Salt, not sugar

WORLD’s goal is to be tough-minded but warmhearted | Marvin Olasky

Twenty years! This magazine grew out of the vision of Joel Belz, who had the vision and raised money to start WORLD in 1986. I'm a relative latecomer, joining this enterprise only in 1990 and becoming editor in 1994, so everything we've accomplished we owe to God's grace and the foundation that Joel laid.

In 1995 and 2000 I wrote columns trying to lay out our journalistic philosophy in a pithy way. The update we recently put on our website begins by explaining that "we like to report good news but we don't make it sticky-sweet. We also report bad news because Christ's grace becomes most meaningful when we're aware of sin. We want to be tough-minded but warmhearted."

What else should readers know about this 20-year-old? First, that we are dependent on God and independent of any political faction or interest group. We don't let advertisers influence news content. We don't print glorified press releases. We like George W. Bush but often criticize his administration. We criticize corruption, even when (sometimes especially when) it erupts among Christians. We avoid sourcery, where unnamed sources spin the news their way.