[teapourer]

Unfortunately, "most" is not sufficient here. In South Korea the majority of cases were spread through a small handful of church gatherings. Consequently I have come to think that media coverage such as this post is a net benefit to society, although it is undisputable that they cast many innocent people in a bad light.

[Brendinooo]

I don't think it'd be too hard to note that these churches are outliers. The author uses 'some' to cover three churches that are still meeting in person, and 'some' to mention that two other churches are not meeting in person.

Spend a few minutes at http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/database.html, see which one deserves the use of the word "some". Why couldn't the author determine which was more representative and thus accurately portray what most churches are doing? If I'm right and most churches have closed, wouldn't it be more persuasive to read an article that says "everyone who believes what you do is doing this, you should too"?

[ajross]

If 3 out of a sample of 5 are meeting, then they aren't outliers.

I agree, it would have been good to do a proper study, but surely you agree that the fact that these three are open is newsworthy, no? It's not science, it's journalism.

Did you similarly complain about the rigor of all the articles last weekend written about people being irresponsibly crowded in parks and on beaches?

[Brendinooo]

http://hirr.hartsem.edu/cgi-bin/mega/db.pl?db=default&uid=de...

The first 15 unique churches on this list that had active links are all meeting online. But the first 15 coin flips could be heads, I suppose.

It's newsworthy, but I'd much rather it be reported in a responsible way.

[ajross]

How would you report it then? I mean, I get that you're reading this as an attack on christians, but... my atheist eyes aren't seeing that. I see a short piece with a handful of (mildly horrifying) quotes from these three churches, followed by a note explaining how others are behaving more responsibly. Isn't that how this should be done?

[btilly]

We are used to the news format of presenting some who support side A, and those who are opposed, making it look like there is a balanced case. Seeing these stories makes it feel like we are getting balanced news. This makes for good TV.

However if the two "sides" are unequal, it gives the illusion of evenness when there is no actual equivalence.

You don't see this misrepresentation when it leaves an impression of an even split between churches that follow public health standards and those that don't. You do see this misrepresentation when it leaves the impression that there is a scientific debate about global warming. But the problem is the same in both cases - the format itself leads to systemic misrepresentations of the world.

[ajross]

I get the point, but I still don't see how you would prefer to report the relatively newsworthy fact that these three churches are holding services during a pandemic. How would you have framed the article?

[DonHopkins]

What's painfully ironic is that he reads it as an "attack" on Christians, when it's actually an ethical brotherly life-affirming attempt to prevent Christians from killing themselves AND other people.

When Christians kill other people or themselves, they go to hell (if you take their believes at face value). They should be THANKFUL to the people who are "attacking" them so they don't kill other people, kill themselves, then go to hell.

[mirimir]

With some effort, someone could document which megachurches are holding meatspace services. They could perhaps even do a prospective matched control study.

[abnry]

It's definitely a problem from a public health perspective, and that's why there should be legal measures to stop such large gatherings.

However, these types of articles are often used to cast aspersions on all Christians. That was essential the point of the parent comment. Why single out megachurches? You could find plenty of similar examples in the business, social and government realm of large groups continuing to meet.

[magduf]

>Why single out megachurches?

Why not? From my observations, megachurches tend to be very different from many other Christian churches, including in theology. Christians aren't all the same, but there are some definite things that many, if not most, megachurches have in common, that they don't share with other denominations. (Starting with "denominations", in fact: megachurches usually don't belong to one.)

[wolco]

For me the word mega in front of churches made me more concerned. Just because the crowds are so large.

The media's dislike for anything Christian makes this a two quadrant story.. possible three if the mega churches are in a red state.

[gumby]

> The media's dislike for anything Christian

Wait, what?

[whatshisface]

The phrase "the Media's stance" refers to the media as a whole, the average of all media. By definition the average will be between the least and the greatest, which means by definition the Media's stance on a topic will always be too P-slanted for Q-ists and too Q-slanted for P-ists.

[alharith]

Fun fact: by the popularized definition in the media, most of your Catholic and Orthodox churches would be "mega churches" as well, despite sharing little in common. They get lumped together statistically, however.

[dntrkv]

And there has been media coverage of those organizations. We should call all of them out.

Though going to church might be the worst of all options since church goers tend to skew more to the older side of the population.

[magduf]

>Though going to church might be the worst of all options since church goers tend to skew more to the older side of the population.

Actually, probably not, which is why "megachurches" is an important qualifier here. From my observations, megachurches tend heavily to be independent and evangelical, and tend to have much younger members. They also tend to have a lot of (Christian) rock music as part of the services. The old people don't join those churches; those people are still in the mainline Protestant churches they've been going to for many decades, which have traditional service, and don't preach to you that God loves rich people more.

[a3n]

I took "mega" to imply "right wing."

[chx]

It wasn't a small handful of church gatherings, it was spread countrywide by a cult hell bent on recruiting, often via underhanded tactics because people know better than to join them if stated outright. One person got infected, infected a gathering and they dispersed everywhere. Boom.