he says, "are New York City, Wash ington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles —pretty much in that order. I be lieve generally that these cities should be the prime targets for Christian penetration now." The articles under Phillips' by line reach three quarters of a mil lion influential Times readers each day. And because the Times also syndicates much of its material, Phillips' readership can be multi plied into the millions. Frequently, his articles have clear Christian content or significance. He recent ly gave feature coverage to the evangelical book industry particu larly Ken Taylor and Tyndale Press. Another example of an evangel ical serving in the secular press is Dick Ostling, former news editor of Christianity Today. Some two years ago he joined Time maga zine's staff as a religion reporter. Time's coverage of the U.S. Con gress on Evangelism, W. A. Cris well's defense of Biblical inspira tion and the vigor of the evangeli cal press, all reflect Ostling's pres ence. Still another example is Wes Pippert, reporter for UPI in Wash ington, D.C., and a Wheaton Col lege graduate. When popular fash ion model Windsor Elliott became a Christian and established an im pressive Bible study ministry to college students in her home on Washington's ambassador row, Pippert got the story on the UPI wire. The Chicago Daily News (June 18, 1970) gave it an unprec edented plug headline above its front page banner ("Why famous beauty turned to Christ"), along with the lead position on the wo men's feature page. "I'm still get ting clippings from across the coun- Page 11
to be emerging as a force with which secular reporters must reck on. The press seemingly has be come genuinely impressed at what is happening, and objective jour nalism demands that they report it. There is another encouraging trend: we are beginning to discover some reporters in the mainstream public press who are themselves believers. These men and women recognize the legitimate news fea tures that can be found everywhere in the Christian ranks, and they know howto handle the story right once they get it. One such example is McCand- lish Phillips, feature editor and re porter for the New York Times. Not long ago I visited him on the huge Times editorial floor off Times Square, where one looks out over a sea of desks in an L-shaped of fice fully one block in length. While on duty Phillips always has his Bible out on the desk and he talks unashamedly about the things of the Lord. His associates respect him; they know where he stands. Phillips is quick to blame the un satisfactory and inadequate cover age of religious news to the almost entire abandonment of the news media of communications by evan gelical Christians. "For years the cry of my heart," he says, "has been, 'Lord, break up the news monopoly'" — that is, the han dling of the nation's news almost exclusively by unbelievers. Hundreds of thousands of words, he reminds us, are transmitted to the entire country every day from the key communications centers of the nation. And these words have something to do with the forma tion of our culture and the ideas that inform it. "Those key centers,"
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