Which Planet Are We On? — Boundaries in News Reporting of Religious Issues
On a glorious Sunday morning last September, I swam in the Mediterranean, just 110 km from Rome. As I enjoyed the limpid waters and the glorious sunshine, my feeling was that I was definitely on planet Earth.
Back home, just 10 minutes away by car, I switched on the TV news. I was watching RAI News 24, which is a prestigious channel and part of the Italian national broadcasting service. As usual, they were giving some coverage of the Pope’s Sunday audience. Nothing unusual about that, I thought, as they always do.
The news tickers floated by, Trump, Brexit, North Korea, Iran. Then one caught my eye. It actually read “Pope — In the Kingdom of God, nobody is unemployed.” I thought I had misread it. I watched again and of course, missed it the second time. I always do, don’t you? But the third time, it confirmed my worst fears.
Fears? The Italian national public broadcaster is mentioning the Kingdom of God in a major headline at the start of the news- almost breaking news! Maybe they are just giving the Pope’s views on what to expect in the afterlife. It could be a Utopian view of how everyone should be gainfully employed. A model for this troubled planet of ours? There was then an extract from his speech. He said that everyone was paid a fair wage in the Kingdom of God.
