A little more grace, Nancy

I don't know how many of you caught Nancy Grace's show where she talked about the Winkler case, but we did. In the first place, I don't like her. So, I guess that prejudice influenced me right off the bat. But, she got some no-name Southern Baptist pastor to comment on what the church of Christ is. Isn't that a bit like asking a Hindu to talk about Muslims? Or, Catholics to talk about Jews? I mean, come on. What kind of reporting is this? Check out the transcript below.


TRANSCRIPT:
NANCY GRACE: A well-respected and much beloved minister in the Church of Christ, Selmer, Tennessee, gunned down in his own home. His wife, according to many reports, has confessed to police. They say whodunnit is not the issue, it`s why she did it. That is the question.
I want to go to pastor Tom Rukala, joining us tonight, a special guest, a Baptist minister. I`ve been researching the Church of Christ. I don`t know that much about it. What can you tell me?
PASTOR TOM RUKALA, BAPTIST PASTOR: Well, the Church of Christ is a relatively new church. It was started about 150 years ago by Alexander Campbell (ph). And it's, unfortunately, a very legalistic sect, and they tend to use methods of intimidation and pressure tactics. They claim that they are the only ones going to heaven, and all other people are condemned to hell. So in case…
GRACE: Uh-oh, I`m in trouble. But I already knew that.
(LAUGHTER)
GRACE: Now, wait a minute. What more can you tell me?
RUKALA: Well, they claim that if you`re not baptized by one of their ministers, that you`re doomed to hell, even if you`re a believer in Jesus Christ, which, of course, breaks completely from the traditional Christian view that all those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved because we`re saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose again. For the Church of Christ folks, that`s not enough. You have to be a member of their narrow sect. It`s a very exclusive group. And if you're not a member of their sect, you`re condemned.
GRACE: You know, Pastor, you keep saying “sect.” “Sect.” You make it sound like a cult.
RUKALA: It kind of is a borderline cult, unfortunately. I don`t want to make it out to be some kind of Hare Krishna group, but it has cult-like characteristics and…
GRACE: In what sense?
RUKALA: Well, in the sense of the exclusivism, the attitude that they are the only ones who know the truth. The tactics that they use are sometimes just — not only un-biblical but unethical, and they can be very ungracious, unfortunately.

So...the CofC was called a cult on national TV. Now, I have some issues with certain attitudes displayed by some members of the CofC, but I don't think these exclusivist attitudes are limited to this one group. There are members who feel exactly as this guy said, but I know a lot of CofC members who absolutely do not feel this way. To characterize the entire group like this was irresponsible and downright wrong. Ms. Grace displayed the antithesis of responsible journalism here. She sold her birthright for sensationalism and it did nothing to shed any light on the Winkler case which was supposedly what her piece was about.

It made me mad. It made me sad. She was attacking something dear to me...even though that something has warts. Just present the facts, ma'am. But get the facts straight.