, because not everything will fit. Instead, news organizations must choose what to include and what to omit, she said.
Nina LePres, a freshman English major, said she questioned social media coverage.
“My favorite part was her telling us about the other battles of religious scandals and how each case was defined and played out in the courtroom, the government offices or the social media,” LePres said.
“I found it very strange that many of us had never even heard of these cases, which makes me wonder how the use of journalism and social media is really approaching the coverage of these scandals.”
