Evangelicals hot topic in The Globe and Mail forum
TORONTO, ON—When Lorna Dueck, executive producer and host of Listen Up TV was asked to write web exclusive commentary for Canada's leading national daily newspaper, the opinion piece became a web magnet.
"Certainly in the months of October and November, it was the most widely read [web exclusive comment]; both on the day of publication and the day after publication," says globeandmail.com executive editor, Jim Sheppard.
Addressing Ted Haggard
Dueck's piece, "The evangelical leadership has a lot to answer for" was posted to the The Globe and Mail website November 7 and addressed the fall of Ted Haggard, pastor and former president of the National Association of Evangelicals in the U.S.
Describing the column as "very thoughtful" and "provocative," Sheppard says "it was in the top 10 read stories on the site during those two days."
For her part, Dueck says she was surprised to learn her column numbered among the most read. When asked what that level of response might indicate about broader culture, she laughs, "maybe evangelicals are just really good at spamming their friends," then adds, "this subject ranked right up there with the stock quotes, with the sports scores, with the headlines of the day. I found that remarkable."
Dueck was also asked by the Globe to respond to readers' questions in a special question and answer (Q&A) session conducted throughout November 7. That feature was in the top 10 "for several days at least," says Sheppard. "The cumulative totals were stunningly high," he adds.
While Sheppard would not provide actual reader statistics for either feature, he says the newspaper's website ranks among the top five news-oriented sites in Canada, generating more than four million unique visitors each month, and more than one billion page views in a calendar year.
Hot button issues
Sheppard attributes some of the popularity to the fact that the site's readers respond to "certain hot button issues," and the Ted Haggard situation touched on a few of those; namely religion, scandal and homosexuality.
Six days later, on November 13, globeandmail.com asked Aileen Van Ginkel, director of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's Centre for Ministry Empowerment to respond to reader questions online during a one-hour feature titled, "Ask an Evangelical." Part of a regular globeandmail.com series focused on faith, Van Ginkel's answers came two weeks after a similar feature titled "Ask a Witch" and prior to "Ask a Buddhist."
Sheppard says Van Ginkel's Q&A also generated "incredibly high traffic," and adds that all of the discussions in that series have done well in terms of reader response. He says Globe staffers got the idea for the series when they noticed high numbers of comments in other discussions about political or social issues that either came from a religious perspective or attacked a religious perspective.
"We thought it would be a good idea to invite representatives from various faiths to take questions about their faiths…to generate greater understanding," he explains.
More than 100 readers submitted questions for Van Ginkel's consideration; ranging from "I am a homosexual. Does Jesus still love me?" to "What do you do with the fact that the Bible is self-contradictory and that there is absolutely no verifiable evidence for the existence of your God?"
Fast and furious
Van Ginkel says the questions came "fast and furious," and admits she found the format challenging. "It's a medium that I'm unfamiliar with," she says. "I'd never done an online chat before—and in more or less real time—so there was very little time." But what she struggled with even more she says, was the tone of many of the more than 60 comments posted following the discussion. "A lot of them indicated people were upset that I didn't use logical answers, but I answered out of my own faith experience," Van Ginkel explains.
Hurt by judgemental church
Dueck has also continued to receive feedback following the Q&A. "It tells me that our culture has been hurt by a judgemental Church," she says, "but that our culture is also convicted of sin and living in that tension. [People] are looking to understand why they feel so distant from the teachings of Christianity and why there's such a chasm between our reality and theirs."
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