Why I couldn’t expose the biggest fraud
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year
Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access
Fees: None (Free)
Volume Numbering: 12
Issue Numbering: 2
Section: B
Theme Type: Idea
Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”
Theme Part: 30
Formal Sub-Theme: None
Individual Publication Date: April 8, 2024
Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2024
Author(s): James Haught
Author(s) Bio: James A. Haught, syndicated by PeaceVoice, was the longtime editor at the Charleston Gazette and had been the editor emeritus since 2015. He was thought to have been the first investigative reporter in West Virginia. He won two dozen national newswriting awards and was author of 12 books and 150 magazine essays. He was also a senior editor of Free Inquiry magazine and was writer-in-residence for the United Coalition of Reason. He died on Sunday, July 23 (2023), at the age of 91.
Word Count: 323
Image Credit: None.
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*
Keywords: abandoning religion, consumer frauds, crooked evangelists, global fraud, Investigative Reporters & Editors, investigative reporting, Jim Bakker, political corruption, secular democracies, stock frauds, supernatural beliefs, supernatural faith, tax-exempt, The IRE Journal, Free Inquiry.
Why I couldn’t expose the biggest fraud
For much of my newspaper career, I was West Virginia’s only full-time investigative reporter. I wrote about political corruption. I exposed consumer frauds. I revealed stock frauds. I also reported on crooked evangelists, such as Jim Bakker.
I realized that there is a clear pattern in all the reporting on religion: It’s fine for the media to reveal particular crimes within religion. It’s forbidden, though, to write that religion itself — worship based on supernatural gods, devils, heavens, hells, miracles, visions, prophecies, divine appearances and the like — is a glaring global fraud. Religion around the planet reaps untold amounts of tax-exempt dollars for magic tales, but mustn’t be criticized.
In the 1970s, I was a pioneer in a national organization, Investigative Reporters & Editors, which remains active today, including through its publication, The IRE Journal. I wrote to The IRE Journal back then suggesting that investigative reporters treat religion itself as a field of dishonesty, like other types of corruption that the media exposes. Why unearth frauds, but ignore the biggest fraud of all? I was rebuffed.
I suppose this happened because religion has been deeply entrenched in virtually all cultures for millennia. In the past, anyone who “blasphemed” the holies could be put to death. Religion became untouchable. But there’s little reason to continue this taboo in modern secular democracies, where supernatural faith is fizzling.
There is plenty wrong with holy faith. It’s a system of lies. To assert that magical spirits watch people and burn them in fiery hell after death is an obvious falsehood to any thinking, educated person. Ditto for the rest of biblical supernaturalism.
Young Americans are abandoning religion by millions — just as young Europeans, Canadians, Japanese, Australians and others have already done. Those who say their faith is “none” are rising with amazing rapidity, heading toward a possible majority. Hopefully, it will be acceptable before too long for the news media to openly say that religion is a fraud.
This column is adapted from a piece originally published in the February-March 2020 issue of Free Inquiry.
Bibliography
None
Footnotes
None
Citations
American Medical Association (AMA 11th Edition): Haught J. Why I couldn’t expose the biggest fraud. April 2024; 12(2). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-biggest-fraud
American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition): Haught, J. (2024, April 8). Why I couldn’t expose the biggest fraud. In-Sight Publishing. 12(2).
Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): HAUGHT, S. Why I couldn’t expose the biggest fraud. In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 12, n. 2, 2024.
Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17th Edition): Haught, James. 2024. “Why I couldn’t expose the biggest fraud.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 2 (Spring). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-biggest-fraud.
Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17th Edition): Haught, J “Why I couldn’t expose the biggest fraud.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 2 (April 2024).http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-biggest-fraud.
Harvard: Haught, J. (2024) ‘Why I couldn’t expose the biggest fraud’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 12(2). <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-biggest-fraud>.
Harvard (Australian): Haught, J 2024, ‘Why I couldn’t expose the biggest fraud’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 12, no. 2, <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-biggest-fraud>.
Modern Language Association (MLA, 9th Edition): Haught, James. “Why I couldn’t expose the biggest fraud.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vo.12, no. 2, 2024, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-biggest-fraud.
Vancouver/ICMJE: James H. Why I couldn’t expose the biggest fraud [Internet]. 2024 Apr; 12(2). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/haught-biggest-fraud.
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://in-sightpublishing.com/.
Copyright
© 2012-Present by Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Authorized use/duplication only with explicit and written permission from Scott Douglas Jacobsen. Excerpts, links only with full credit to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with specific direction to the original. All collaborators co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 