Religion, which in Australia is thought of as a private matter, pops up in surprising areas of public life. In the past, Australian media outlets have tried to capture this reality by employing religion reporters who are specially equipped to cover the religion angles of the stories that affect our society and culture.
These journalists do not have to be religious by any means, but they do have to take religion seriously and be familiar with theological language and practice to do these important stories justice.
That's why today's report from the Catholic Weekly that the ABC will no longer require the head of the religion unit to be a religion specialist is more than a little surprising.
There's a skill to conveying ideas from a specialist area and translating that into language understandable to regular people — all the while maintaining the accuracy of the report. Like any other skill, it needs to be practised.
To ensure these skills continue to be honed and valued, specialist units are a necessary part of any news organisation. Some specialist areas like politics, sport and business are highly valued, and it would be crazy to give them an editor that hasn't invested considerable time and energy into forming a deep understanding of the subject.
Why should religion as a specialist area be any different? That the ABC's religion unit could be helmed by someone without such a level of understanding undervalues the importance and complexity of the religion beat in Australia.
The ABC has a commitment in its charter to 'reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community'. Without religion reporting from people with specialist journalistic backgrounds, the ABC risks losing what talent it has left in this area, which jeopardises its ability to fulfil its ongoing functions and responsibilities.
The ABC, like media outlets everywhere, is under considerable budgetary strain, which has meant cuts in some areas of specialist reporting. As Australia grows increasingly secular, the temptation is to erode religion as a separate beat. Why employ religion specialists if the country is becoming less religious?
"The low value placed on specialist religion reporting has become very clear. Coverage has either disappeared, or religion stories are only understood in terms of the left-right political spectrum and associated culture wars."
Like it or not, religion still plays a huge part in public life in Australia, which affects the lives of everyone, religious and nonreligious. The biggest, ongoing stories right now all contain a religious element and if journalists don't understand that element, how can they fairly and accurately report the story?
Religion is important to making sense of the west's response to the threat of Islamic terrorism. It continues to influence politics in the United States. The current discussions in Australia around free speech, same-sex marriage and abortion are all (in part) religious moral debates. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is mostly dealing with religious institutions. There's a religion story around every corner, so keeping people who have a sound knowledge of religion is a good investment.
But if religion weaves its way into multiple subject areas, why keep it as a separate beat with a separate editor? We've seen what happened in commercial news agencies when they made their specialist religion reporters redundant; the low value placed on specialist religion reporting has become very clear. Coverage has either disappeared, or religion stories are only understood in terms of the left-right political spectrum and associated culture wars.
This is one reason why conservative lobby groups like the Australian Christian Lobby have become the de facto Christian voice in Australian public discourse. They may only represent one aspect of Christian practice and belief in this country, but they're freely available for comment and they make sense to a media used to looking at the world through a political lens.
Why are Margaret Court's comments about same-sex marriage the biggest religion story of the week? As a world tennis champion-turned-Pentecostal pastor she is an unusual and significant person, yes, and her comments have begun to cause ructions in the international tennis scene. But her comments also fit easily into the pre-existing political narrative, and the resulting stories leave our received understanding of the world unchallenged.
Catholic social teaching doesn't make any sense on a left-right spectrum. It's taught by the largest Christian denomination in the country, but is it understood by those reporting on the Catholic Church?
There's grumbling about political siloing and how it's detrimental to public discourse. Protected in our bubbles, we're vulnerable to forces we don't understand, causing political surprises like the election of Donald Trump or the passing of Brexit. Religion continues to have a huge influence on Australian society while at the same time the population at large is becoming more secular and understanding of religion is dropping. Watering down religion reporting risks increasing this phenomenon as the religious forces which shape our society go unexplored and unexplained.
Religion specialists are vital to the fair and accurate reporting of Australian society and culture, and having an editor who understands the religion beat is vital to guiding their work.
Rohan Salmond is a freelance journalist. He tweets at @RJSalmond and is the producer of Godbeat, a podcast about religion journalism. Hear Rohan talk more about the role of religion reporting in Australian society on the latest special episode of the Chattersquare podcast.