Episcopal Press and News
Community Now: A New Venture in Religious Journalism
Diocesan Press Service. January 27, 1969 [73-18]
Michael Murray
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Can spiritual convictions contribute to the resolution of a city's social and economic crises ?
The religious congregations of Kansas City which joined to form a Metropolitan Inter-Church Agency believe that they can and should act together in every aspect of the city's life which involves the moral and physical health of its citizens. Now, after two years of activity in the many and complex areas of urban affairs, a new instrument has been added for the accomplishment of their mission.
The idea took shape when the police action and subsequent rioting after the assassination of Martin Luther King last April revealed the extent to which the community was polarized. Kansas City's only morning and evening newspapers are published and edited by the same people. Readers are often ill informed of the situation, activities and viewpoints of the city's poor, black and younger minorities.
"Increased polarization is inevitable," writes Dr. W. Paul Jones of Saint Paul's School of Theology, "because if black and white hear different things, there can be no trust, no community, no dialogue, no reconciliation. Rather than averting crisis, the present news policies are actually aggravating an already tense situation, moving us more quickly to a confrontation that is far more costly than the encounter with verbal truth. "
It was apparent that a growing body of well informed and truly concerned citizens was essential to the task of healing these divisions and of building a more humane community for all. Only the Roman Catholic diocesan newspaper, The New People, had given full coverage of last April's events as seen from "the other side." So, sensing the urgent need to bridge the communication gap and to build a community of concern, a group of Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish citizens formed a not-for-profit foundation to publish a weekly newspaper which would report on the work of the churches, interpret current events in the light of religious, ethical values and open its columns to minority views.
Last August, Community Now was launched with Albert de Zutter, editor of the New People which the new publication now replaced, at the helm under a board of directors presided by The Rev. John H. Lembke, urban affairs officer of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri.
Although sponsored mainly by churchmen and launched with a grant from the multi-denominational Joint Strategy and Action Committee at the national level, Community Now is independent of any church body or ecclesiastical control. Clergy and laymen, Christians and Jews, Black and White, serve on its governing board as individuals and the enterprise aims to become self-supporting within the next year or two.
During its first four months, Community Now, located at 2045 Main Street, Kansas City, Mo. 64108, has reported on such current issues as police-community relations, urban renewal proposals, public education and the activities of black community organizations. News of church groups and ecumenical developments are also reported. Catholic, Protestant and Jewish readers are gaining new insights into each other's faith and community life.
But the paper's prime mission is to serve the metropolitan area as a whole rather than the churches as separate institutions. A wide variety of contributors discuss controversial issues ranging from plumbing codes and student movements to long-range city planning and alternatives to the welfare system, seeking to provoke public debate in which the hurts and perspectives of unrepresented sectors of society are fully heard.
When a group representing the poor, for example, drew up their criticisms of the United Fund's priorities, they were unable to get their protest reported in the press. "If something is ignored it will die," representatives of the news media assured members of the Fund's board. As a result, the Fund's policy went undebated, unscrutinized, until Community Now challenged the established media to present their case.
