Pivot Points: Chapter 20

Current is grateful for P&R Publishing’s permission to serialize Marvin Olasky’s memoir, Pivot Points: Adventures on the Road to Christian Contentment.

Chapter 20: The Big Shock

Throughout Trump’s years in the White House, letters from World readers ask when I will admit my error regarding his unfitness to be president. Many point to his Supreme Court appointees as proof of his fitness. I say my mind isn’t changed, and while it will be good if the Court overturns Roe v. Wade, Trump will do great damage if millions of Americans associate pro-life views with disrespect for women and cruelty toward opponents.

Rather than offering suite-level opinionating, World for four years emphasizes strong street-level reporting. For example, since President Trump elevates immigration and border issues to the top of his agenda, we send one of our top reporters, Sophia Lee, to the border. She writes a series of articles that get below the dehumanizing rhetoric. We show our readers the faces of immigrants—and run a cover story about border guards as well.

Meanwhile, Susan and I now have five grandchildren in Texas. We move back to Austin full-time. Family first, but it reduces my contact with parts of my professional family. I make the mistake of no longer attending World board of directors meetings. I ask the CEO before each meeting, “Will the board discuss any editorial matters? Should I attend?” He always gives me the same answer: no reason to come, it’s just business.

In 2019, World holds a staff retreat. Looking around the conference room at the gathered staff, I’m grateful for God’s blessing and his mercy in bringing World through so many crises. We share those stories. The old-timers have heard them before, but we want the younger reporters to appreciate the values of the organization they now work for.

It’s not all work. Worldlings laugh, pray, hug, sing hymns, and talk about social lives and favorite movies. I have the rare jewel of editorial contentment and announce to the staff my “glide path” decision: I’ll train other editors during the next three years and retire from editing World on June 30, 2022,
thirty years from my starting point. Then I’ll continue to write columns and book reviews.

That’s my plan. Business and editorial leaders all tell me it’s a good one. We’ve watched other Christian organizations struggle with succession and hope World won’t be so troubled. Joel Belz graciously turned editorship of his magazine over to me in such an encouraging way. Will I be able to do the
same? We hire Michael Reneau, a newspaper editor who is levelheaded and experienced but still youthful. I train him to succeed me.

In 2020, the Covid pandemic shakes the world and World. Maybe it’s my age, but everyone I know is eager for a Covid vaccine. A Pittsburgh doctor (and World mid-career class graduate) keeps readers informed about when a vaccine will be available. He offers sound medical advice, advocates mask-wearing, and recommends other mitigation practices. In the second half of 2020, though, readers send me letters about a liberal plot to shut down churches.

The fast development of a Covid vaccine should have been a victory for the Trump presidency, but suddenly many conservatives raise objections to it. The conversation jolts from legitimate questions about aborted embryos to bizarre conspiracies. Suddenly World’s mainstream coverage is out of step with the fears of many World readers.

Our journalistic style may also be out of step. World continues to emphasize reporting, with only several columns mixed in, even though—as the Columbia Journalism Review puts it—“commentary is a cheap and powerful attraction.” Since reporting on the scene is expensive, it’s easier (and safer in Covid times) to stay in air-conditioned offices and hurl opinions: anger gets clicks. World writers and I, though, still yearn to report and write at street level.

With the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, and the demonstrations that follow, questions of racial prejudice are at the fore. World reports with sympathy and concern, but almost any talk of race brings accusations that the magazine is “going woke” and succumbing to “critical race theory.” If it’s a woke whistle to admit that racism remains a big problem, World has been awake since at least August 2001.That’s when we devote an entire issue to race and include a detailed timeline noting terrible events throughout American history.

Evangelicals with historical knowledge know how hundreds of colleges founded by Christians, starting with Harvard and Yale, have gone astray, so I can sympathize with “slippery slope” fears. World could deal with the disconnect between some readers and our editorial team by echoing Fox News and not running stories that challenge readers on the right. We choose to emphasize tough reporting. We’ll lose some readers, but we can look for new ones more aligned with our mission.

