For the second time in a couple weeks, a national story involving homosexuality and Christianity is being covered poorly by Christianity Today.  First, the magazine covered Jennifer Knapp’s coming out without using the word “lesbian.” Now, Family Research Council co-founder and Baptist minister George Rekers–known for advocating anti-gay policies in books, online and in paid courtroom testimonies–recently returned from a trip to Europe with an escort solicited from a male prostitute website.  The prostitute has acknowledged they shared sexual activity, while Rekers insists he was unaware his escort was a gay prostitute until mid-way in the trip.  (To be sure, Rekers says he hired the young man to carry his luggage, and that he shared the Gospel with him “in detail.”)

This is the sort of story you would expect Christianity Today to cover.  Yet a search for Rekers on its website reveals no matches.  As far as the website in concerned, this story of a nationally-known anti-gay Christian minister who is accused of soliciting gay sex is a non-story for this leading evangelical news magazine.

As a subscriber to Christianity Today, as well as a person who studies religion and media, I am disappointed.  This story deserves some solid coverage by the evangelical press.  Why has Christianity Today chosen to give it no coverage at all?

UPDATE: I did one more search through Google for “christianity today rekers,” and found a link to the Christianity Today news feed.  It’s a page of links to religion stories from other news outlets (e.g., Reuters, The Washington Post, etc.).  It includes a link to the BBC’s story of Rekers’ trip with his gay escort.

So we should give credit where it is due: Christianity Today does link to another news outlet’s story on the Rekers trip.  Nonetheless, a search for “Rekers” on http://www.christianitytoday.com yields no matches, and the magazine should not limit its coverage of the story to merely what the BBC is reporting.