On August 4th one of the three largest television networks in Germany (ZDF) broadcast a program that has since become the center of much outrage in the evangelical community in Germany. The program was an entry in a the television journal program "Frontal 21" (a US equivalent to 20/20) that focused on evangelical mission agencies. The reason for the broadcast was simple. Last spring, two 18 year old German girls were kidnapped and killed during an internship with families in Yemen. Using this tragedy as its starting point, this piece took as its premise that evangelical mission agencies entice young people to sign up for "adventure" missions--going into areas unfriendly to the Christian message--and do not take responsibility fo the outcomes. Perhaps most shocking was the comparison they tried to draw between people who are martyred in Christian missions with muslim suicide bombers. While this piece of wreckless journalism alone might have been enough to cause much consternation here at the AWM, to make matters worse, they featured our campus as a part of their report. And instead of coming to us to ask questions and perspectives, a couple reporters arrived at our campus acting as interested applicants and filmed short interviews with staff and faculty using hidden cameras. Two ironies in their even coming to us should not be missed. First, AWM is not a mission agency and thus, was irrelevant to their story. Second, on the same day, we were hosting a full-day interview with a reporter and a camera man from one of the major news magazines in Germany. Unlike the ZDF TV reporters, the magazine had called ahead, set up an appointment, and taken time to gather information for their report. In short, there was no reason for anyone to suspect that we had something to hide. Instead were were only treated as though we did in order to increase the drama (and bias) of their story.
What did we do to respond? Our director wrote a letter to the network and tried to do as much damage control as possible. But this kind of breach of trust (people, in effect tresspassing and using us to promote their own agenda) has been the hardest thing to swallow. Thankfully, we have received support from many sources, perhaps most surprising was the press released from the Lutheran/Reformed church of Germany, the largest protestant denomination that is not always favorable in their assessment of evangelicals. They did not mince words in denouncing the bias in the report and the poor reporting that stood behind it.
An unwanted 15 minutes of fame? Yes and no. On the one side it is bad press that ultimately puts our work in a bad light, however untrue. On the other side, it is an opportunity. It is a chance to be unfairly treated so that we perhaps we might have and unprecedented opportunity to testify to the Lord Jesus whom we serve.
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