This is not about David Jang and the specific accusations made against him. I have no information beyond what Christianity Today and The Christian Post has already published. This is about encouraging a venture in Christian journalism to be more Christian and more journalistic

One of the more enjoyable facts about my present job is that I can, from my perch here at Patheos, see a fairly broad range of what’s going on in the world of Christian media. And lately, strange things have been afoot. No one seems to know quite what to do or say about it. Everyone seems to be waiting for the next shoe to drop. But let me see if I can explain what’s been going on and provide some perspective.  

On August 16th, Christianity Today published a lengthy, long-percolating piece on Korean pastor David Jang and the extended network of companies and organizations under his influence. Jang heads the Evangelical Assembly of Presbyterian Churches, founded Olivet University, and through Olivet and its student ministries (among other avenues) has apparently developed a very broad network of organizations that includes International Business Times, Young Disciples of Jesus (YD), Apostolos Campus Ministries, The Christian Post, Christian Today (not to be confused with Christianity Today) and Gospel Herald. In that list, the name that will raise the most eyebrows, amongst my readers, is The Christian Post. Of Christian media websites in the United States, The Christian Post draws the largest audience; its reporters cover news of interest to Christians, and it reprints columns and newsletters (often in the form of guest columns) from the likes of Al Mohler, Richard Land, Eric Metaxas (formerly Chuck Colson, as it reprints the Breakpoint commentaries) and Russell Moore.  

The piece in Christianity Today is meticulously researched and finely calibrated, going to great length (it’s eleven pages) to consider the many sides of this complex story and to consider what can be fully substantiated and to clarify what cannot. It was written by Christianity Today‘s managing editor, Ted Olsen, and by Ken Smith, an independent writer who attended Bethany University in California, which went under, and began to investigate Olivet University and the organization behind it after it took over Bethany’s campus in some ways he found ethically suspect. Smith clearly has devoted a great deal of time to untangling the relationships between Jang and the many organizations under his umbrella, but it is Ted Olsen’s considerable credibility, and his obvious influence in producing such a carefully modulated story, that gives it real heft.  

The essence of the story was that David Jang appeared to have been involved with Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church — but claimed to have taught at Sun Moon University, for instance, only in order to confer orthodox theology to members of the Unification Church — and may have taken over a rather distinctive Moonie tenet: that he is the Christ of the Second Coming. At least, some former members of the movement David Jang leads claim that they were led to confess that he was “the Second Coming Christ.” It’s possible that Jang himself never taught this, and that his lieutenants presently no longer teach it. Jang has been investigated several times for heresy, but has largely been acquitted, albeit amidst allegations (from some) of influence-peddling and threats and intimidation from Jang followers. The net result of the article is to depict the Olivet Movement as (quite possibly) having some vaguely cultish elements: an extraordinarily high view of the exalted status of its founder, a tendency to give secret teachings that are proffered to the chosen within the fold but publicly denied, and a practice of ostracizing anyone who leaves the movement and attacking anyone who criticizes it.  

It all makes for a fascinating story, and certainly one that falls in the “important, if true” category. I have to confess that I don’t know the truth of the matter. It’s theoretically possible that there has been an elaborate conspiracy to bring down Jang and his affiliated enterprises.  

But the rest of this post really has nothing to do with Jang and the “Second Coming Christ” allegation. It has to do with journalism, and specifically journalism within the Christian fold.  

Christianity Today is famously careful. When you work at the helm of a magazine with a legacy like theirs, you always have people pressing you to write one story or another, to attack one group or another, and the leadership at Christianity Today has always been circumspect. They went through an extensive deliberation process before publishing the piece, sought an interview with Jang but were refused, submitted versions of the story and received lengthy counterarguments from Jang associates and The Christian Post, and published the story even against legal threats. All of this is reflected in the piece itself. After telling the whole story, Olsen and Smith essentially present the evidence against their story and indicate where any of their sources have credibility questions. You can practically hear them saying to one another, “Maybe we should put this in, so we can quote it to the judge after they sue us.”  

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