On Saturday, Nov. 9, the Los Angeles Times posted a story headlined “Anti-Prop. 8 protests spring up in California.”  A photo showed angry protesters waving signs accusing Mormons of “hatred,” and proclaiming “I am a second class citizen.”  The Times quoted several speakers at an anti-Prop. 8 rally, including a woman who called traditional marriage supporters “bigots, bigots, bigots.”  Ignoring minimal standards of decency, not to mention journalist ethics, the Times gave Prop. 8 supporters no opportunity defend their honor.

A Nov. 10 AP/New York Times story, “In California, More Protests Over a Vote On Marriage,” focused on 1,000 protesters gathered Sunday outside Saddleback Church, the evangelical Protestant megachurch pastored by Rick Warren.  The story described protesters as “advocates of equal rights for gay people.”  A “volunteer” from the Human Rights Campaign, a gay pressure group, accused Saddleback of spreading “misinformation” and telling “obvious lies.” 

The reporter didn’t try very hard to allow Saddleback to respond: “A message for comment left at the church’s main office, which was closed on Sunday, was not immediately returned.”

A secular reporter can be forgiven for not knowing that Christian church offices are usually closed on Sundays.  But shouldn’t he have learned, somewhere along the line, that churches themselves are open for business?  The reporter was on the Saddleback campus.  If he had bothered to peek through the windows, he surely would have seen a few people milling about.  Did it not occur to this intrepid soul to walk into the church and ask Pastor Warren to reply? 

Perhaps he was too busy bonding with those angry protesters.