My post-education was at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario where I took the prestigious Journalism course. Many of the world’s top journalists come from Carleton and I learned a lot while there. One of my biggest lessons came near the end of my very first year when I realized that I wouldn’t make a very good journalist. I’d hasten to add though that neither would ANY other person on the planet.

You see, as a journalist you’re supposed to be entirely unbiased. You’re supposed to be able to approach any topic without any preconceived ideas about it and report it without any personal influence. If a child has been murdered and suspects aren’t co-operating you’re supposed to just report the facts without feeling anything. In a word: impossible. No matter who you are or what your up-bringing may be, you’re going to have opinions, you’re going to have family, you’re going to have had experiences, you’re going to have a job, you’re going to be looking at any story differently than any other person would because NO ONE else is exactly like you.

I soon realized too that because of my faith in Jesus Christ, my perspective on issues and stories was quite a bit different than most other ‘biased’ perspectives. It wasn’t that I was more biased than others, it was just a different bias – and a bias that I’d at least I’d admit that I had. No one else wanted to admit that they had anything “in them” that would affect their ability to report a story. And no matter how many times we played the “broken-telephone game” (where one person whispers a story to another who then has to whisper it on the next who passes it on to the next etc. etc.) and came out with an ENTIRELY different story at the end from the beginning – everyone just assumed that it was the others who had messed-up.

I actually got into some debates with some professors and other students about this and suggested that I think a more honest approach to journalism would be for each reporter to admit their biases up front and then report as objectively as possible. If I’m a Miami Dolphins fan and I’m reporting on a Miami Dolphins NFL game, I think a reader would gain a better and more truthful understanding of my report if they didn’t know my bias.

Ving Rhames in Cloud Ten Pictures' film SAVING GOD

And it’s amazing when people know your bias how much more interesting a story can become. It creates personality, it creates conflict, it creates an ability to study a story from a number of different angles. It’s one of the things that I love about movie making: you get to give your characters voices. In our film SAVING GOD, Ving Rhames plays ex-con turned preacher Armstrong Cane. His unique tough voice and strong opinions affect everyone around him and ultimately drive the story forward. A character with no biases would be no fun at all.

I’m reminded of the Apostle John’s words in Revelation: “know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3, 15-16).

- Blog by Andre van Heerden, Writer/Director at Cloud Ten Pictures