The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) is a sustained, and sustaining, presence of quality journalism, which faces all the challenges faced by other news media, but from the inside of the religious community. Their solution is a formula of diverse editions and high-quality journalism in articles on issues not often addressed by other news media.

The writing is bright and the reporters’ perspectives are refreshing.

The CS Monitor Weekly is particularly notable for colorful pictures, thoughtful graphs, and charts.  An innovation is sustained with an inset box for each article with a statement in response to the query “Why We Wrote This (article)”.

Of particular note is the feature in the Christian Science “Weekly of Points of (Global) Progress” feature. In a 2019 Weekly (November 11 2019), a double page spread provides descriptions of 5 Points of Progress, including a little noted United Nations refugee agency report on stronger national contribution pledges to services for stateless persons, use of electronic bar codes to verify mineral ore sources to monitor global child labor standards, the increase in the number of women as head cattle farmers in Brazil, steps to reduce the size of the hole in the ozone layer, Iraq college students translating academic Wikipedia web pages into Arabic, and Iran women newly attending national soccer matches (albeit temporary and segregated from men). The perspective is consistently global and universal.

This Points of Progress is a notable feature and it is cumulative and sustained from Weekly to Weekly.  It is the cumulative effect of the regular Points of Progress and the substantive nature of the points selected that impact the reader.

Quakers: Quakers missed the journalism boat.  The only continuing Quaker journalism is in personal blogs, like that of Chuck Fager, which retains a journalism tone.

Questions:

• Are Quakers hesitant to become journalists?
• If Quakers created a public news source, would Quakers contribute something innovative and unique to public discussion?

Resources:

• The Christian Science Monitor, Christian Science Publishing Society