An Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) investigation into domestic violence in the Christian Church has drawn criticism from the ABC's own media monitoring TV programme and Catholic leaders.
ABC TV's 'Media Watch' presenter Paul Barry said the program was not convinced that the ABC was "waging war" on Christianity - as accused by some of its critics - but said its treatment of some of the material covered "tarnished an otherwise compelling and worthwhile investigation".
The investigation, broadcast and published on multiple platforms, followed 12 months of research led by another prominent ABC presenter Julia Baird, a Sydney Anglican and author of a recent biography of Queen Victoria. It found that evangelical Christian men who attended church sporadically were the most likely to assault their wives.
Barry, a former BBC reporter, said part of the investigation, broadcast on the '7.30' program, was "was compelling viewing, featuring heartbreaking interviews with victims of domestic violence, who claim that church teachings were used to justify their continued abuse".
There was little or no Australian data, but Baird had cited American research from Dr Steve Tracy, Professor of Theology and Ethics at Phoenix Seminary, who in a 2007 paper had found that "conservative Protestant men who are irregular church attendees are the most likely to batter their wives".
But Barry said that in the same paper, Tracy had concluded: "Conservative Protestant men who attend church regularly are found to be the least likely group to engage in domestic violence."
Barry said '7.30' had made no mention at all of the bigger picture, that regular churchgoing made abuse less likely, while headlines the ABC used to sell the story misrepresented Professor Tracy’s research.
Tracy apparently agrees, telling Media Watch: "It is all too easy to cherry pick sound bites and in the process fail to do justice to the data ... if you are going to highlight the failures you should be even-handed and note major successes."
"But, as to the claim that the ABC is waging war on Christianity we are not convinced," Barry said.
"It’s just a shame that it tarnished an otherwise compelling and worthwhile investigation," he said.
Catholic leaders were stronger in their criticism.
Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane condemned the ABC for its “antagonistic, one-sided narrative” of the Catholic Church, calling for a return to honest and true reporting of “the real Australia”.
He made his comments after a report published on the ABC website initially reported wrongly that he did not respond to questions posed by Baird and fellow ABC journalist Hayley Gleeson. The ABC amended its story after an official complaint was lodged by the archdiocese.
Archbishop Coleridge told his diocesan newspaper, 'The Catholic Leader', that the ABC should re-evaluate its purpose as Australia’s national public broadcaster, saying it had “failed to tell the real story of the Catholic Church in this country”.
“It should disengage from the group-think that has produced an antagonistic, one-sided narrative about the Catholic Church in this country,” he said.
Parramatta Vicar-General Fr Peter Williams said the diocese had been contacted by the ABC and asked to answer several questions about domestic violence and had responded promptly and given the journalist other avenues to pursue their research by providing contacts to other prominent Catholic organisations well-versed on the issue of domestic violence.
"Since the publication of this ABC report, it has become clear that our response was ignored," Fr Williams said.
"Domestic violence is a serious, and at-times deadly issue that must not be ignored. Confronting domestic violence is not helped by reports which do not convey the whole message, on this issue or by the selective reporting of the facts."
Media Watch quoted an ABC statement from 21 July: "The ABC is not at war with Christianity. It is reporting on domestic violence in religious communities … We did not make any false claims, we correctly cited relevant, peer-reviewed research."
PICTURE: The ABC building in Sydney. The broadcasting corporation has been accused of "waging war" with Christianity over controversial claims in a documentary on domestic abuse
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