During Trump’s presidency, World’s paid circulation drops by about 3 percent each year. Donations are up, so World’s finances are in the best shape ever, but business executives have a legitimate concern: How many disgruntled World readers will head to The Epoch Times or other far-right organs? Since leaving Communism, I have consistently critiqued the left—but am becoming more aware of danger on the right. My own past helps me to relate to extremists: “Much to my shame—but Christ’s fame for His ability to change lives—I lived in an alternate universe during 1972 and 1973, so I know ideological addiction.”

The events of January 6, 2021, are a warning signal. World reporter Harvest Prude, who has lived with Susan and me as an intern, writes a vivid report about her experience when trapped in the Press Gallery of the House of Representatives. Some readers hate our cover story headline, “The Insurrectionist Heresy,” but an insurrection is an insurrection, no matter how feeble. I ask readers to remember that our deeper problems are theological, not political—and that Joe Biden, elected in November 2020, “is now the president of us all.”

Sure, much is going wrong in the United States, yet from my history reading and writing I know much has gone wrong many times before. Is the United States worse off in 2023 than it was in 1933, with 25 percent unemployment and those still employed earning 42 percent less than they had received four years earlier? Yes, in some ways—many community institutions are weaker—but not economically. Even if prospects are dire, shouldn’t Christians be the calm ones? We know the end of the story: God wins.

World maintains the same emphasis on Christ’s compassion that it’s always had, but there may be one difference. During the 1990s, we sometimes fell into a “gotcha” frame of mind, occasionally sounding like an elder brother scorning the younger brother, as in the parable of the prodigal son. My experience of being on the receiving end of gotcha stories in 2000 probably has some long-term effect. On July 2, 2021, I reiterate to readers that we will not conform to the prevailing school of journalistic marketing and its two-word formula: anger sells.

Famous last words. As World publishes them, the business side and the board have already decided to launch a new division devoted to regular online conservative commentary, under the authority of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Al Mohler. Essentially, World 2.0 is going up alongside World 1.0, and it’s clear that World 2.0’s sixty-four conservative columns each month will overwhelm in the public eye World 1.0’s eight
features and other reporting. None of World’s eight senior editors and reporters likes the World Opinions idea. It rankles that the business side has designed this plan and gained board approval behind our backs.

World’s two business executives tell me about the decision in mid-August. After twenty-nine years of collegiality, and ten years of considering World my all-in professional family, I’m stunned. They say this is strictly business and predict that spending a million dollars to add and promote a World Opinions site will add twenty thousand subscribers. I think the prediction is wrong, but that’s a business question. I argue that this extreme pivot goes against the journalistic independence from donors and advertisers that has allowed World to run stories that might displease those financial backers. The business heads, and three board members who back them, say nothing I say or do will change their views.

I think of resigning immediately but love World too much to do so. Throughout September and October, I desperately try to amend the plans. How about one column each day rather than three? How about putting columns through our regular editorial process? Since the prospective World Opinions writers are almost entirely conservative and white, I suggest thirteen politically moderate Christians, half of them from minority groups. Not even one of them makes the cut.

Even when it’s evident that suggesting changes to the World Opinions plan is almost certainly a waste of time, I still try, simply because I think of World as family and am so fond of the writers and editors we’ve trained and hired. I also don’t want to give up my connection to World subscribers who have been reading me for years. I’m grateful to get letters every week with comments like “You have given me perspective. You have helped me raise my family. You have encouraged me to work hard but not be fearful. You’ve encouraged me to keep calm and carry on.”

It’s fun to write for readers who know you. The World search engine attributes to me 3,325 articles over the years. My guess is that a tenth of them are flights of fancy about bowling with homeless guys, hosting hummingbirds, telling “Jesus versus monsters” bedtime stories about driving out evil spirits, and so forth. When a teacher sent a list of one hundred vocabulary words she wanted her students to learn, I wrote a column using all one hundred in alphabetical order. Another year I had a splint on my lft han middl fingr so ould not quikly typ anything with Cs, Ds, and Es.

I can write articles for a variety of publications, but how will I ever have such a great staff again, and such a long-term relationship with readers who enjoy my playfulness? It’s clear that several thousand World readers, including some major donors, are angry with World’s unwillingness to embrace Trumpism. But for me, the unkindest cut of all is the rapid change in personal relationships. At my end of my last discussion with World executives, I ask one who seems transformed by 2016–2021 political pressures, “What’s happened to you?”